Blog

Georgina Sappier-Richardson (Passamaquoddy) holding her childhood photo; from Dawnland
July, 10, 2018

Dawnland

Independent Lens

They were forced to assimilate into white society: children ripped away from their families, depriving them of their culture and erasing their identities. Can reconciliation help heal the scars from childhoods lost? Dawnland is the untold story of Indigenous child…
Young male firefighters at rest in a forest during a wildfire
July, 10, 2018

Wildland

Independent Lens

“Fighting fire is just long hours of hard, boring work punctuated by moments of sheer terror." Filmed during two recent wildfire seasons, Wildland is a sweeping yet deeply personal account of a firefighting crew as they struggle with fear, loyalty,…
Link Wray on stage with guitar, from RUMBLE
July, 2, 2018

RUMBLE

Independent Lens

They tried to ban, censor and erase Indian culture from rock and roll history but Native American influence is wrapped into modern music's DNA. RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World is an electric look at Native American influence in…
Interviews
May, 17, 2018

Documentarians Meet the Real People Behind a Media Firestorm

Independent Lens in Interviews

Documentarians Reuben Atlas and Sam Pollard picked a hefty, complex, but as it turned out incredibly timely subject to collaborate on. The film ACORN and the Firestorm looks at the downfall of the huge community organizing non-profit ACORN, brought about…
Don't Tread on Me flag in foreground, watch tower in background, from No Man's Land
Beyond the Films
May, 3, 2018

Takeovers and Occupations: A Survey of American Mini-Rebellions and Political Stands

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

In the Independent Lens No Man's Land, we get a fly on the wall sense of the tense armed takeover and 41-day standoff at Oregon's Malheur Wildlife Refuge, led by rancher Ammon Bundy and his militia. Before it was all over,…
Interviews
May, 2, 2018

Documentarian Ventures into the “No Man’s Land” of Malheur Takeover

Independent Lens in Interviews

Documentarian David Garrett Byars is making his feature film debut with No Man’s Land, but he's made short films before. including Recapture, a short documentary chronicling the attempt of right-wing activists to reclaim the federally-managed Recapture Canyon in southern Utah. Clearly…
Interviews
April, 25, 2018

Director Finds Real Life Superheroes with “Conviction”

Independent Lens in Interviews

Filmmaker Jamie Meltzer, also the program director of the MFA program in Documentary Film at Stanford University, has made acclaimed films about a wide collection of topics, from song-poems to Nollywood (Nigerian) film to FBI informants, but each tells a…
Actor/writer Nick Offerman
Behind the Films
April, 20, 2018

Five Questions with Nick Offerman about Wendell Berry

Independent Lens in Behind the Films

Look & See: Wendell Berry's Kentucky co-producer Nick Offerman, an actor of many an indie film and of course on TV's Parks & Recreation, Fargo, and author of Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living, as well as gifted…
Proud to be a farmer emblem on back of farmer's shirt, in Look and See
Interviews
April, 19, 2018

Laura Dunn Draws From Wendell Berry for Look at Rural America

Independent Lens in Interviews

Laura Dunn's first feature documentary, The Unforeseen, executive produced by Robert Redford and Terrence Malick, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, aired on the Sundance Channel, and was called "a poetic and high-minded meditation on American developers' manifest destiny and…
Director Cullen Hoback (at right) takes secret charter up West Virginia river to collect water samples under the cover of night.
Interviews
April, 10, 2018

Filmmaker Cullen Hoback Digs Into Political Cover-Ups and Chemical Spills in Americans Water

Independent Lens in Interviews

Filmmaker Cullen Hoback's previous film Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013), a humorous but chilling documentary about the erosion of online privacy and what info governments and corporations are legally taking from citizens each day, has become (or remains) timely…
Watch Video
April, 4, 2018

Watch The Seven-Part Series “Sentencing Children”:

Independent Lens in Watch Video

Watch our seven-part, Webby Award-nominated series on juvenile sentencing laws, "Sentencing Children." "Sentencing Children" was produced by Dan Birman and Independent Lens. This series is part of Independent Lens‘s commitment to fostering collaboration between filmmakers and journalists. “Sentencing Children” was originally…
Interviews
April, 4, 2018

Shoes Wisely: Stacey Tenenbaum Shines a Light on an Age-Old Profession

Independent Lens in Interviews

Award-winning filmmaker Stacey Tenenbaum co-created a critically acclaimed series in Canada, The Beat, which followed a team of beat police officers patrolling the streets of Downtown Vancouver. Exchanging the police beat for shiny feet for her new film, Tenenbaum's The Art of…