List of Independent Lens films
This is a list of films from the Independent Lens series on PBS. All airdates are relative to this series as many of these films screened, either in theaters or on television, prior to becoming a part of the Independent Lens series. After the third season, PBS expanded and relaunched the series in 2003 declaring what is technically the fourth season as the new first season. As a result, any reference made by PBS or ITVS to a season number will be three less than the number represented in this list. For example, PBS declares the 2007-2008 season as season 6, but this complete list shows it as season 9. The 2014-2015 season is regarded as the 13th season for the series.
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | ||||
| 1 | 10 | August 9, 1999 | October 11, 1999 | ||
| 2 | 10 | October 2, 2000 | December 4, 2000 | ||
| 3 | 10 | September 7, 2001 | November 9, 2001 | ||
| 4 | 14 | February 4, 2003 | June 3, 2003 | ||
| 5 | 28 | October 14, 2003 | June 15, 2004 | ||
| 6 | 27 | October 26, 2004 | June 14, 2005 | ||
| 7 | 29 | October 11, 2005 | June 22, 2006 | ||
| 8 | 27 | October 24, 2006 | June 5, 2007 | ||
| 9 | 26 | October 16, 2007 | June 19, 2008 | ||
| 10 | 25 | October 22, 2008 | June 19, 2009 | ||
| 11 | 27 | October 13, 2009 | June 1, 2010 | ||
| 12 | 25 | October 19, 2010 | June 14, 2011 | ||
| 13 | 27 | October 13, 2011 | July 26, 2012 | ||
| 14 | 18 | October 1, 2012 | June 17, 2013 | ||
| 15 | 22 | September 30, 2013 | June 16, 2014 | ||
| 16 | 19 | October 13, 2014 | June 22, 2015 | ||
| 17 | 20 | October 20, 2015 | August 1, 2016 | ||
| 18 | 21 | October 3, 2016 | June 19, 2017 | ||
| 19 | 20 | October 11, 2017 | May 28, 2018 | ||
| 20 | 20 | October 29, 2018 | May 20, 2019 | ||
| 21 | TBA | October 28, 2019 | TBA | ||
Episodes
Season 1 (1999)
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 101 | "Wannabe: Life and Death in a Small-Town Gang" | John Whitehead | August 9, 1999 |
| 102 | "Nothing But the Truth" | Mark Steven Shepherd | August 16, 1999 |
| 103 | "Visas and Virtue" (short) | Chris Tashima | August 23, 1999 |
| "I Am Viet Hung" (short) | Diep N. Bui | ||
| 104 | "The Man Who Drove with Mandela" | Greta Schiller | August 30, 1999 |
| 105 | "The Jew in the Lotus" | Laurel Chiten | September 6, 1999 |
| 106 | "Holy Tortilla" (short) | Lauren Ivy Chiong | September 13, 1999 |
| "Lock and Key" (short) | Kisha Cameron | ||
| 107 | "And Baby Makes Two" | Oren Rudavsky and Judy Katz | September 20, 1999 |
| 108 | "Sing Faster: The Stagehands' Ring Cycle" | Jon H. Else | September 27, 1999 |
| 109 | "Secret People" | John Anderson and Laura Harrison | October 4, 1999 |
| 110 | "I Can't Believe I Married A Lesbian" | Stuart Perkin | October 11, 1999 |
Season 2 (2000)
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201 | "Now & Then: From Frosh to Seniors" | Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine | October 2, 2000 |
| 202 | "No Hair Day" | Bob Burns | October 9, 2000 |
| 203 | "Short Stories" | Robert Byrd | October 16, 2000 |
| 204 | "Born in the USA" | Marcia Jarmel | October 23, 2000 |
| 205 | "Girl Gone Bad" | Louis Yansen | October 30, 2000 |
| 206 | "Passing Through" (short) | Nathan Adolfson | November 6, 2000 |
| "Graham's Diner" (short) | Courtney Byrd | ||
| 207 | "The Return of Navajo Boy" | Jeff Spitz | November 13, 2000 |
| 208 | "Music in Their Bones" | Norton Dill | November 20, 2000 |
| 209 | "In Harm's Way" (short) | Jan Krawitz | November 27, 2000 |
| "Carved From the Heart" (short) | Ellen Frankenstein | ||
| 210 | "A Wok in Progress" | Paul Kwan and Arnold Iger | December 4, 2000 |
Season 3 (2001)
