Independent Lens - Season 13

Independent Lens - Season 13

Season 13

Network
DatesOct 13, 2011 - Jul 26, 2012
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Episodes

Wham! Bam! Islam!
Season 13Episode 160 min

Wham! Bam! Islam!

Episode Synopsis: Season 13 premieres with new host Mary-Louise Parker introducing "Wham! Bam! Islam," about the challenges involving "The 99," a comic book about Muslim superheroes created by Kuwaiti psychologist Naif Al-Mutawa. He raised $7 million in capital, hired Marvel comic veterans and released the first issue during Ramadan 2006, but it was banned in Saudi Arabia and Middle East sales failed to meet expectations. As a result, he tried to go global without sacrificing the comic's underlying Muslim ideals.
Oct 13, 2011
Donor Unknown
Season 13Episode 260 min

Donor Unknown

Episode Synopsis: "Donor Unknown" charts the story of 20-year-old JoEllen Marsh, who was raised by two mothers in Pennsylvania, as she searches for her sperm-donor father, known only as "Donor 150." Thanks to an online registry for the children of sperm donors, she meets half-siblings that she never knew existed; and, thanks to a New York Times article about her quest that he just happens to see in a Venice, Cal., coffee shop, eventually manages to connect with her biological dad.
Oct 20, 2011
Lives Worth Living
Season 13Episode 360 min

Lives Worth Living

"Lives Worth Living" tells the story of the disability rights movement in America, which began after WWII when disabled veterans returned home; and culminated in 1990 with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The documentary includes remarks from the movement's pioneers, including Fred Fay (1940-2011) and Judi Chamberlin (1944-2010); former congressman Tony Coelho; and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).
Oct 27, 2011
Deaf Jam
Season 13Episode 460 min

Deaf Jam

"Deaf Jam" chronicles the experiences of Aneta Brodski, a deaf Israeli teen living in New York, as she moves from American Sign Language poetry, where body movements convey meaning, into the spoken-word slam scene and collaborates with Palestinian slam poet Tahani Salah on a politics-transcending performance.
Nov 3, 2011
We Still Live Here -- as Nutayunean
Season 13Episode 560 min

We Still Live Here -- as Nutayunean

Anne Makepeace's "We Still Live Here—As Nutayunean" tells the story of linguist Jessie Little Doe Baird's work to resurrect the long-forgotten language of the Wampanoag (the Native Americans who saved the Pilgrims from starvation). The documentary details what led Baird, in 1994, to begin the effort to return the dormant language to the living; and also explains the factors that led to the language's extinction a century ago.
Nov 17, 2011
The Woodmans
Season 13Episode 660 min

The Woodmans

"The Woodmans" charts the short life of influential photographer Francesca Woodman, who took her own life in 1981 at the age of 22. The profile includes comments from her parents, artists George and Betty Woodman; and brother Charles Woodman.
Dec 22, 2011
These Amazing Shadows
Season 13Episode 760 min

These Amazing Shadows

"These Amazing Shadows" focuses on the National Film Registry, an eclectic collection of movies considered to be "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the National Film Preservation Board. Included: clips from many of the films; remarks from Librarian of Congress James Billington; such directors as Barbara Kopple, Christopher Nolan, Rob Reiner, John Singleton and John Waters; such actors as Tim Roth, Debbie Reynolds and Zooey Deschanel; and film critics and historians.
Dec 29, 2011
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: Road to Resistance
Season 13Episode 860 min

Have You Heard From Johannesburg: Road to Resistance

The five-part "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?," a history of the global anti-apartheid movement, opens with "Road to Resistance," which recalls the 1948 implementation of government-sanctioned discrimination in South Africa. The African National Congress launches a nonviolent campaign against apartheid, but its leaders are forced underground or, like Nelson Mandela, imprisoned. ANC deputy president Oliver Tambo, meanwhile, travels the world in search of support for the anti-apartheid cause.
Jan 12, 2012
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The New Generation
Season 13Episode 960 min

Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The New Generation

After the murder of resistance leader Steven Biko, young people in the West join a movement to isolate South Africa.

