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The New Black: Canvassing for Marriage Equality

1m 22s / TV-PG
In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary The New Black, two women canvassing for marriage equality in Maryland try to convince a group of young African American men to vote for Question 6. “Whether you’re gay or not, these are your brothers and sisters out here, and they need you to represent.”
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See the Preview for The New Black

30s / TV-PG
The New Black explores how the African American community debates the marriage equality movement and the fight over LGBT rights. The film documents activists, families, and clergy on both sides of campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community’s institutional pillar — the church — while reflecting on how this may have been exploited by political conservatives.
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See the Preview for God Loves Uganda

30s / TV-PG
A journey into the heart of East Africa, where Ugandan pastors and their American counterparts spread God’s word and evangelical values to millions desperate for a better life. Inspired by his own African American Baptist roots, director Roger Ross Williams explores a place where religion and African culture intersect.
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Coming Soon to Independent Lens: Let the Fire Burn

30s / TV-PG
Using archival news coverage and interviews, Let the Fire Burn brings to life one of the most tumultuous but largely forgotten clashes between government and citizens in modern U.S. history, as a longtime feud between Philadelphia police and the controversial urban group MOVE came to a tragic climax in 1985.
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Let the Fire Burn: The Philosophy of MOVE

57s / TV-PG
In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary Let the Fire Burn, former MOVE members Laverne Sims and Louise James tell the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission about the philosophy of MOVE and its leader John Africa, including “absolute truth” and “exposing the lie in the system.”
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Let the Fire Burn: Philadelphia Special Investigation Commis

1m 1s / TV-PG
In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary Let the Fire Burn, the Philadelphia Special Commission to investigate the tragic events of 1985 introduces the members of the multi-racial commission and how they, in Chairman William Brown’s words, “hope to accomplish healing the wounds.”
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A Fragile Trust: Jayson Blair

2m 7s / TV-PG
In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary A Fragile Trust, Jayson Blair provides further insight into how he plagiarized so readily, using technological tools to deceive his editors and fellow reporters at The New York Times.
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A Fragile Trust: Jayson Blair Scandal Fallout

2m 7s / TV-PG
In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary A Fragile Trust, Macarena Hernandez, the young journalist and former colleague whose work was lifted by Blair, and others discuss the fallout and subsequent impact the Jayson Blair scandal had on journalism and the news business.
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Coming Soon to Independent Lens: A Fragile Trust

2m 13s / TV-PG
The stunning story of Jayson Blair, a promising young African American reporter who became entangled in a plagiarism scandal, with the ensuing media frenzy leaving The New York Times with a major blemish and leading to heated debates about racism, drug abuse, mental illness, and journalistic power struggles.
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A Fragile Trust: Preview

30s / TV-PG
The stunning story of Jayson Blair, a promising young African American reporter who became entangled in a plagiarism scandal, with the ensuing media frenzy leaving The New York Times with a major blemish and leading to heated debates about racism, drug abuse, mental illness, and journalistic power struggles.
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A Fragile Trust: Jayson Blair on Where It All Began to Fall

1m 12s / TV-PG
In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary A Fragile Trust, former journalist Jayson Blair himself recounts his thought process when it came to plagiarizing other articles in order to avoid firsthand research, specifically for the story of then-missing Army Specialist Edward Anguiano.
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A Fragile Trust: Howell Raines, Change Agent

2m 19s / TV-PG
In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary A Fragile Trust, former New York Times executive editor Howell Raines explains how he saw himself as a change agent who had to “respond aggressively to the technological revolution that was overtaking newspapers.” The clip also features author Seth Mnookin (Hard News) and Jayson Blair on how Raines’ edict may have lead to subsequent issues.
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Muscle Shoals: When Percy Sledge Made it Big

58s / TV-PG
In this clip from the Independent Lens documentary Muscle Shoals, soul singer Percy Sledge recounts how he went from working (and singing) on a cotton field and in a hospital to singing in an Elks Club to being discovered by a DJ and finally making it big, starting with recordings made at FAME Studios.
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See the Preview for Muscle Shoals

1m / TV-PG
Muscle Shoals, Alabama is the unlikely breeding ground for some of America's most creative and defiant music, and at its heart is Rick Hall who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming crushing poverty and tragedy, Hall brought black and white together in a cauldron of racial hostility to create music for generations.
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The Trials of Muhammad Ali: Inspired By the Greatest To Be H

4m 15s / TV-PG
In a boxing gym in San Francisco, Muhammad Ali continues to inspire. Meet National Boxing Champion and US Olympic hopeful Nargis Shaghasi, an Afghan American female boxer whose success inside and outside of the ring come from bridging her passion and determination for boxing and culture.
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Trials of Muhammad Ali: Confronted and Redeemed

/ TV-PG
In this opening excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary Trials of Muhammad Ali, the famed boxer appears via satellite on Eamonn Andrews U.K. talk show in 1968, where he's confronted by David Susskind, a U.S. TV host, who calls Ali "a disgrace to his country and a convicted felon." This is contrasted with a more recent moment of redemption: Ali receiving the Medal of Freedom in 2005.
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Trials of Muhammad Ali: "Why Are We Called Negroes?"

23s / TV-PG
In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary Trials of Muhammad Ali, "Captain Sam," a minister in the Nation of Islam in Miami, recalls his first meeting with the famed boxer. Ali, inspired by Malcolm X, asked rhetorically, "Why are we called Negroes… why's everyone else making progress and yet we lag so far behind?"
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Coming Soon to Independent Lens: Trials of Muhammad Ali

30s / TV-PG
A story of the famed boxer's toughest bout of all: his battle to overturn the prison sentence he received for refusing U.S. military service. The film explores Ali's exile years when he was banned from boxing and found himself in the crosshairs of conflicts concerning race, religion, and wartime dissent.
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See the Preview for Brothers Hypnotic

30s / TV-PG
Not-always-willing subjects of a utopian family experiment, the eight men of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble were forged into a band as kids by their father, jazz maverick Phil Cohran. Now making their way on the streets and in the music business, they test their father's ideals against their own brotherly vision.
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