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Independent Lens (1999 – ...)

1999 • 27 seasons • Documentary • TV-PG
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All seasons

Independent Lens — Season 13

27 episodes · Oct 13, 2011

1. Wham! Bam! Islam!
Oct 13, 2011 · 60m

Episode Synopsis: Season 13 premieres with new host Mary-Louise Parker introducing "Wham! Bam! Islam," about the challenges involving "The 99," a comic book about Muslim superheroes created by Kuwaiti psychologist Naif Al-Mutawa. He raised …

2. Donor Unknown
Oct 20, 2011 · 60m

Episode Synopsis: "Donor Unknown" charts the story of 20-year-old JoEllen Marsh, who was raised by two mothers in Pennsylvania, as she searches for her sperm-donor father, known only as "Donor 150." Thanks to an online registry for the chil…

3. Lives Worth Living
Oct 27, 2011 · 60m

"Lives Worth Living" tells the story of the disability rights movement in America, which began after WWII when disabled veterans returned home; and culminated in 1990 with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The documentary …

4. Deaf Jam
Nov 3, 2011 · 60m

"Deaf Jam" chronicles the experiences of Aneta Brodski, a deaf Israeli teen living in New York, as she moves from American Sign Language poetry, where body movements convey meaning, into the spoken-word slam scene and collaborates with Pale…

5. We Still Live Here -- as Nutayunean
Nov 17, 2011 · 60m

Anne Makepeace's "We Still Live Here—As Nutayunean" tells the story of linguist Jessie Little Doe Baird's work to resurrect the long-forgotten language of the Wampanoag (the Native Americans who saved the Pilgrims from starvation). The docu…

6. The Woodmans
Dec 22, 2011 · 60m

"The Woodmans" charts the short life of influential photographer Francesca Woodman, who took her own life in 1981 at the age of 22. The profile includes comments from her parents, artists George and Betty Woodman; and brother Charles Woodma…

7. These Amazing Shadows
Dec 29, 2011 · 60m

"These Amazing Shadows" focuses on the National Film Registry, an eclectic collection of movies considered to be "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the National Film Preservation Board. Included: clips from many of t…

8. Have You Heard From Johannesburg: Road to Resistance
Jan 12, 2012 · 60m

The five-part "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?," a history of the global anti-apartheid movement, opens with "Road to Resistance," which recalls the 1948 implementation of government-sanctioned discrimination in South Africa. The African …

9. Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The New Generation
Jan 12, 2012 · 60m

Part 2 of 5 of "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?" examines "The New Generation," and its effort to overturn South Africa's apartheid system. Included: the refusal of western nations to boycott South Africa; a youth uprising in the township…

10. Have You Heard From Johannesburg: From Selma to Soweto
Jan 19, 2012 · 60m

Part 3 of 5 of "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?," "From Selma to Soweto," details the anti-apartheid movement in the U.S., where in 1986 legislation was passed that imposed sanctions on South Africa over the objections of President Reagan…

11. Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The Bottom Line
Jan 19, 2012 · 60m

Part 4 of 5 of "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?, The Bottom Line," details how international grassroots campaigns to boycott and divest from companies that did business in South Africa pressured those companies to exit the apartheid state…

12. Have You Heard From Johannesburg: Free at Last
Jan 26, 2012 · 60m

The conclusion of "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?, Free at Last," recalls the end stage of South Africa's apartheid system, when internal and external pressures forced the government to the negotiating table and consent to elections in 1…

13. Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock
Feb 2, 2012 · 60m

Daisy Bates was a complex, unconventional, and largely forgotten heroine of the civil rights movement who led the charge to desegregate the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.

14. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Feb 9, 2012 · 60m

The Black Power Mixtape examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in the black community and Diaspora from 1967 to 1975. The film combines music, startling 16mm footage (lying undiscovered in the cellar of Swedish Television for 30…

15. More Than A Month
Feb 16, 2012 · 60m

Shukree Hassan Tilghman, a 29-year-old African-American filmmaker, is on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month. Through this tongue-in-cheek journey, “More Than a Month” investigates what the treatment of history tells us abou…

16. You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't
Mar 30, 2012 · 60m

In Danville, California, Lee Gorewitz wanders on a soul-searching odyssey through her Alzheimer’s & Dementia care unit. Confined by the limits of her physical boundaries, she scavenges for reminders of her life in the outside world. Yet her…

17. Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
Apr 5, 2012 · 60m

Every day, millions tune in to Sesame Street to see one of the world’s most adored and recognizable characters — a furry red three-and-a-half year-old monster named Elmo. Yet, with all of Elmo’s fame, the man behind the icon is able to walk…

18. When the Drum Is Beating
Apr 12, 2012 · 60m

Interweaves the extraordinary story of Septentrional’s six decades of creativity with the history of Haiti. How did the country go from being the first free black republic with a huge wealth of natural resources to a shattered nation unab…

19. Revenge of the Electric Car
Apr 19, 2012 · 60m

Revenge follows four entrepreneurs from 2007 through the end of 2010 as they fight to bring the electric car back to the world market in the midst of a global recession. The protagonists are Bob Lutz from General Motors, Elon Musk from the …

20. Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison
Apr 26, 2012 · 60m

Millions of bison once roamed the Great Plains. Can this nearly extinct icon of the American West make a 21st century comeback?

21. Circo
May 3, 2012 · 60m

The Ponce family circus has been living and performing in rural Mexico for seven generations. Its history dates back to the late 19th century, when Genaro Ponce founded the Circo Ponce Hermanos. Today, the circus members are still carrying …

22. Summer Pasture
May 10, 2012 · 60m

Locho and Yama are nomadic herders in Tibet's high grasslands, who carve their existence from the land as their ancestors have for generations. As traditional nomadic life confronts rapid modernization, Summer Pasture captures a family at a…

23. Precious Knowledge
May 17, 2012 · 60m

When a highly successful Mexican American Studies program at a high school in Tucson comes under fire for teaching ethnic chauvinism, teachers and students fight back. This modern civil rights struggle is happening at the epicenter of the i…

24. Left by the Ship
May 24, 2012 · 60m

JR, Charlene, Margarita, and Robert are half American; they are among the many children born to local women and U.S. servicemen who were stationed in military bases in the Philippines until in 1992. Their stories illuminate a generation of …

25. Hell and Back Again
May 28, 2012 · 60m

U.S. Marine Sergeant Nathan Harris, 25, leads his unit to fight a ghostlike enemy in Afghanistan. Wounded in battle, Harris returns to North Carolina and his devoted wife to fight pain, addiction, and the terrifying normalcy of life at home…

26. We Were Here
Jun 7, 2012 · 60m

When AIDS arrived in San Francisco in 1981, it decimated a community, but also brought people together in inspiring and moving ways to support and care for one another and to fight for dignity and a cure.

27. Strong!
Jun 26, 2012 · 60m

A formidable figure standing at 5'8" and weighing more than 300 pounds, Cheryl Haworth struggles to defend her champion status as her lifetime weightlifting career inches towards its inevitable end. Her journey as an elite athlete presents …