Blog

A Chinese woman with long hair speaks into a microphone at an event. She wears a white dress with blue and purple flowers.
Behind the Films
February, 5, 2020

Filmmakers Follow Women in China Trying to Overcome Stigma of Being Single

Independent Lens in Behind the Films

Israeli filmmakers Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia have had films air on international television as well as here in the U.S. on HBO, MTV, Sundance, and PBS (Medalia has received four Emmy nominations and won a Peabody Award), and both…
A woman with medium skin tone speaks with a man with light skin tone, gray hair, and glasses inside of an office. She holds up her hand, pointing her finger at him.
Interviews
February, 3, 2020

How “Cooked” Evolved into an Investigation of the Disaster Underlying a Disaster

Independent Lens in Interviews

Documentary filmmaker Judith Helfand is best known for her ability to take the dark worlds of chemical exposure, heedless corporate behavior and environmental injustice and make them personal, highly-charged and entertaining. Her films include The Uprising of ‘34, the Sundance award-winning…
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.…
A man with dark skin tone holds a phone to his ear. He looks anxious.
Behind the Films
January, 14, 2020

Filmmaker Accepts the Call to Tell Story of a Father and Son Divided

Independent Lens in Behind the Films

Filmmaker Eunice Lau, who is originally from Singapore (and boy does she have a story to tell you here about the experience of showing her film back home), was once a journalist at Al Jazeera Network. She has a penchant…
A vintage television set screen shows an image of a Black woman's face. She is wearing an orange blazer.
December, 20, 2019

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project

Independent Lens

A fiercely intelligent, radical activist who became a fabulously wealthy recluse in her later years, Marion Stokes was dedicated to furthering and protecting the truth — so much so that she recorded American television 24 hours a day for over…
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…
Shinnecock Tribal trustee Lance Gumps at the US Open
Interviews
November, 14, 2019

In Opulent Hamptons Filmmaker Asks, Whose Land Is it Anyway?

Independent Lens in Interviews

Treva Wurmfeld was named one Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film a few years back and made her mark first with her festival award-winning film Shepard and Dark about iconic American playwright Sam Shepard's lifelong friendship with reclusive writer…
Sasha Neulinger as a child, black and white photo
November, 8, 2019

Rewind

Independent Lens

Made up of home video footage that reveals a long-kept secret, Sasha Joseph Neulinger’s Rewind is a brave and wrenching look at his childhood and his journey to reconcile his past. By probing the gap between image and reality, the…
Phillip Morris hugs his wife when reunited at Minneapolis airport.
Interviews
November, 6, 2019

Following the Journey of Interpreters We Left Behind

Independent Lens in Interviews

Filmmakers Andrés Caballero and Sofian Khan's previous feature-length collaboration Gaucho del Norte, which made its broadcast premiere on public television’s America ReFramed series, followed the journey of a Patagonian immigrant sheepherder recruited to work in the American West. With The Interpreters, the duo took…
A man with dark skin tone wears a puffer jacket and a beanie as he walks around a snowy park.
November, 1, 2019

Accept the Call

Independent Lens

Twenty-five years after Yusuf Abdurahman left Somalia as a refugee to begin his life anew in Minnesota — which has the largest population of Somalis in the United States — his worst fear is realized when his 19-year-old-son Zacharia is…
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…