TV Schedule
Beginning October 2012, Independent Lens will air Monday nights on most PBS member stations. Check local listings and sign up for program reminders >>
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Previously Featured
July 26 at 9 PMby Julie WymanA formidable figure standing at 5'8" and weighing more than 300 pounds, Cheryl Haworth struggles to defend her champion status as her lifetime weightlifting career inches towards its inevitable end. Her journey as an elite athlete presents physical and personal challenges, including popular notions of power, strength, beauty, and health.
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June 14 at 10 PMby David WeissmanWhen AIDS arrived in San Francisco in 1981, it decimated a community, but also brought people together in inspiring and moving ways to support and care for one another and to fight for dignity and a cure.
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May 28 at 10 PMby Danfung DennisU.S. Marine Sergeant Nathan Harris, 25, leads his unit to fight a ghostlike enemy in Afghanistan. Wounded in battle, Harris returns to North Carolina and his devoted wife to fight pain, addiction, and the terrifying normalcy of life at home.
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May 24 at 10 PMby Emma Rossi Landi and Alberto VendemmiatiJR, Charlene, Margarita, and Robert are half American; they are among the many children born to local women and U.S. servicemen who were stationed in military bases in the Philippines until in 1992. Their stories illuminate a generation of Filipino Amerasians who live in limbo.
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May 17 at 10 PMby Ari Luis Palos and Eren Isabel McGinnisWhen a highly successful Mexican American Studies program at a high school in Tucson comes under fire for teaching ethnic chauvinism, teachers and students fight back. This modern civil rights struggle is happening at the epicenter of the immigration debate in the age of identity politics.
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May 10 at 10 PMby Lynn True and Nelson WalkerLocho and Yama are nomadic herders in Tibet's high grasslands, who carve their existence from the land as their ancestors have for generations. As traditional nomadic life confronts rapid modernization, Summer Pasture captures a family at a crossroads, ultimately revealing the profound sacrifice they will make to ensure their daughter's future.
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May 3 at 10 PMby Aaron SchockThe Ponce family's hardscrabble circus has lived and performed on the back roads of Mexico since the 19th century. But can their way of life survive into the 21st century? Circo intimately portrays the Ponce family circus as it struggles to make a living off its artistry, sweat, and wit against the backdrop of Mexico's collapsing rural economy.
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April 26 at 10 PMby Doug Hawes-DavisThe bison is an enduring symbol of America, and yet it stands on the brink of collapse. Cattle ranching, urban sprawl, and sport hunting has squeezed the beast from the Great Plains it once dominated. Is there room for the American bison in America anymore?
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April 19 at 10 PMby Chris PaineIn 2006, thousands of new electric cars were purposely destroyed by the same car companies that built them. Today, less than five years later, the electric car is back ... with a vengeance.
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April 12 at 10 PMby Whitney DowFor 60 years, Haiti's most popular band, Septentrional, has survived corrupt governments, revolutions, natural disasters, extreme poverty, and national tragedy. Its joyous fusion of Cuban and Haitian beats lifts and celebrates the indomitable Haitian spirit.
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April 5 at 9 PM; special encore presentation April 9 at 9 PMby Constance MarksWhen Kevin Clash was a boy, he built his own puppets and staged shows for the neighborhood. Today, he is living his ultimate dream as the big man behind the little furry © Muppet Elmo on Sesame Street.
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March 29 at 10 PMby Scott KirschenbaumLee Gorewitz is a feisty, opinionated woman given to philosophical ruminations on the nature of things, even as she struggles to navigate the increasingly confused and confusing landscape of Alzheimer's disease. Here is one extraordinary woman who will not let us forget her — even as she struggles to remember herself.
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March 22 at 10 PMby Beth Davenport and Elizabeth MandelWhen civil war came to Rose’s Congolese village, she was separated from her five-year-old daughter, Nangabire. Rose managed to escape with nine of her 10 children and was eventually resettled in Phoenix, Arizona. More than a decade later, mother and daughter are reunited in the U.S. where they must come to terms with the past and build a new future. An encore presentation.
