Blog

January, 19, 2010

Copyright Criminals

Independent Lens

Long before people began posting their homemade video mashups on the Web, hip-hop musicians were perfecting the art of audio montage through sampling. Sampling — or riffing — is as old as music itself, but new technologies developed in the…
January, 12, 2010

Young@Heart

Independent Lens

The Young@Heart Chorus, a group composed of New England senior citizens, has delighted audiences worldwide with renditions of songs by artists from The Clash to Coldplay. Young@Heart chronicles seven weeks in the lives of the members of the chorus as…
December, 1, 2009

Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene

Independent Lens

From a man nearly destroyed by crime, drugs, and poverty to an admired media icon, Petey Greene defied labeling. With his patois of street talk, Bible citations, rhyming rap, and quotes from his grandmother, he was America’s original shock-jock.
November, 24, 2009

Objectified

Independent Lens

Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, Objectified documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential product designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives.
November, 17, 2009

No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos

Independent Lens

Following their escape from communist Hungary in 1956, Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond would reinvent Hollywood moviemaking for an entire generation — and maintain an iron-clad friendship along the way.
November, 10, 2009

D tour

Independent Lens

Pat Spurgeon is a drummer with Rogue Wave, an indie rock band that’s toured the world and released several critically acclaimed albums. He’s passionate about his career as a professional musician, and he’s determined to not let anything stand in…
Herb and Dorothy Vogel sitting at the kitchen table in their apartment surrounded by art
October, 13, 2009

Herb & Dorothy

Independent Lens

He was a postal worker. She was a librarian. Together they amassed one of the most important contemporary art collections in the world. Herb & Dorothy tells the extraordinary tale of Herb and Dorothy Vogel, a seemingly ordinary couple who filled…
February, 24, 2009

The Order of Myths

Independent Lens

The first Mardi Gras in America was held in Mobile, Alabama in 1703. Three hundred and five years later, the city’s annual Carnival is split down the middle, with separate but not quite equal celebrations — one for whites and…
January, 6, 2009

Helvetica

Independent Lens

A film about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture, Helvetica looks at the proliferation of a single typeface. Ostensibly a film about a typeface, takes a deeper look into the role of the graphic designer since World War II.
December, 30, 2008

Operation Filmmaker

Independent Lens

Operation Filmmaker is the story of how well-intentioned American filmmakers bend over backwards to help an aspiring film student in war-torn Iraq achieve his dream of working on a real Hollywood movie. But nothing goes as planned.
A woman on stage wearing a red dress and head scarf
December, 23, 2008

Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway

Independent Lens

Grey Gardens, the Tony award-winning Broadway musical, was developed three decades after the Maysles film of the same name debuted. The musical is the ultimate homage to the quirky and rebellious Beales. Edith Beale and her daughter Edie turned their…
December, 16, 2008

Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic

Independent Lens

Theirs was a project so cloaked in secrecy that not even Vice President Truman knew it existed — a team of top scientists from around the world, assembled high on a mesa in New Mexico, were brought together in 1941…