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 301 | "Confederacy Theory" | Ryan Deussing | September 7, 2001 |
| 302 | "Secrets of Silicon Valley" | Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman | September 14, 2001 |
| 303 | "Abandoned: The Betrayal of America's Immigrants" | David Belle and Nicholas Wrathall | September 21, 2001 |
| 304 | "Good Kurds, Bad Kurds" | Kevin McKiernan | September 28, 2001 |
| 305 | "Who Owns the Past?" | Jed Riffe | October 5, 2001 |
| 306 | "The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America" | Taggart Siegel | October 12, 2001 |
| 307 | "Undetectable" | Jay Corcoran | October 19, 2001 |
| 308 | "Gibtown" | Melissa Shachat | October 26, 2001 |
| 309 | "Open Outcry" | Jon Else | November 2, 2001 |
| 310 | "Romancing the Throne" | Dominic Ozanne | November 9, 2001 |
Season 4 (2003)
Note: After the third season, PBS expanded and relaunched the series in 2003 declaring what is technically the fourth season as the new first season. As a result, any reference made by PBS or ITVS to a season number will be three less than the number represented in this list. For example, PBS declares the 2007-2008 season as season 6, but this complete list shows it as season 9.
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 401 | "Maggie Growls" | Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater | February 4, 2003 |
| 402 | "Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story" | Jamie Meltzer | February 11, 2003 |
| 403 | "On This Island" | Stephanie Slewka | February 18, 2003 |
| 404 | "Downside Up" | Nancy Kelly | February 25, 2003 |
| 405 | "Los Trabajadores/The Workers" | Heather Courtney | March 25, 2003 |
| 406 | "Chiefs" | Daniel Junge | April 1, 2003 |
| 407 | "Strange Fruit" | Joel Katz | April 8, 2003 |
| 408 | "Bird by Bird with Annie" | Freida Lee Mock | April 22, 2003 |
| 409 | "Sisters in Resistance" | Maia Wechsler | April 29, 2003 |
| 410 | "Heart of the Sea" | Charlotte Lagarde and Lisa Denker | May 6, 2003 |
| 411 | "Guns & Mothers" | Thom Powers | May 13, 2003 |
| 412 | "Razing Appalachia" | Sasha Waters | May 20, 2003 |
| 413 | "Hansel Mieth: Vagabond Photographer" | Nancy Schiesari | May 27, 2003 |
| 414 | "Daddy & Papa" | Johnny Symons | June 3, 2003 |
Season 5 (2003-04)
Episode 510 is a short film block titled "Man Bites Shorts".
Episode 518 "T-Shirt Travels" was first broadcast on PBS on June 1, 2002, but not as part of the Independent Lens series.[1]
* The New Americans is a seven-hour, three-part special, and therefore does not have an episode number.
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 501 | "Worst Possible Illusion: The Curiosity Cabinet of Vik Muniz" | Anne-Marie Russell | October 14, 2003 |
| 502 | "Foto-Novelas 2: Broken Sky" (short) | Carlos Avila | October 21, 2003 |
| "Foto-Novelas 2: Junkyard Saints" (short) | Carlos Avila | ||
| 503 | "Shaolin Ulysses: Kungfu Monks in America" | Martha Burr and Mei-Juin Chen | October 28, 2003 |
| 504 | "A Wedding in Ramallah" | Sherine Salama | November 4, 2003 |
| 505 | "Be Good, Smile Pretty" | Tracy Droz Tragos | November 11, 2003 |
| 506 | "Livermore (subject: Livermore, California)" | Rachel Raney and David Murray | November 25, 2003 |
| 507 | "Eroica!" | Alan Miller | December 9, 2003 |
| 508 | "Loaded Gun: Life, and Death, and Dickinson" | Jim Wolpaw | December 16, 2003 |
| 509 | "Get the Fire! Young Mormon Missionaries Abroad" | Nancy du Plessis | December 23, 2003 |
| 510 | "Compulsory Breathing" (short) | David Munro | December 30, 2003 |
| "Don't Nobody Love the Game More Than Me" (short) | Martha Pinson | ||
| "Sergi" (short) | Paul Sullivan | ||
