Independent Lens Season 25 Episodes

Episode 1

Sanson and Me

Tue, Sep 19, 2023 90 mins

When authorities refuse filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes' plea to film a young detained immigrant, his narrative is told through dramatic reenactments.

Episode 2

El Equipo

Mon, Oct 9, 2023 90 mins

An unlikely collaboration changes the course of forensic science and international human rights.

Episode 3

Three Chaplains

Mon, Nov 6, 2023 120 mins

Upholding the First Amendment is not just part of their job description, it is highly personal. Going inside the armed forces to see how Muslim chaplains vow to protect the right of every service member to practice their faith freely.

Episode 4

Beyond Utopia

Tue, Jan 9, 2024 120 mins

Once taught their homeland was paradise, they now risk everything in escaping it. This gripping documentary follows families on a journey to leave North Korea, as the threat of severe punishment and possible execution looms over their passage.

Episode 5

Racist Trees

Mon, Jan 22, 2024 120 mins

Racial tensions ignite in Palm Springs, California, over a fight to remove a wall of trees that form a barrier believed to exclude a community.

Episode 6

Razing Liberty Square

Mon, Jan 29, 2024 120 mins

The Liberty City public housing community in Miami becomes ground zero for climate gentrification.

Episode 7

Sister Una Lived a Good Death

Mon, Feb 5, 2024 120 mins

Following a cancer diagnosis, a wisecracking Catholic nun chooses to live as she's dying. In this touching end-of-life documentary, the self-proclaimed "leader of the misfits" plans her funeral in her last nine months of life.

Episode 8

Breaking the News

Mon, Feb 19, 2024 120 mins

Women and LGBTQ+ journalists launch startup "The 19th" to buck a broken news media system.

Episode 9

Greener Pastures

Mon, Mar 25, 2024 120 mins

Midwestern farmers persevere through climate change, industrialization, and mental health crises.

Episode 10

A Thousand Pines

Mon, Apr 1, 2024 120 mins

Over the course of eight months, a group of Oaxacan guest laborers planted trees across America. This personal photo demonstrates how difficult it is to reconcile the physical demands of reforestation with great solitude while remaining connected to family members back home.

Episode 11

Matter of Mind: My Parkinson's

Mon, Apr 8, 2024 120 mins

Three people continue with their lives despite living with Parkinson's, including a mother who advocates for exercise; an optician who pursues deep brain stimulation surgery; and a cartonnist who continues to draw until he loses his motor control.

Episode 12

If Dreams Were Lightning

Wed, Apr 10, 2024 120 mins

Episode 13

One with the Whale

Tue, Apr 23, 2024 90 mins

Hunting whales is a matter of life or death for the residents of St. Lawrence. When a shy Alaska Native teen becomes the youngest person ever to harpoon a whale for his village, his family is blindsided by thousands of keyboard activists brutally attacking him online—without full perspective on the importance of the hunt to his community's well-being.

Episode 14

Space: The Longest Goodbye

Mon, May 6, 2024 120 mins

NASA psychologists prepare astronauts for the extreme isolation required by a Mars mission, as the crew grapples with the tension between their dream of reaching new frontiers and the basic human need to stay connected to home.