Blog

Still from the 1920 film "Within Our Gates" showing a mob of white men preparing to lynch a young Black boy, while a woman hugs him.
Beyond the Films
February, 20, 2020

As American as the Blues: Lynching in Film and TV

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Ade Adeniji Always in Season explores the history of lynching through the mysterious 2014 death of Lennon Lacy while also looking at historical reenactments of lynching, prompting some to question the value of conjuring up the past. The specter…
Headshot of filmmaker Jacqueline Olive, a woman with medium-dark skin tone and shoulder-length dark hair. She wears pink lipstick.
Behind the Films
February, 20, 2020

Filmmaker Explores First Steps Toward Justice and Reconciliation

Independent Lens in Behind the Films

Independent filmmaker Jacqueline Olive, who has worked in non-fiction filmmaking for years and co-directed and co-produced the award-winning hour-long documentary, Black to Our Roots (PBS WORLD), makes her feature documentary directing debut with the searing Always in Season, which was…
A black and white photo of Billie Holiday singing mid-note.
Beyond the Films
February, 19, 2020

Billie Holiday’s Searing “Strange Fruit” Still Has the Power to Startle

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Nick Dedina There are often false narratives we tell ourselves so that we can simplify, and beautify, the past and erase aspects of the present that we are uncomfortable with. Take the view that the olden times glowed with…
Black and white photograph of three young people in berets as part of a Rainbow Coalition.
Beyond the Films
January, 28, 2020

From Race Riots to Rainbow Coalitions and Heatwaves: Chicago Activism on Racial and Economic Justice

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

It would be foolhardy to try to succinctly sum up the political history of one of America's most historically politically complicated cities--Chicago--in one sweeping post. Rather, consider this a basic primer of touchstones that connect some key dots, with recommendations…
Three older men speak into microphones while recording for a radio program.
Interviews
January, 22, 2020

Finding Common Ground: The Story of an Unlikely Chicago Alliance

Independent Lens in Interviews

It takes an incredible amount of tenacity and belief in a project to stick with it for 14 years, but that's just how long it took for Ray Santisteban to see his documentary The First Rainbow Coalition come to light.…
Lance Gumbs at the Shinnecock Pow Wow
Beyond the Films
November, 15, 2019

For Tribal Communities, Battle Over Land Is Nothing New

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Jordan Dresser Sometimes, two people can look out of the same window and see two very different things.  This outlook sprang to my mind while watching Treva Wurmfeld’s Conscience Point, which tells the story of the Shinnecock Indian Nation's fight to…
Decade of Fire, kids skating in the Bronx 1970s
Behind the Films
October, 30, 2019

Decade of Fire Filmmakers Change the Narrative About the South Bronx

Independent Lens in Behind the Films

The three-headed team as it were, of co-directors Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran, and producer Julia Steele Allen, each brought something different and special to the table in the making of the film Decade of Fire, which tells the…
A still from archival news footage showing three men carrying a body bag into the back of an ambulance.
October, 21, 2019

Cooked: Survival by Zip Code

Independent Lens

In the summer of 1995, Chicago experienced an unthinkable disaster, when extremely high humidity and a layer of heat-retaining pollution drove the heat index up to more than 126 degrees. Cooked: Survival by Zip Code tells the story of this…
Panther Bobby Lee speaking
August, 15, 2019

The First Rainbow Coalition

Independent Lens

In 1969, the Chicago Black Panther Party, notably led by the charismatic Fred Hampton, began to form alliances across lines of race and ethnicity with other community-based movements in the city, including the Latinx group the Young Lords Organization and…
A man and a woman, both with dark skin tone, stand together and look off camera.
August, 15, 2019

Always in Season

Independent Lens

Always in Season follows the tragedy of African American teenager Lennon Lacy, who in August 2014, was found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, North Carolina. His suspicious death was ruled a suicide by law enforcement, but Lennon’s mother,…
 Rebecca Hill-Genia, a Shinnecock activist, holding a match during a lighting ceremony in the Hamptons, NY
July, 24, 2019

Conscience Point

Independent Lens

Beneath the mystique of The Hamptons, among the wealthiest zip codes in the U.S., lies the history of the area's original inhabitants, the Shinnecock Indian Nation, who were edged off their land over the course of hundreds of years, relocated…
Simons and Parham in Oakland
Beyond the Films
April, 19, 2019

Stepping Up for Homeless Black People in Oakland

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Pendarvis Harshaw The Independent Lens documentary Charm City brings to mind the long list of urban American cities that fall into the same category as the Baltimore seen in that film: Detroit, Newark, Compton, and Oakland, to name a…