| "Dilly Dally" (short) | Mark Pellington | ||
| "Tom Hits His Head" (short) | Tom Putnam | ||
| "Bike Ride" (short) | Tom Schroeder | ||
| 511 | "Make 'em Dance: The Hackberry Ramblers' Story" | John Whitehead | January 13, 2004 |
| 512 | "Life Matters" | Kyle Boyd | January 20, 2004 |
| 513 | "Why Can't We Be a Family Again?" (short) | Roger Weisberg and Murray Nossel | January 27, 2004 |
| "Downpour Resurfacing" (short) | Frances Nkara | ||
| 514 | "Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property" | Charles Burnett | February 10, 2004 |
| 515 | "A Place of Our Own" | Stanley Nelson Jr. | February 17, 2004 |
| 516 | "Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew" | Matthew Buzzell | February 24, 2004 |
| 517 | "Sentencing the Victim" | Liz Oakley | March 2, 2004 |
| 518 | "T-Shirt Travels" | Shantha Bloemen | March 23, 2004 |
| * | "The New Americans" Episode One | TBA | March 29, 2004 |
| * | "The New Americans" Episode Two | TBA | March 30, 2004 |
| * | "The New Americans" Episode Three | TBA | March 31, 2004 |
| 519 | "Every Child is Born a Poet: The Life and Work of Piri Thomas" | Jonathan Robinson | April 6, 2004 |
| 520 | "Love Inventory" | David Fisher | April 13, 2004 |
| 521 | "Ram Dass: Fierce Grace" | Mickey Lemle | April 20, 2004 |
| 522 | "The Weather Underground" | Sam Green | April 27, 2004 |
| 523 | "One Night at the Grand Star" (short) | Natasha Uppal | May 4, 2004 |
| "Double Exposure" (short) | Kit-Yin Snyder | ||
| 524 | "Refugee" | Spencer Nakasako | May 11, 2004 |
| 525 | "Death of a Shaman" | Richard Hall | May 27, 2004 |
| 526 | "Cosmopolitan" | Nisha Ganatra | June 1, 2004 |
| 527 | "Sumo East and West" | Ferne Pearlstein | June 8, 2004 |
| 528 | "The Amasong Chorus: Singing Out" | Jay Rosenstein | June 15, 2004 |
Season 6 (2004-05)
Episode 608 is a short film block titled "Short, Not Sweet".
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 601 | "The Political Dr. Seuss" | Ron Lamothe | October 26, 2004 |
| 602 | "Polka Time" | Lisa Blackstone | November 9, 2004 |
| 603 | "Afghanistan Unveiled" | Brigitte Brault | November 16, 2004 |
| 604 | "Los Angeles Now" | Phillip Rodriguez | November 23, 2004 |
| 605 | "The Day My God Died" | Andrew Levine | November 30, 2004 |
| 606 | "Girl Wrestler" | Diane Zander | December 14, 2004 |
| 607 | "Fine." (short) | Michael Downing | December 21, 2004 |
| "Doki-Doki" (short) | Chris Eska | ||
| 608 | "The Fine Line Between Cute and Creepy" (short) | Robert D. Slane | December 28, 2004 |
| "La Puppé" (short) | Timothy Greenberg | ||
| "A Monster's Calling" (short) | Louise Johnson | ||
| "The School" (short) | Ezra Krybus and Matthew Miller | ||
| "Why the Anderson Children Didn't Come to Dinner" (short) | Jamie Travis | ||
| 609 | "A Hard Straight" | Goro Toshima | January 4, 2005 |
| 610 | "A Touch of Greatness" | Leslie Sullivan | January 11, 2005 |
| 611 | "Power Trip" | Paul Devlin | January 25, 2005 |
| 612 | "February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four" | TBA | February 1, 2005 |
| 613 | "On a Roll" | Joanne Caputo | February 15, 2005 |
| 614 | "Thunder in Guyana" | Suzanne Wasserman | February 22, 2005 |
| 615 | "Sisters of '77" | Cynthia Salzman Mondell and Allen Mondell | March 1, 2005 |
| 616 | "Sunset Story" | Laura Gabbert | March 22, 2005 |
| 617 | "Let the Church Say Amen" | David Petersen | March 29, 2005 |
| 620 | "A Lion's Trail" | François Verster | April 5, 2005 |
| 619 | "Keeping Time: The Life, Music and Photographs of Milt Hinton" | David G. Berger, Holly Maxson and Kate Hirson | April 12, 2005 |