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March 15 at 10 PMby Anne MakepeaceThe Wampanoag nation of southeastern Massachusetts ensured the survival of the Pilgrims in New England, and lived to regret it. We Still Live Here - Âs Nutayuneân tells the story of the return of the Wampanoag language, the first time a language with no Native speakers has been revived in this country. Spurred on by an indomitable linguist named Jessie Little Doe, the Wampanoag are bringing their language and their culture back. An encore presentation.
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March 8 at 10 PMby Duane BaughmanAs the first Muslim woman elected to lead an Islamic nation, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s life story unfolds like a tale of Shakespearean dimensions. She evolved from a pampered princess to polarizing politician in one of the most dangerous countries on Earth. Accused of rampant corruption, imprisoned, then exiled abroad, Bhutto was called back to Pakistan in 2007 as her country’s best hope for democracy. Struck down by assassins, her untimely death sent shock waves throughout the world, transforming Bhutto from political messiah to martyr in the eyes of millions around the world. An encore presentation.
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March 1 at 10 PMby Christopher WongWhat’s a child’s education worth? For one visionary rookie principal, it’s priceless. At the Bronx Center for Science & Mathematics, an innovative public high school in NYC’s South Bronx, Principal Edward Tom leads a dedicated group of teachers, students and parents in their biggest gamble yet. Within a community infamous for hardship, can this brand new school live up to its promise, and inspire new stories of achievement and excellence? An encore presentation.
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February 16 at 10 PMby Shukree Hassan TilghmanShukree Hassan Tilghman, a 29-year-old African American filmmaker, is on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month. Through this thoughtful, humorous journey, More Than a Month investigates what the treatment of history tells us about race and equality in a "post-racial" America.
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February 9 at 10 PMby Goran Hugo OlssonCombining startlingly fresh and candid 16mm footage that was forgotten for the past 30 years, with contemporary audio interviews from leading African American artists, activists, musicians, and scholars, this film looks at the people, society, culture, and style that fueled an era of convulsive change.
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February 2 at 10 PMby Sharon La CruiseAs a black woman who was a feminist before the term was invented, Daisy Bates refused to accept her assigned place in society. Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock tells the story of her life and public support of nine black students to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, which culminated in a constitutional crisis — pitting a president against a governor and a community against itself.
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January 26 at 10 PMby Connie FieldEpisode Five: Free at LastThe apartheid regime in Pretoria crumbles under pressure from a united popular uprising inside its borders, and crushing international pressure to reform. Nelson Mandela is freed from prison and in 1990 is elected president of a democratic South Africa.
Watch Episode 3 Online >>
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January 19 at 9 PMby Connie FieldEpisode Three: From Selma to SowetoOnly a decade removed from the height of its own civil rights movement, the United States becomes a key battleground as African Americans lead a grassroots movement to force the United States to reverse its policies toward South Africa.
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January 19 at 10 PMby Connie FieldEpisode Four: The Bottom LineThe most effective tactic in globalizing the fight against apartheid was the grassroots boycott and divestment campaign that targeted Western corporations doing business with the South African regime.
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January 12 at 9 PMby Connie FieldEpisode One: The Road to ResistanceJust as the United Nations adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, South Africa heads in the opposite direction, instituting a system of racist and oppressive laws against non-whites, and imprisoning opposition leaders including Nelson Mandela.
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January 12 at 10 PMby Connie FieldEpisode Two: The New GenerationWhen South Africa's ruling whites brutally suppress a youth uprising in Soweto and murder resistance leader Steven Biko, young people in the West join a growing international movement to sanction and isolate South Africa.
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January 5 at 10 PMby Alan Dater and Lisa MertonThe dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, whose simple act of planting trees grew into a global movement. She died in September. An encore presentation.
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December 29 at 10 PMby Paul Mariano and Kurt NortonThe National Film Registry is an eclectic collection of films that typify cinema's contributions to American culture. The 550 films inducted thus far constitute a roll call of national cultural and artistic treasures that reflect a nation's self-perception, fears, and ambitions.
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December 22 at 10 PMby C. Scott WillisIn a family of ambitious artists, Francesca Woodman burned the brightest, and burnt out the fastest. The celebrated photographer committed suicide at age 22, leaving her family with a complicated mix of pride in her legacy, guilt about her death, and anger over the shortness of her life.
the National Endowment for the Arts