Independent Lens Season 21 Episodes

Episode 1

Made in Boise

Mon, Oct 28, 2019

Four surrogates and the parents-to-be navigate pregnancy and the mixed emotions of their families who worry about the potential physical and emotional complications of carrying babies for someone else.

Episode 2

Decade of Fire

Mon, Nov 4, 2019

Community leaders unite to save their neighborhoods after an epidemic of fires rage through the South Bronx in the 1970s.

Episode 3

The Interpreters

Mon, Nov 11, 2019

Thousands of local interpreters who helped U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan seek safety in the aftermath of war.

Episode 4

Conscience Point; Jewel's Hunt

Mon, Nov 18, 2019

The plight of the Shinnecock Nation and land development in the Hamptons. This episode reveals how the land was stolen from the tribe and how many of their sacred grounds, including grave sites, have been developed with little or no regard of bone displacement for the descendants. The tribe has appealed to the local government for protocols and procedures to no avail. This is an ongoing issue.

Episode 5

Attla

Mon, Dec 16, 2019

Spanning his fifty-year dogsled racing career, ATTLA explores the life and persona of George Attla, from his childhood as a TB survivor in the Alaskan interior, to his rise as ten-time world champion and mythical state hero, to a village elder resolutely training his grandnephew to race his team one last time.

Episode 6

Accept the Call

Mon, Jan 20, 2020

Episode 7

The First Rainbow Coalition

Mon, Jan 27, 2020

Episode 8

Cooked: Survival by Zip Code

Mon, Feb 3, 2020

The July 1995 heat wave in Chicago claimed 739 lives in a single week, and became the most traumatic heat wave in U.S. history..

Episode 9

Leftover Women

Mon, Feb 10, 2020

In China, single women are under immense pressure to marry young or face the stigma that comes with being "leftover." Leftover Women follows three hopeful singles seeking to define love on their own term.

Episode 10

We Believe in Dinosaurs

Mon, Feb 17, 2020

We Believe in Dinosaurs follows the design and construction of a massive $120 million Noah's Ark replica in rural Kentucky, telling the story of the unsettling and uniquely American conflict between science and religion.

Episode 11

Always in Season

Mon, Feb 24, 202086 mins

Was it suicide, as the white police insists, or was it a suppressed lynching, as the black community accuse. A grieving black family and their southern community force the local police to submit to state and federal investigation of how they rushed to a conclusion of suicide instead of truly investigating what is obviously the lynching of 17-year-old Lennon Lacy. Lennon was in a relationship with a 30-something-year old white woman who had prostituted herself for her drug habit. This documentary explores the tradition of lynching to control a black population and how this tradition informs the relationship between police forces and black communities. It also shows how historical re-enactors bring back the stories of lynching and white terrorism, to the shame of the white southern populations, in an effort to keep the dialogue going and to teach the black community to not let the terrorists get away with it.

Episode 12

One Child Nation

Mon, Mar 30, 2020

Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang investigates the untold history of China's one-child policy, including its impact on generations of mothers and children.

Episode 13

Bedlam

Mon, Apr 13, 2020

Psychiatrist Kenneth Rosenberg visits emergency rooms, jails, and homeless camps, to investigate the national health crisis of mental illness.

Episode 14

The Hottest August

Mon, Apr 20, 2020

Anxieties, distractions, and survival strategies of New York residents during August 2017, a month intensified by the tension of a new president, rising rent, marching white nationalists, and stories of wildfires and hurricanes.

Episode 15

Jim Allison: Breakthrough

Mon, Apr 27, 2020

Immunologist Jim Allison discovers a new way to use the immune system to help defeat cancer.

Episode 16

Rewind

Mon, May 11, 2020

Episode 17

Eating Up Easter

Mon, May 25, 2020

Episode 18

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project

Mon, Jun 15, 2020

Episode 19

Pipe Dreams

Mon, Jun 22, 2020

Episode 20

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Mon, Aug 31, 2020

Filmmaker Morgan Neville examines the life and legacy of Fred Rogers, the beloved host of the popular children's TV show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

Episode 21

Driver Radio: Jamaica

Mon, Sep 21, 2020