By Sergio Rapu Don’t you wish you were living out the pandemic on a beautiful secluded island right about now? What I have learned is that, though enjoyable in the short term, island life is generally not all it’s cracked up to be with its high cost of living due to dependence on imports and … READ MORE

We are pleased that we could get Joe Bifelt, the grandnephew of legendary dogsled racer George Attla, to send us an update on his life since the film about George’s life, ATTLA, ended. George may have technically been Joe’s great uncle but as you’ll see here he considers George another grandfather, and despite George’s passing, … READ MORE

Note: Elizabeth Perez, star of David Sutherland’s film Marcos Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (a co-presentation of Independent Lens, FRONTLINE, and Voces), wrote us a heartfelt update about how she, her husband Marcos, and their family are doing. Here’s Elizabeth with more: I guess it’s kind of like a journal. I hope it’s not too long. … READ MORE

Long a successful film producer, Lysa Heslov, along with her husband, Oscar-winning producer/writer/director Grant Heslov, founded Children Mending Hearts ten years ago, a non-profit dedicated to empowering disadvantaged youth in the U.S. through educational and humanities programs that build empathy and global citizenry. She’s produced cult indie films like Attention Shoppers, Bug, and Hank Azaria’s … READ MORE

After you see the film Real Boy [premiering on PBS June 19 at 10pm; check local listings], you may be interested to hear from the main players involved. We recently checked in with not only Bennett, but his mom Suzy, plus Joe and Dylan, to find out what they’ve been up to since the filming … READ MORE

Check out this gallery of updates from the past year on all the main players featured in Forever Pure, from former owner Arcadi Gaydamak to players Zaur Sadayev, Dzhabrail Kadiyev, and Ariel Harush, to coach Eli Cohen, and the La Familia fan group. Click on any image for a slideshow:

We thought viewers of Ben Lear’s They Call Us Monsters may be interested in hearing from the young men featured in the film. Yes, they have a lot of free time on their hands, but that didn’t guarantee they’d be comfortable writing back to us, to answer questions about their experience making the film and … READ MORE

In this piece created for Independent Lens by filmmaker Mat Hames, we get to know more about Eastern Shoshone tribal elder Philbert McLeod, one of the stars of Hames’ Independent Lens documentary What Was Ours. Philbert had an incredible breadth of knowledge about his tribe’s history, and fought for America in Vietnam, for which he … READ MORE

The many global fans of our film Twin Sisters are constantly asking us for any kind of update on the twin girls featured in Mona Friis Bertheussen’s popular documentary. After getting a detailed report from one of the moms awhile back, we recently checked in with the Norway-based filmmaker to see how Mia and Alexandra are … READ MORE

For those of you who remember the dear story told in the Independent Lens film Limited Partnership, longtime partners Tony Sullivan and Richard Adams became one of the first same sex couples to be legally married in the world, in 1975 in Boulder, Colorado, only to have Tony, who is originally from Australia, denied citizenship when the federal … READ MORE

The film Democrats, which aired on Independent Lens, traces the challenges and tensions that arose in Zimbabwe over the attempt to charter a new national constitution. While that African nation had a constitution before, this new document was to usher the country into a new, more democratic era. After many years under the rule of President … READ MORE

Those who saw the Independent Lens film In Football We Trust will remember one of the four student-athletes featured in the film, “Fihi” Kaufusi, who was trying to fight through a rough upbringing to make it as a football player. We wanted to update you on a awful, dramatic, tragic turn to Fihi’s story, as the former Weber State … READ MORE