Featured Films
 | Soul Food Junkiesby Byron Hurt To many African Americans, soul food is sacrament, ritual, and a key expression of cultural identity. But does this traditional cuisine do more harm to health than it soothes the soul? |
 | Beauty Is Embarrassingby Neil Berkeley Raised in the mountains of Tennessee, Wayne White found success as one of the creators of the TV show, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, which led to more work designing some of the most arresting and iconic images in pop culture. |
 | Ai Weiwei: Never Sorryby Alison Klayman Ai Weiwei is arguably the most internationally celebrated Chinese artist of the modern era. At heart, he is a troublemaker with a serious agenda: to challenge the oppression of the Chinese people by their government with rebellious and irreverent gestures. His activism has cost him his freedom repeatedly, but he never seems to lose his childlike approach to serious dissidence executed with a wink. |
 | The House I Live Inby Eugene Jarecki From director Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight) comes an unflinching look at how the War on Drugs has disproportionately disenfranchised, incarcerated, and impoverished African Americans. |
 | Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroinesby Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Kelcey Edwards Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines traces the fascinating evolution and legacy of Wonder Woman. From the birth of the comic book superheroine in the 1940s to the blockbusters of today, Wonder Women! looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society's anxieties about women's liberation. |
 | The Island Presidentby Jon Shenk, Bonni Cohen, and Richard Berge The impassioned president of the Maldives struggles to save his vulnerable island nation from the tragic effects of the looming climate apocalypse. |
 | Seeking Asian Femaleby Debbie Lum Two strangers — an elderly American man and a young Chinese woman — pursue a marriage brokered by 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. |
 | Detropiaby Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady 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 Warby Kirby Dick The Invisible War exposes one of the United States's most shameful and best-kept secrets: the epidemic of rape within the military. Today, a female soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. |
SUBMISSIONS
Submissions for Independent Lens 2013-2014 season are now closed. Details on when to submit for the 2014-2015 season will be announced in July.
BLOG
Join us for behind-the-scenes interviews, catch up with the people in past programs, and join us for live chats and other events.
Check out the Independent Lens Blog
HOST
Our host for the 11th season of our Emmy Award-winning series is the acclaimed actor and filmmaker Stanley Tucci!
BUZZ
"Watching Independent Lens … is like going into an independent bookstore — you don't always find what you were looking for but you often find something you didn't even know you wanted."
—The New Yorker
"Independent Lens is public television's equivalent of This American Life, a completely freeform program with no apparent rules for what passes. Lens airs a decidedly brilliant mix of drama, documentary, even comedy, and provides an imaginative array of unusual, unknown and immensely engaging stories.”
—“Best 24 Hours on Television,” Paste Magazine
Stay connected to Independent Lens:
