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The Graduates: Homelessness

/ TV-PG
After her family became homeless, Chastity Salas’ sense of responsibility toward her family threatened to interfere with her education. A counselor provided her the support needed to stay in school and apply for college. Chastity began to thrive at school, using writing as an outlet for her feelings. She inspires her younger siblings, who admire her perseverance in making it to college.
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The Waiting Room - Preview

30s / TV-PG
The Waiting Room intimately follows several people who pass through the emergency room of Highland Hospital in East Oakland, CA. Shot over several months and with a poignant mix of humor and drama, the film presents a composite portrait of a public institution struggling to care for a persistent and growing stream of patients living on the fringes of America's health care system.
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Coming to Independent Lens: The Waiting Room

2m 16s / TV-PG
The Waiting Room is a cinema verité portrait of one California city's public safety-net hospital as it struggles to handle patient overload in a swooning economy and a constantly shifting landscape of health care policy. The film will make its television premiere next season on Independent Lens.
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Get Ready for a New Season of Independent Lens

30s
Independent Lens launches its 12th season on PBS with a lineup of 23 remarkable documentaries from both new and established filmmakers. The season opener on Monday, September 30 is Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey, a real life rock and roll fairy tale about Filipino singer Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from YouTube to become the frontman for the iconic American rock band Journey.
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Don't Stop Believin' - Preview

30s / TV-PG
Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey follows the real life rock ‘n’ roll fairy tale of Filipino Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from YouTube to become the front man for iconic American rock band Journey.
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What is Community Cinema?

1m 28s
Community Cinema is a national civic engagement initiative featuring free screenings and curricula for films from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens. In 100 cities and online, community members come together to learn, discuss, and get involved in key social issues of our time. Coming in September, see The Graduates/Los Graduados!
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Detropia: The Scavengers' Story

3m 19s / TV-PG
In this video companion piece to the Independent Lens documentary, Detropia, two Detroit area scavengers discuss how scrap metal provides a decent living now that unemployment rates have exceeded 30% and assembly line wages have been reduced.
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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."
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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.
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