Jan 12, 2012
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: From Selma to Soweto
Season 13Episode 1060 min

Have You Heard From Johannesburg: From Selma to Soweto

African Americans lead a grassroots movement to force the United States to reverse its policies toward South Africa.

Jan 19, 2012
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The Bottom Line
Season 13Episode 1160 min

Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The Bottom Line

A grassroots boycott and divestment campaign targets Western corporations doing business with the South African regime.

Jan 19, 2012
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: Free at Last
Season 13Episode 1260 min

Have You Heard From Johannesburg: Free at Last

The apartheid regime in Pretoria crumbles under pressure, and the freed Nelson Mandela is elected president of a democratic South Africa.

Jan 26, 2012
Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock
Season 13Episode 1360 min

Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock

As a black woman who was a feminist before the term was invented, Daisy Bates refused to accept her assigned place in society. Learn why this unconventional revolutionary paid dearly for her instant fame.

Feb 2, 2012
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Season 13Episode 1460 min

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

The Black Power Mixtape examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in the black community and Diaspora from 1967 to 1975. The film combines music, startling 16mm footage (lying undiscovered in the cellar of Swedish Television for 30 years), and contemporary audio interviews from leading African-American artists, activists, musicians and scholars.
Feb 9, 2012
More Than A Month
Season 13Episode 1560 min

More Than A Month

Find out why an African-American filmmaker wants to end Black History Month.

Feb 16, 2012
You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't
Season 13Episode 1660 min

You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't

Experience a total immersion into the fragmented day-to-day experience of a man with Alzheimer's.

Mar 30, 2012
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
Season 13Episode 1760 min

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey

Every day, millions tune in to SESAME STREET to see one of the world's most adored and recognizable characters - a furry red monster named Elmo. Yet, with all of Elmo's fame, the man behind the icon is able to walk down the street without being recognized.

Apr 5, 2012
When the Drum Is Beating
Season 13Episode 1860 min

When the Drum Is Beating

Explore Haiti's complex past and present through the music of the country's oldest and best-known band.

Apr 12, 2012
Revenge of the Electric Car
Season 13Episode 1960 min

Revenge of the Electric Car

Revenge follows four entrepreneurs from 2007 through the end of 2010 as they fight to bring the electric car back to the world market in the midst of a global recession. The protagonists are Bob Lutz from General Motors, Elon Musk from the American start-up Tesla Motors, Carlos Ghosn from Nissan, and Greg Abbott, an independent electric car converter from California. Whereas the 2006 film Who Killed the Electric Car? ended with the destruction of nearly 5,000 electric cars from California's clean air program, notably the GM EV1, the new film features the birth of a new generation of electric cars including the Chevrolet Volt, the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Roadster.
Apr 19, 2012
Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison
Season 13Episode 2060 min

Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison

Review the rich history of human sustenance, exploitation, conservation and spiritual relations with the ultimate icon of wild America: bison.

Apr 26, 2012
Circo
Season 13Episode 2160 min

Circo

Accompany the Ponce family circus as it struggles to make a living in Mexico's collapsing rural economy.

May 3, 2012
Summer Pasture
Season 13Episode 2260 min

Summer Pasture

Get a rare view of an insular community seldom seen by outsiders: nomads living in the high grasslands of eastern Tibet.

May 10, 2012
Precious Knowledge
Season 13Episode 2360 min

Precious Knowledge

Watch as student leaders in Tucson High School's Mexican American Studies Program fight to save their classes.

May 17, 2012
Left by the Ship
Season 13Episode 2460 min

Left by the Ship

With four Amerasian children, delve into the consequences of the U.S. military presence in the Philippines.

May 24, 2012
Hell and Back Again
Season 13Episode 2560 min

Hell and Back Again

Witness the overlapping stories of a Marine at war and the same Marine in recovery at home.

May 28, 2012
We Were Here
Season 13Episode 2660 min

We Were Here

When AIDS arrived in San Francisco in 1981, it decimated a community, but also brought people together in inspiring and moving ways to support and care for one another and to fight for dignity and a cure.

Jun 7, 2012
Strong!
Season 13Episode 2760 min

Strong!

Follow a champion weightlifter who struggles to defend her status as her career inches towards its end.

Jul 26, 2012

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