| 621 | "End of the Century: The Ramones" (short) | Michael Gramaglia and Jim Fields | April 26, 2005 |
| "Joe Strummer Rocks Again" (short) | Dick Rude | ||
| 622 | "The Last Letter" (short) | Frederick Wiseman | May 3, 2005 |
| "Zyklon Portrait" (short) | Elida Schogt | ||
| "The Walnut Tree" (short) | |||
| 623 | "Imelda" | Ramona Diaz | May 10, 2005 |
| 624 | "Vietnam: The Next Generation" | Sandy Northrop | May 17, 2005 |
| 625 | "Red Hook Justice" | Meema Spadola | May 24, 2005 |
| 626 | "Double Dare" (short) | Amanda Micheli | May 31, 2005 |
| "Piki and Poko: Taking the Dare!" (short) | Mark Ewert and David Cutler | ||
| 627 | "Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story" | Jordan Mechner | June 7, 2005 |
| 628 | "Brother to Brother" | Rodney Evans | June 14, 2005 |
Season 7 (2005-06)
Episode 710 is a short film block titled "Short Stack: Lost & Found".
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 701 | "Parliament-Funkadelic: One Nation Under A Groove" | Yvonne Smith | October 11, 2005 |
| 702 | "En Route to Baghdad" | Simone Duarte | October 18, 2005 |
| 703 | "The Last Cowboy" | Jon Alpert | October 25, 2005 |
| 704 | "A Family at War" | Jørgen Flindt Pedersen | November 8, 2005 |
| 705 | "Mirror Dance" | Frances McElroy and María Teresa Rodríguez | November 15, 2005 |
| 706 | "Race is the Place" | Raymond Telles and Rick Tejada-Flores | November 22, 2005 |
| 707 | "Maid in America" | Anayansi Prado | November 29, 2005 |
| 708 | "Seoul Train" | Jim Butterworth, Lisa Sleeth and Aaron Lubarsky | December 13, 2005 |
| 709 | "Sisters: Portrait of a Benedictine Community" | John Hanson | December 20, 2005 |
| 710 | "Agora" (short) | Chris Newberry | December 27, 2005 |
| "John and Michael" (short) | Shira Avni | ||
| "Miracle Mile" (short) | Dong Hyeuk Hwang | ||
| "The Raftman's Razor" (short) | Keith Bearden | ||
| "Reservation Warparties" (short) | Angelique Midthunder | ||
| 711 | "Sheriff" | Daniel Kraus | January 3, 2006 |
| 712 | "Girl Trouble" | Lexi Leban and Lidia Szajko | January 17, 2006 |
| 713 | "Almost Home" | Brad Lichtenstein and Lisa Gildehaus | January 31, 2006 |
| 714 | "Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power" | Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts | February 7, 2006 |
| 715 | "July '64" | Chris Christopher and Carvin Eison | February 14, 2006 |
| 716 | "The Loss of Nameless Things" | Bill Rose | February 28, 2006 |
| 717 | "Troop 1500" | Ellen Spiro | March 21, 2006 |
| 718 | "Taking the Heat: The First Women Firefighters of New York City" | Bann Roy | March 28, 2006 |
| 719 | "Trudell" | Heather Rae | April 11, 2006 |
| 720 | "La Sierra" | Scott Dalton and Margarita Martinez | April 18, 2006 |
| 721 | "A League of Ordinary Gentlemen" | Chris Browne | April 25, 2006 |
| 722 | "Music from the Inside Out" | Daniel Anker | May 2, 2006 |
| 723 | "Fishbowl" (short) | Kayo Hatta | May 9, 2006 |
| "American Made" (short) | Sharat Raju | ||
| 724 | "Frozen Angels" | Eric Black and Frauke Sandig | May 16, 2006 |
| 725 | "The Devil's Miner" | Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani | May 23, 2006 |
| 726 | "The Great Pink Scare" | Tug Yourgrau and Dan Miller | June 6, 2006 |
| 727 | "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" | Taggart Siegel | June 13, 2006 |
| 728 | "A Lion in the House" (Part 1) | Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert | June 21, 2006 |
| 729 | "A Lion in the House" (Part 2) | Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert | June 22, 2006 |
Season 8 (2006-07)
Episode 803 "Still Life with Animated Dogs" was first broadcast on PBS on March 29, 2001, but not as part of the Independent Lens series.
