Independent Lens

Indie Films Series / 7 Seasons

Authentic stories. Extraordinary people.

1h 16m / TV-PG

Detropia: America's Fastest Shrinking City

2m 10s / TV-PG

In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary, Detropia, we see the demolition of one of 100,000 abaondoned homes in Detroit, the fastest shrinking city in the United States. The reporter interviewing the demolition expert says it is as if the city is "going back to the prairie."

Coming to Independent Lens: Sundance Award Winner Detropia

2m 29s / TV-PG

Can the Motor City rise from its ashes? There is a growing feeling that as Detroit goes, so goes the nation. This film tells the dramatic story of a city and its most innovative people who refuse to leave the building, even as the flames are rising.

The Invisible War Influences Military Policy Changes

36s / TV-PG

Who says a documentary can't create change? The Invisible War is a groundbreaking, Oscar-nominated documentary about rape within the U.S. military that has catalyzed the conversation over what needs to change to prevent further abuses.

The Invisible War: Women in the U.S. Military

1m 23s / TV-PG

In this excerpt from the Oscar-nominated Independent Lens film, The Invisible War, several servicewomen describe how they were sexually assaulted while serving in the U.S military.

Coming to Independent Lens: The Invisible War

1m 46s / TV-PG

The most shameful and best-kept secret in the U.S. Military? The epidemic of rape and sexual assault within the ranks. An American female soldier in a combat zone is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. A culture of privilege and impunity has resulted in few prosecutions, and the systematic isolation of women who dare report the crimes.

The Invisible War Nominated for Academy Award

30s / TV-PG

PBS congratulates the filmmakers of The Invisible War nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. Compelling, powerful, and part of the national converation about U.S. military service, The Invisible War is coming to Independent Lens this Memorial Day.

Seeking Asian Female: When Steven Met Sandy

1m 55s / TV-PG

In this excerpt from the Independent Lens film, Seeking Asian Female, Steven, the film's protagonist, cleans house in preparation for a visit from Sandy, the Chinese woman he met on the Internet who he hopes will agree to marry him.

Seeking Asian Female: An Internet Romance Boils Down to Inst

2m 13s / TV-PG

In this excerpt from the Independent Lens film, Seeking Asian Female, Steven, the film's protagonist, return from China with Sandy, a woman he met through a website which caters to American men looking for an Asian bride.

Seeking Asian Female: What About Interracial Marriage?

7m 6s / TV-PG

Looking beyond personal ad profiles and first dates, how do cross-cultural relationships with or without the “tarnish of yellow fever” work in the long term? Interviews with interracial couples, as well as experts and those on the hunt for love reflect on what it takes for initial attraction to evolve into real and lasting commitment.

Seeking Asian Female: What is "Yellow Fever"?

4m 20s / TV-PG

In this video companion piece to the Independent Lens documentary, Seeking Asian Female, the filmmakers survey people in interracial relationships on the topic of yellow fever: Western white men having an obsession with East Asian women. In this and the other episodes, They’re All so Beautiful opens with a question, provides answers, and then asks some more.

Seeking Asian Female: Do Asian Women Have "White Fever"?

7m 57s

When it comes to "yellow fever,” many argue it’s a two way street. In this webisode, Asian women confess reasons for preferring white men including that they’re “more confident, better looking.” Academics unpack the reasons why, including “hiergamy,” the sociologists’ term to describe a universal female desire for marrying above one’s own socioeconomic status.

Coming to Independent Lens: Seeking Asian Female

30s / TV-PG

Two strangers — an elderly American man and a young Chinese woman — pursue a marriage brokered through the internet, but they get more than they bargained for when she moves across the Pacific to start a new life with him in America, in this intimate and quirky, personal documentary about modern love.

The Undocumented: Forensics Cannot Explain Why Mother and Da

1m 45s / TV-PG

In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary, The Undocumented by acclaimed filmmaker Marco Williams, a forensics expert examines the remains of a mother and her young daughter, explaining that both perished in the desert while migrating to the U.S. However, no one knows why they were left along in the desert, or which of them died first.

An Organization Reunites Undocumented Dead with Families

2m 27s / TV-PG

In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary, The Undocumented by acclaimed filmmaker Marco Williams, a staff member of the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos describes how the organization keeps records of missing migrants and their recovered bodies. They try to notify the family members of the deceased so that they may be identified, but each year more and more bodies are found.

The Undocumented: A Family Endures the Tragic Side of the Im

3m 15s / TV-PG

In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary, The Undocumented by acclaimed filmmaker Marco Williams, a young man describes how his grandmother -- a woman named Blanca -- died while accompanying him during his border crossing. Confronting their grief over this terrible loss, her son says "without a doubt, these are very hard times."

Coming to Independent Lens: The Undocumented

30s / TV-PG

Border Patrol agents, Native Americans, smugglers, ranchers, retirees and Samaritans form a constellation of people engaged with the Arizona/Mexico border on a daily basis—policing it, inhabiting it, crossing it, working it, making it safer or simply feeling its consequences. But at the center of it all is the migrants, who sometimes die while trying to cross an unforgiving desert.

Coming to Independent Lens: The Island President

2m 27s / TV-PG

See the story of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, a man confronting a problem greater than any other world leader has ever faced - the literal survival of his country and everyone in it, as the most low-lying country in the world, a minor rise in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives.

The Island President: Democracy in Maldives

16m 14s

This educational module chronicles the democratic movement in the Maldives and the human rights violations for which its longstanding autocratic regime was responsible. This lesson explores the basic premise of human rights, the history of human rights abuse and its consequences, human rights in the contemporary media, and the application of human rights issues to modern American life.

The Island President: Underwater Meeting

1m 29s

The Maldivian fight for its survival in the face of a rising sea level is a profound microcosm of the global situation. This educational module portrays President Nasheed's creative media strategy of staging an underwater cabinet meeting to draw attention to the crisis.

The Island President: Climate Politics

2m 54s

The Maldivian fight for its survival in the face of a rising sea level is a profound microcosm of the global situation. This educational module examines the factors behind global climate change, its detrimental ecological and cultural effects, and the means by which it can be mitigated, on both local and international levels.

Supported by