Blog

They Call Us Monsters trio of youths in juvenile pen posing for the camera; with Audience Award graphic added
February, 27, 2017

They Call Us Monsters

Independent Lens

They Call Us Monsters goes behind the walls of the Compound, a high-security facility where Los Angeles houses its most violent juvenile criminals. To their advocates, they’re kids. To the system, they’re adults. To their victims, they’re monsters.   The…
Fallen bicycle after shooting at UT Austin, as animated in the film TOWER
Lists
February, 14, 2017

10 Great Animated Documentaries

Noel Murray in Lists

Keith Maitland’s animated documentary TOWER has left critics and awards-voting bodies alike flummoxed as to how best to categorize it. This is a visionary work, no doubt, that uses voice-actors and vintage audio to reconstruct what happened back in 1966 when…
Lists
February, 13, 2017

History or Hate: America’s Controversial Monuments to White Supremacy

Independent Lens in Lists

The thing about claiming territory and property is that it takes up space, and taking up space literally makes a huge statement; it becomes a platform for discussing who built something there, and why. So when black musician Daryl Davis…
1966 Dodge Monaco Dashboard and Radio
Beyond the Films
February, 13, 2017

TOWER Playlist: 1966 Music Soundscape

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

Pure and simple, 1966 was considered by many critics as one of the greatest years for popular music ever [see the Guardian’s “Was 1966 pop music greatest’s year?” and the LA Times' "1966 Could be Rock's Most Revolutionary Year"]. The…
Interviews
February, 13, 2017

Keith Maitland Goes Back to 1966 to Tell Story of Victims and Heroes of Texas Shooting

Independent Lens in Interviews

Keith Maitland's previous film The Eyes of Me, the moving story of a group of blind teenagers making their way in Austin, aired on Independent Lens and was nominated for an Emmy for Graphic Design and Art Direction. For TOWER, Maitland tells…
Craig Staggs (right) at work with colorist Nathan Bayless at Minnow Mountain, hard at work on TOWER animation
Behind the Films
February, 10, 2017

Paying Homage to UT Tower Mass Shooting Victims with Life Affirming Animation

Independent Lens in Behind the Films

Craig Staggs is the lead animator for the little animation studio based in Austin, Texas, also the home base of filmmaker Keith Maitland. Staggs' company did the brilliantly layered animation for Maitland's film TOWER. Of that film which tells the story…
Silhouetted image of William M. Trotter speaking in protest about Birth of a Nation, from Birth of a Movement
Interviews
February, 2, 2017

Filmmakers Tell Story of William Trotter’s Fight Against Racist Silent Blockbuster

Independent Lens in Interviews

Birth of a Movement, based on Dick Lehr's book, captures the backdrop to a prescient clash between human rights, freedom of speech, and a changing media landscape — that happened in 1915. It is essentially the story of legendary film director D.W.…
Still from Birth of a Movement, of DW Griffith on set directing a film with megaphone
Film History
February, 1, 2017

The Offspring of Birth of a Nation

Sean Axmaker in Film History

D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is inarguably one of the landmarks of American cinema. The distillation of the storytelling techniques, editing ideas, framing and visual composition, and nuanced approaches to performance that Griffith spent years exploring and experimenting…
Meet the Patels animation capturing Ravi Patel and family waiting at airport while he's dumbstruck; for the Independent Lens love quiz
Test Your Knowledge
December, 20, 2016

Meet the Patels on PBS Presents a Love Quiz!

Independent Lens in Test Your Knowledge

Keeping with the "looking for love" theme of the documentary Meet the Patels, we present you with a fun quiz that will tell you where you will most likely find true love! Even if you're already "taken," we think you'll…
Poster from the film Almost There, rendering by the artist Arthur Jones of Peter Anton
Film History
October, 27, 2016

Cats of Documentaries

Independent Lens in Film History

"I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.”—Filmmaker Jean Cocteau (Orpheus; Beauty and the Beast) International Cat Day is August 8 and National Cat Day is October 29, days designed to…
William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal on set of the 1968 ABC News studio
Test Your Knowledge
September, 30, 2016

Quiz: Are You Buckley or Vidal?

Independent Lens in Test Your Knowledge

In 1968, opposing intellectual forces William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal squared off in a series of nationally televised debates during one of our nation's most turbulent election cycles. With a month to go before another historic and tumultuous election, find…
Political pundit Gore Vidal on a television monitor, 1968; courtesy Estate of Archie Lieberman
Beyond the Films
September, 27, 2016

Evolution of TV Political Pundits: The Legacy of Buckley and Vidal

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

As depicted in Best of Enemies, bitter intellectual rivals Willam F. Buckley and Gore Vidal eviscerating each other with wit on network TV in 1968 made for riveting, and sometimes jaw-dropping, television. It also laid the groundwork for the ignominious future of the…