Independent Lens

Indie Films Series / 8 Seasons

Authentic stories. Extraordinary people.

1h 25m / TV-14

Shelbyville is Not Mayberry Anymore

26s / TV-PG

On the eve of the 2008 election, the town of Shelbyville, Tennessee finds itself embroiled in a struggle to come to terms with a new wave of immigrants and grappling with what it means to be American. Don't miss Welcome to Shelbyville on Independent Lens.

Welcome to Shelbyville: Through Discrimination, Common Groun

2m 46s / TV-PG

A Latino resident of Shelbyville describes his own family's struggle to find acceptance, seeing more similarities than differences to the recent Somali immigrants' experience. Don't miss Welcome to Shelbyville on Independent Lens.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo: Ode to the Six-Legged Muse

2m 39s / TV-PG

The poetry that often praises insects is a type of poetry that rejoices in the minuscule, as a defining feature of a particular time and space. Haiku is the expression of a precise view of nature -- personal and universal in equal parts.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo: Looking Forward to a Bug's Life

2m 24s / TV-PG

The teachings of Buddhism center around the concept of reincarnation: the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, which was heavily tied to the Shinto confidence in nature's seasons, and into Shinto's animistic beliefs, in the possibility of being reborn as any living creature, including insects.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo: Bug Lover Conquers Audiences!

2m 34s / TV-PG

Filmmaker Jessica Oreck found a match for her own lifelong love of insects when she first visited Japan. With a background in filmmaking, biology, ecology, and botany, she embarked on a career making movies about the natural world. Her film instills a sense of wonder about both the insect world and Japanese culture.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo: Small is Beautiful

3m 15s / TV-PG

In Japan, the miniaturization of everyday objects and the shrinking of worlds, as with Zen gardening or Bonsai, lends itself to the exposition of nature's smallest creatures.

Got Bugs?

27s / TV-PG

Beginning in the modern-day and working backward, this film explores the history of Japan's love affair with bugs. Using insects like an anthropologist's toolkit, the film uncovers Japanese philosophies that will shift viewers' perspectives on nature, beauty, and life, and counter the exigencies of day-to-day life.

Bhutto: Fairy Tale Wedding or Campaign Event?

1m 56s / TV-PG

Educated at Harvard and Oxford, Benazir made history as the first woman leader of a Muslim country, yet she was wed in a traditional arranged marriage to then-Karachi playboy Asif Ali Zardari that some compared to a Bollywood movie or a campaign event.

From Pampered Princess to Polarizing Politician

2m 4s / TV-PG

As the first Muslim woman elected to lead an Islamic nation, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's life story unfolds like a tale of Shakespearean dimensions. She evolved from a pampered princess to a polarizing politician in one of the most dangerous countries on Earth.

Bhutto: Making the Ultimate Sacrifice for Democracy

2m 27s / TV-PG

In 2007, with Pakistan roiling in turmoil and under the thumb of yet another military dictator, Benazir was called back as the country's best hope for democracy. The very night of her triumphant return, a double-suicide bombing assassination attempt killed 170 of her supporters.

A Film Unfinished: Secrets From the Cutting Room Floor

2m 31s / TV-PG

Archivist Adrian Wood describes finding the outtakes from an infamous work of Nazi propaganda that clearly demonstrate the care the filmmakers took to create a false picture of life in the Warsaw Ghetto that would reinforce the official stereotypes and myths used to justify the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign against the Jewish people in Europe.

A Mystery Unravels from a Reel of Film

1m 59s / TV-PG

This haunting film about a film examines a classic Nazi propaganda film used by historians for decades to provide insight into the realities of life in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942. The recent discovery of a second reel in an East German archive has thrown the veracity and intent of the Ghetto footage into question.

A Film Unfinished: Scenes from the Warsaw Ghetto Staged to I

1m 15s / TV-PG

A survivor recounts his participation in a staged scene from an infamous work of Nazi propaganda -- "The Ghetto" -- that depicts rabbis and petitioners visiting a bureau where their grievances are cordially heard amidst a number of dubiously placed props -- including a large, lit menorah -- put there by the filmmakers who believed it would lend authenticity to the scene.

A Film Unfinished: Finding a Work of Nazi Propaganda

1m 3s / TV-PG

A decade after World War II, East German archivists began to sort through what remained of Hitler's propaganda machine. Thousands of films were discovered in the exact location in which they had been stashed, including a lone copy of a film with no soundtrack or credits entitled "The Ghetto."

Marwencol: The Golden Rule

36s / TV-PG

In the lore of Marwencol -- the miniature World War II-era town built by Mark Hogancamp -- American and German soldiers converged simultaneously -- not to fight, but to "be friendly with each other" in this imaginary refuge from the kind of conflict that forever impacted Hogancamp's reality.

Marwencol: Imagination Unlimited...But Only 27 Barbies

36s / TV-PG

Alter-egos and fantasies abound in the tiny (literally) town of Marwencol, where Mark's customized doppelgangers play out whatever he and his friends can dream up.

Marwencol: Was I a Bad Guy...Was I Mean?

31s / TV-PG

After nine days in a coma and 40 days in the hospital, Mark was discharged with little memory of his previous life. He began to ask others what kind of a person he was, in order to rebuild a sense of who he was before his beating.

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