Independent Lens

Indie Films Series / 7 Seasons

Authentic stories. Extraordinary people.

1h 16m / TV-PG

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.

Winter Season Trailer 2024 | Coming to Independent Lens

1m

We’re heating up this winter with a lineup of docs, including Beyond Utopia, Racist Trees, Razing Liberty Square, and Breaking the News. Stream Independent Lens with the PBS App.

Trailer | A Town Called Victoria

30s

When a devastating hate crime reduces the local mosque to ashes, the community of Victoria faces the daunting task of bridging longstanding political, racial, and economic rifts in order to discover a unified path towards healing and progress.

Trailer | Three Chaplains

30s

Muslim chaplains uphold the First Amendment and vow to protect service members' right to practice their faith freely, despite facing long-held prejudice and disapproval from their own communities. The Muslim chaplains work hard to ensure that all service members have access to religious materials, services, and resources regardless of the religious beliefs they hold.

Trailer | El Equipo

30s

Legendary U.S. anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow sets out to train a new group of Latin American students in the use of forensic anthropology. Their goal: to investigate disappearances in Argentina during the “dirty war.” The group expands its horizons, traveling to El Salvador, Bolivia, and Mexico, doggedly working behind the scenes to establish the facts for the families of the victims.

Trailer | Sansón and Me

30s

Filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes wants to document Sansón's story, an immigrant serving life in prison. Unable to film Sansón, the documentary creatively shares his narrative through reenactments of his letters, featuring his own family as actors.

Fall Season Trailer | Coming to Independent Lens

1m

Independent Lens, America’s home for documentaries, returns Monday, September 19, starting with Sansón and Me, followed by El Equipo, Three Chaplains and the three part series A Town Called Victoria. Watch these powerful, acclaimed new films on the PBS App.

Trailer | Mama Bears

30s

They call one another “mama bears” because of the ferocity with which they fight for their children’s rights. Although they grew up as fundamentalist, evangelical Christians praying for the souls of LGBTQ+ people, these mothers are now willing to risk losing friends, family, and faith communities to champion their kids—even if it challenges their belief systems and rips apart their worlds.

Trailer | Sam Now

30s

In this coming-of-age documentary about generational trauma, follow Sam Harkness from age 11 to 36 as his middle-class Seattle family is heartbroken and unsure of what to do after his mother suddenly leaves them. Woven together with home movies lovingly crafted by Sam’s half brother, director Reed Harkness, witness a boy grow up grappling with the ripple effects of a singular traumatic event.

The Misrepresentation of Chol Soo Lee

5m 34s

Remember 1989’s True Believer, starring James Woods and Robert Downey, Jr.? Was it a prime example of Hollywood’s White Savior Complex? Dolly Li examines how the flick centered a white lawyer in a story based on Chol Soo Lee’s arrest. Stream Free Chol Soo Lee now on YouTube or the PBS App.

Trailer | Matter of Mind: My ALS

30s

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neuromuscular disease with an average survival time of 2-5 years from diagnosis. In this intimate exploration, three people with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, bravely face different paths as they live with this progressively debilitating illness.

Trailer | Free Chol Soo Lee

30s

Sentenced to life for a 1973 San Francisco murder, Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee was set free after a pan-Asian solidarity movement, which included Korean, Japanese, and Chinese Americans, helped to overturn his conviction. After 10 years of fighting for his life inside California state prisons, Lee found himself in a new fight to rise to the expectations of the people who believed in him.

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