Blog

Young Lakota: Q&A with Sunny Clifford

Sunny Clifford is the heart of Young Lakota, alongside her sister Serena and friend and neighbor Brandon Ferguson. Set on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the film captures a firestorm of political upheaval there during a relatively short…

Indian Relay

An exhilarating mix of high-speed daring and exquisite horsemanship, Indian relay is a sport widely enjoyed and practiced by men and women from tribal nations across the Rocky Mountain West. Each race begins with up to eight athletes riding bareback…

Indian Relay: Q&A with Filmmaker Charles Dye

Filmmaker Charles Dye moved around a lot growing up, but always in the West: New Mexico, California, Texas, Arizona — and it was in this last place where he went to high school and befriended members of local tribes, sparking a more…

Kind Hearted Woman Update (and Workshop)

As we kick off our celebration of Native American Heritage Month, we'll be writing about two new Native American-themed films airing this month on Independent Lens (Indian Relay; Young Lakota), as well as looking at other Native American projects past and…

The Graduates: Interview with Filmmaker Bernardo Ruiz

The Graduates (Los Graduados) premieres on PBS in two parts, "Girls," and "Boys." This documentary series is a continuation of the work filmmaker Bernardo Ruiz has done through his production company since 2007. Their past projects have focused on stories of racial…

Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey

Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey follows the real life rock ‘n’ roll fairy tale of Filipino singer Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from YouTube to become the frontman for the iconic American rock band Journey. In this Cinderella story for…

Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady on Capturing Detroit

Detroit-area native Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady filmed Detropia with the hopes that the rest of the United States would recognize a bit of themselves in the Motor City — unemployment, the decline of manufacturing and municipalities, and the new…

Seeking Asian Female: Do Asian Women Have “White Fever”?

Seeking Asian Female

Steven is an aging white man obsessed with marrying an Asian woman, dreaming of a devoted young wife. Sandy is the young, feisty, ambitious Chinese woman he finds online. This engaging documentary follows their tumultuous love story. (more…)

Steven of Seeking Asian Female Talks about Online Dating, “Asian Fetish,” and Relationship Advice

How would you define “asian fetish” (a.k.a., crudely, "yellow fever")? According to Urban Dictionary, it is “a term usually applied to white males who have a clear sexual preference for women of Asian descent, although it can also be used…

Director Debbie Lum on Romance, “Rice Kings,” and Reluctantly Appearing in Her Film

Reality is a slippery medium. Just when a documentary filmmaker thinks she understands a story, people surprise her. Such it was for Debbie Lum. When she first started filming Seeking Asian Female, Lum hoped to dissect a cultural phenomenon that…

The Undocumented

In the past 15 years, more than 2,000 dead migrants have been found in the vast borderlands between Sonora, Mexico and Tucson, Arizona. The film tells the story of border crossers who perished while trying to cross an unforgiving desert…