Bike Vessel

Independent Lens

Indie Films Series / 8 Seasons

Authentic stories. Extraordinary people.

Watch Latest: S26 E14

1h 24m / TV-PG

Can Humans Get to Mars Without Going Insane?

12m 32s

Humanity's first Martian explorers will face extreme confinement, isolation and disruption of all bodily rhythms. The psychological stress from all of this could lead to a breakdown of social order among those on the mission – even mutiny. Are there lessons that can be learned about this from terrestrial explorers of the past?

What an Antarctic Disaster Can Teach Us About Getting to Mars

15m 9s

A manned mission to Mars presents a huge array of challenges for scientists and explorers to figure out. Chief among them: how to keep humans sane and relatively content on the isolating, confining, and potentially years long journey to the red planet and back. Turns out, explorers from generations ago here on Earth survived similar challenges that tomorrow's astronauts can learn from.

Trailer | Space: The Longest Goodbye

30s

NASA's goal to send astronauts to Mars would require a three-year absence from Earth, during which communication in real time would be impossible due to the immense distance. Meet the psychologists whose job is to keep astronauts mentally stable in outer space, as they are caught between their dream of reaching new frontiers and the basic human need to stay connected to home.

Trailer | One With the Whale

30s

Hunting whales is a matter of life or death for the residents of St. Lawrence. When a shy Alaska Native teen becomes the youngest person ever to harpoon a whale for his village, his family is blindsided by thousands of keyboard activists brutally attacking him online—without full perspective on the importance of the hunt to his community's well-being.

Trailer | Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s

30s

In Matter of Mind: My Parkinson's, three people navigate their lives with resourcefulness and determination in the face of a degenerative illness, Parkinson’s disease. An optician pursues deep brain stimulation surgery; a mother raising a pre-teen daughter becomes a boxing coach and an advocate for exercise; and a cartoonist contemplates how he will continue to draw as his motor control declines.

Trailer | A Thousand Pines

30s

Over the course of a grueling eight months, a crew of Oaxacan guest workers plant trees throughout the United States. This intimate portrait shows how hard it is to balance the physical demands of reforestation and extreme isolation while staying connected to the family back home.

RIP Local News

9m 3s

Some of the biggest news stories in our country were revealed by local journalists; from early 20th century lynchings to the Rodney King beating to the murder of Breonna Taylor, local news was there first. But as budgets drop and outlets disappear, this type of coverage is in jeopardy.

Spring Season Trailer 2024 | Coming to Independent Lens

1m

We’re blooming this spring with a lineup of docs, including Matter of Mind: My Parkinson's, Space: The Longest Goodbye, One With The Whale, and The Tuba Thieves. Stream Independent Lens with the PBS App.

How Did Opinions Get In Our News?

7m 44s

Even though objectivity is seen as the gold standard for news coverage, OpEds and commentary have been part of the news landscape since the early days of America – and it's not always easy to spot the difference between facts and opinion.

Has Journalism Always Been This Stressful?

8m 52s

As news evolved over the last 40 years from a single daily paper or nightly news show to something that's pushed 24/7, a mental health crisis has taken shape in our newsrooms as journalists race to cover traumatic events and get the most views.

How Did This Women-Owned Newspaper Revolutionize Journalism?

7m 8s

In 1850s America, one women-led newsroom blazed a trail for women's rights, shifting the media landscape and ultimately affecting how we see and cover "women's" issues today.

Trailer | Razing Liberty Square

30s

Liberty City, Miami, is home to one of the oldest segregated public housing projects in the United States. Now with rising sea levels, the neighborhood’s higher ground has become something else: real estate gold.

Herzog Interviews Bahrani | If Dreams Were Lightning

21m 12s

Acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man; Aguirre, the Wrath of God; Nosferatu the Vampyre) interviews Oscar and Emmy-nominated director Ramin Bahrani (99 Homes; Man Push Cart; Chop Shop) on his Independent Lens documentary If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis.

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