Blog

The filmmakers of The Providers
Behind the Films
March, 27, 2019

How a Lifelong Fascination with Medicine Turned into a Film About the Rural Healthcare Crisis

Independent Lens in Behind the Films

[UPDATED April 6, 2019: We reached out to filmmakers Laura Green and Anna Moot-Levin to gather their thoughts on why they titled their film The Providers.] The filmmaking team behind the Independent Lens documentary The Providers live on opposite coasts from each…
Live streaming star Shen Man at her computer during a live stream
Beyond the Films
February, 20, 2019

Is This Real Life: The Live Streaming Craze Explained

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Siyi Chen When my dad, a small businessman from Southeast China, asked me, his social media-savvy daughter, how to utilize the internet to help sell his agricultural products, the first thing that came to mind was live streaming. “It’s…
Copyright IDIOM Film, Courtesy RaMell Ross; Family at hospital, from Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Behind the Films
February, 7, 2019

RaMell Ross Charts “the Visual Story of Blackness” in Oscar-Nominated Doc

Independent Lens in Behind the Films

Just one year after RaMell Ross' Hale County This Morning, This Evening won a Special Jury Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, the filmmaker will follow his film's television debut on PBS by awaiting the Academy Awards, where it is…
Elderly woman getting a perm at the salon
January, 25, 2019

Accident, MD

Independent Lens

Accident, MD is a survey of attitudes about America’s healthcare crisis, filmed in and around the small town of Accident, Maryland during the summer before the 2016 election.
Eugene Jarecki interviewing Dan Rather for "The King"
Behind the Films
January, 24, 2019

Three Things About “The King,” with Eugene Jarecki and Steven Soderbergh

Independent Lens in Behind the Films

Documentary filmmaker Eugene Jarecki's pedigree is impressive. He has twice won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and the Peabody Award for: The House I Live In, his 2013 film about America’s War on Drugs (which had its broadcast premiere…
Elvis Presley's Rolls-Royce parks in front of a row house, in The King
Beyond the Films
January, 23, 2019

Elvis and the Death of the American Dream, Through Movies

Sean Axmaker in Beyond the Films

Elvis Presley is ostensibly the subject of The King, Eugene Jarecki's expansive road movie of a documentary. The award-winning director drives Presley's 1963 Rolls-Royce across the US, from Mississippi and Memphis to Nashville, New York, Las Vegas, Hollywood, and elsewhere,…
Hale County Oscar Nom graphic
Announcements
January, 22, 2019

Independent Lens Film “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” Honored with Oscar Nomination

Independent Lens in Announcements

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced the nominations for the 91st Oscars and Independent Lens was elated that Hale County This Morning, This Evening received a nomination for Best Feature Documentary. RaMell Ross's critically acclaimed film,…
Kelie, in My Country No More, stands in an abandoned farmhouse
Behind the Films
December, 21, 2018

Director Duo Show No Easy Answers in Fight Over Land

Independent Lens in Behind the Films

The team behind the new Independent Lens film My Country No More, Rita Baghdadi and Jeremiah Hammerling, told us they were drawn to Hammerling's native North Dakota to make this film "because his hometown, as well as much of rural America, was changing rapidly…
Jailen Young before a match. From WRESTLE.
December, 6, 2018

Wrestle

Independent Lens

Wrestle goes inside the lives of four members of the high school wrestling team at Huntsville’s J.O. Johnson High School--a longstanding entry on Alabama’s list of failing schools. Teammates Jailen, Jamario, Teague, and Jaquan show that needing a win can…
December, 6, 2018

The Providers

Independent Lens

Does your zip code determine your life? The Providers gives a very human face to the physician shortage and opioid epidemic in rural America, following three healthcare professionals who are doing everything they can to make a difference in northern…
From Tre Maison Dasan: Maison and his dad tease each other during Saturday visiting hours at John J Moran Medium Security Prison in Cranston, RI.
October, 11, 2018

Tre Maison Dasan

Independent Lens

Told directly through the eyes of the children themselves, Tre Maison Dasan is a moving portrait of three unforgettable young boys struggling to grow up with a parent in prison. They face the pressure of growing up in a society…
north dakota woman in farm field, from My Country No More
October, 11, 2018

My Country No More

Independent Lens

They stood for their neighbors when they could have cashed in on their land. Will their choice cost them both? Between 2011 and 2016, oil drilling in rural North Dakota reached its peak, setting off a modern-day gold rush in…