Independent Lens

Indie Films Series / 8 Seasons

Authentic stories. Extraordinary people.

52m 3s / TV-PG

Trailer | Home Court

30s

Home Court is the coming-of-age story of Ashley Chea, a Cambodian American basketball prodigy in Southern California. As her high school career crescendos, her life intensifies amid recruitment, injury, and triumph as her natural talent inspires the support of those around her.

Trailer | Bike Vessel

30s

Knowing his dad miraculously recovered from three open-heart surgeries after discovering a passion for cycling, filmmaker Eric D. Seals proposes an ambitious idea: Bike together from St. Louis to Chicago. 350 miles. 4 days. On their journey, the two push each other as they find a deeper connection and a renewed appreciation of their quests for their own health and to reimagine Black health.

Trailer | Skin of Glass

30s

A journey to reckon with Brazil’s harsh inequality begins when filmmaker Denise Zmekhol discovers her father’s architectural masterpiece in São Paulo—a 24-story tall modernist icon known as “Pele de Vidro” (Skin of Glass)—is inhabited by hundreds of unhoused people. But after getting to know these occupants, what started as a personal quest becomes something much bigger.

Trailer | The In Between

30s

Following her brother's death, a filmmaker returns to Eagle Pass, the Texas bordertown where she grew up, to document the places that shaped their family. She finds a treasure trove of his own footage that brings him back to life, sparking a reflection on growing up Mexican American along the U.S.-Mexico border. She rediscovers the beautiful mysteries of their complex hometown.

Trailer | The Strike

30s

The high-security Pelican Bay prison was designed for mass-scale solitary confinement, often for a decade or more, and with little due process. In 2013, 30,000 prisoners went on a hunger strike that spread into a feat of unity across California prisons. The Strike follows these solitary survivors who fought to abolish indefinite isolation.

Trailer | Without Arrows

30s

After 13 years living in Philadelphia, Delwin Fiddler Jr., a champion grass dancer, embraces indigenous culture by returning to his ancestral home on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. Leaving his big city life behind, Delwin aims to protect his centuries-old Lakota heritage and heal from family tragedy, through his passion for dance.

Trailer | Minted

30s

An insider’s look at the rise and fall of the NFT (non-fungible token) phenomenon and how technology transformed the traditional art world, for better and worse. Featuring verité footage and candid interviews with groundbreaking artists—like Beeple, Latasha Alcindor, and Loish— at the center of this phenomenon, Minted delves into the complex world of the $40 billion NFT digital art market.

Winter 2024 Sneak Peek

1m

Independent Lens is back, serving up impactful, acclaimed new docs, starting with Home Court, Bike Vessel Minted, The In Between and followed by Skin of Glass, Without Arrows, The Strike, and Dallas, 2019.

Trailer | Make Peace or Die: Honor the Fallen

30s

Riddled with survivor's guilt after his unit lost 17 men during "Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan, Marine veteran Anthony Marquez makes it his mission to reconnect with the Gold Star families of the fallen. By carving and hand-delivering a battlefield cross for each of the families affected by loss, Anthony finds the path to heal himself.

Trailer | One Person, One Vote?

30s

At a time when many Americans question democratic institutions, One Person, One Vote? unveils the complexities of the Electoral College, the uniquely American and often misunderstood mechanism for electing a president. The documentary follows four presidential electors representing different parties in Colorado during the intense 2020 election.

Fall 2024 Sneak Peek

1m

Independent Lens is back serving up powerful, acclaimed new docs, starting with One Person, One Vote? and followed by Wild Hogs and Saffron, The History of White People in America, Make Peace or Die: Honor the Fallen, and United States of Comedy.

Antarctica's Survival Guide for Mars Explorers

13m 41s

In 1897, the Belgica set sail for Antarctica on the first true science mission to the end of the world,. But within 200 days, the crew found themselves trapped in sea ice, battling disease and insanity during the unending polar night. What can their trials teach us about maintaining sanity in the harsh environments of space as humanity plans for it’s first crewed mission to Mars?

Trailer | The Tuba Thieves

30s

What is the role of sound and what does it mean to listen? Hard of hearing filmmaker Alison O’Daniel uses a series of tuba thefts in Los Angeles high schools as a jumping-off point to explore these questions. Through several d/Deaf people telling stories in a unique game of telephone, the central mystery of The Tuba Thieves isn’t about theft of instruments; it’s about the nature of sound itself.

Can Humans Get to Mars Without Going Insane?

12m 32s

Humanity's first Martian explorers will face extreme confinement, isolation and disruption of all bodily rhythms. The psychological stress from all of this could lead to a breakdown of social order among those on the mission – even mutiny. Are there lessons that can be learned about this from terrestrial explorers of the past?

What an Antarctic Disaster Can Teach Us About Getting to Mars

15m 9s

A manned mission to Mars presents a huge array of challenges for scientists and explorers to figure out. Chief among them: how to keep humans sane and relatively content on the isolating, confining, and potentially years long journey to the red planet and back. Turns out, explorers from generations ago here on Earth survived similar challenges that tomorrow's astronauts can learn from.

Trailer | Space: The Longest Goodbye

30s

NASA's goal to send astronauts to Mars would require a three-year absence from Earth, during which communication in real time would be impossible due to the immense distance. Meet the psychologists whose job is to keep astronauts mentally stable in outer space, as they are caught between their dream of reaching new frontiers and the basic human need to stay connected to home.

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