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Independent Lens is broadcast on most PBS stations on Tuesdays at 10:00 p.m.
Please check the broadcast schedule. Dates and times may vary.
Labor
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ALMOST HOME
by Lisa Gildehaus and Brad Lichtenstein
Co-presentation with Wisconsin Public Television
February 21, 2006
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Shot on location in a nursing home, ALMOST HOME tells real stories of
aging: couples bonded and divided by disability, children torn between
caring for their aging parents and their own families, attendants doing
unsavory work for poverty wages and a visionary nursing home director
committed to changes that could shuck the nursing home stigma.
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Inside the Web site:
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A home of your own: that’s the American dream. But what happens when the dreamers are immigrants, factory workers and Communists? Director Michal Goldman traces the history of "The Coops," a cooperative apartment complex built in the Bronx by Jewish garment workers. The film tracks the rise and fall of the community from the 1920s into the 1950s, bearing witness to lives lived across barriers of race, convention and sometimes even common sense.
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BLACK GOLD
by Nick Francis and Marc Francis
April 10, 2007
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Multinational companies have made coffee the second most valuable trading commodity in the world. But as westerners revel in designer lattes, impoverished Ethiopian coffee growers suffer the bitter taste of injustice. Tracing one man's fight for a fair price, BLACK GOLD is an eye-opening expose of the eighty billion dollar coffee industry.
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You see the world differently when you work underground. That made Butte, Montana different right from the start as immigrants came from around the world to work the mines. But what they blasted out of the 10,000 miles of tunnels was more than just copper. It was the rise of unions and multinational corporations, and the seeds of the current debate over the environment.
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Jasmine left her village in a remote part of China to get a job and help her family. Now she and her teenage friends at the blue jean factory are trying to survive in a brutal work environment. Shot clandestinely, CHINA BLUE takes a rare and poignant look at the individuals who toil day-to-day to make the clothes we buy. Co-production of ITVS in association with CAAM.
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Living in poverty with their mother in the mountains of Bolivia, 14-year-old Basilio and his 12-year-old brother, Bernardino, brave deadly conditions while working long shifts in the Cerro Rico silver mines to earn enough money to attend school. THE DEVIL'S MINER follows the brothers into the underground mining tunnels where they tempt fate to gain a better life.
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As Hollywood stuntwomen for Wonder Woman and Xena: Warrior Princess, Jeannie Epper and Zoë Bell have been set on fire, thrown off buildings, dragged by wild horses and hit by cars. Who are the real women behind these two television icons? DOUBLE DARE follows their daily struggles to stay employed, stay thin and stay sane in this notoriously macho profession.
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Welcome to the world's largest garbage village located on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. The Zaballeen (Arabic for "garbage people") recycle 80 percent of the trash they collect — far more than other recycling initiatives. But now multinational corporations threatens their livelihood. Follow three teenage boys born into the business who are forced to make choices that will impact the survival of their community.
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Have you ever dreamed of being waited on hand and foot? For the past six
years, Lakshmi has been doing just that for her employers—virtually unnoticed. That is, until one of Lakshmi’s employers begins to film her daily life on the job in Mumbai, India. In a deeply personal portrait, the film takes a hard look at the Indian caste system, gender and class relations.
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Vernon Sager is a cowboy struggling to survive in Porcupine, South Dakota, where winters reach 30 degrees below zero and summers with prairie fires and frying-pan heat have pushed most of his family and friends off the land. But Vernon still gets up at 3 A.M. to saddle his horse and count calves. THE LAST COWBOY is the real-deal Rawhide, the story of people fighting to preserve a vanishing way of life.
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As three of the thousands of Latina immigrants working as nannies and housekeepers in Los Angeles, Judith, Telma and Eva have all left family and friends behind to come to America. MAID IN AMERICA reveals the challenges these women face as they pursue "the American Dream," their significant roles in American households and the globalization of motherhood.
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Everyone has seen a nature documentary with a ferocious kill on the Serengeti Plain. Well, here’s a different story about villagers navigating the dangers and costs of living with wildlife. After a century of “white man’s conservation,” the Maasai of Kenya and Namibia’s Himba people are vying to share a piece of the eco-tourism pie. But can they fulfill the expectations of Westerners without abandoning their native culture?
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THE NEW AMERICANS
by Gita Saedi, Gordon Quinn and Steve James
Co-presented by Latino Public Broadcasting and the
Center for Asian American Media
March 29, 2004
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What does the “American dream” look like through the eyes of today’s immigrants and refugees? From Nigeria, India, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, they come with different dreams: to achieve athletic glory or high-tech riches, to escape poverty and persecution, to provide for their families. This seven-hour three-part series follows these newcomers from each of their homelands through their first tumultuous years in America.
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It's not easy to blow off the top of a mountain. But in Blair, West Virginia, the last remaining residents find it may be even harder to stop it. RAZING APPALACHIA chronicles a remarkable grassroots effort to fight against a massive mining project and the second largest coal company in America.
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The epic tale of Farmer John, a maverick Midwestern farmer who—in spite of the condemnation from his community—bravely transforms his farm amidst a failing economy, vicious rumors and arson. In doing so, he creates a bastion of free expression and a revolutionary form of agriculture in rural America.
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Imran, a young Muslim American, struggles to take over his father's neighborhood halal slaughterhouse in New York City. The son of an immigrant, Imran must confront his mixed heritage and gain acceptance from his father's conservative community. On one of Islam's holiest days, Imran must lead a sacrifice that will define him as a Muslim, as an American and as a son.
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How does the simple act of planting trees lead to winning the Nobel Peace Prize? Ask Wangari Maathai of Kenya. In 1977, she suggested rural women plant trees to address problems stemming from a degraded environment. Under her leadership, their tree-planting grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, defend human rights and promote democracy, earning Maathai the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
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They faced death threats on the job—some from the men they worked alongside. With the story of Captain Brenda Berkman of the Fire Department of New York at its core, TAKING THE HEAT explores the history of women firefighters in America and the price they paid to serve their communities.
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While working with an international aid organization stationed in a remote village in Zambia, filmmaker Shantha Bloemen began seeing more and more unemployed Zambians selling used American clothing in the marketplace. Tracing a winding T-shirt trail carved by global economics, this documentary examines the devastating role of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in directing Zambia’s economic policies and the underlying reasons for so many Africans’ remaining in poverty.
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Austin, Texas needs their labor. But many local residents aren't sure they like seeing day laborers like Ramon and Juan on the streets. LOS TRABAJADORES transports us back and forth across the border, bringing to life the obstacles immigrant workers and their families face in both the United States and at home.
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the National Endowment for the Arts