Episode 809 is a short film block titled "Short Stack 2006".
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 801 | "The World According to Sesame Street" | Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan | October 24, 2006 |
| 803 | "Still Life with Animated Dogs" (short) | Paul Fierlinger | |
| 802 | "Muskrat Lovely" | Amy Nicholson | October 31, 2006 |
| 804 | "Paul Conrad: Drawing Fire" | Barbara Multer-Wellin | November 7, 2006 |
| 805 | "Democracy on Deadline: The Global Struggle for an Independent Press" | Cal Skaggs | November 21, 2006 |
| 806 | "Two Square Miles" | Barbara Ettinger | November 28, 2006 |
| 807 | "A Sad Flower in the Sand" | Jan Louter | December 12, 2006 |
| 808 | "Revolucion: Five Visions" | Nicole Cattell | December 19, 2006 |
| 809 | "Paris, 1951" (short) | Jasmin Gordon | December 26, 2006 |
| "Someday Flowers Bloom" (short) | Mai Heiselmann | ||
| "The Zit" (short) | Mike Blum | ||
| "My Life Disoriented" (short) | Eric Byler | ||
| 810 | "A Fish Story" | Courtney Hayes and Tim Gallagher | January 2, 2007 |
| 811 | "Shadya" | Roy Westler | January 16, 2007 |
| 812 | "Beyond the Call" | Adrian Belic | January 23, 2007 |
| 813 | "Twisted" | Laurel Chiten | January 30, 2007 |
| 814 | "Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life" | Robert Levi | February 6, 2007 |
| 815 | "Motherland Afghanistan" | Sedika Mojadidi | February 13, 2007 |
| 816 | "Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes" | Byron Hurt | February 20, 2007 |
| 817 | "Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?" | Frank Popper | February 27, 2007 |
| 818 | "Stolen" | Rebecca Dreyfus | March 20, 2007 |
| 819 | "Race to Execution" | Rachel Lyon | March 27, 2007 |
| 820 | "China Blue" | Micha X. Peled | April 3, 2007 |
| 821 | "Black Gold" | Marc Francis and Nick Francis | April 10, 2007 |
| 822 | "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" | Alex Gibney | April 24, 2007 |
| 823 | "The Cats of Mirikitani" | Linda Hattendorf | May 8, 2007 |
| 824 | "Sentenced Home" | Nicole Newnham and David Grabias | May 15, 2007 |
| 825 | "Knocking" | Joel P. Engardio and Tom Shepard | May 22, 2007 |
| 826 | "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" | Judy Irving | May 29, 2007 |
| 827 | "La Lupe: Queen of Latin Soul" | Ela Troyano | June 5, 2007 |
Season 9 (2007-08)
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 901 | "Wordplay" | Patrick Creadon | October 16, 2007 | Crossword puzzle solvers |
| 902 | "Please Vote for Me" | Weijun Chen | October 23, 2007 | Chinese primary school election |
| 903 | "Storm of Emotions" | Yael Klopmann | October 30, 2007 | TBA |
| 904 | "Red White Black & Blue" | Tom Putnam | November 6, 2007 | TBA |
| 905 | "Miss Navajo" | Billy Luther | November 13, 2007 | Seven girls compete the Miss Navajo Nation pageant |
| 906 | "The Creek Runs Red" | Bradley Beesley and Julianna Brannum | November 20, 2007 | Picher, Oklahoma |
| 907 | "Sisters in Law" | Kim Longinotto and Florence Ayisi | November 27, 2007 | TBA |
| 908 | "The Paper" | Aaron Matthews | December 11, 2007 | TBA |
| 909 | "An Unreasonable Man" | Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan | December 18, 2007 | Ralph Nader |
| 910 | "Today's Man" | Lizzie Gottlieb | January 8, 2008 | TBA |
| 911 | "Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita" | Maria Finitzo | January 15, 2008 | Stem cell research |
| 912 | "A Son's Sacrifice" | Yoni Brook | January 22, 2008 | TBA |
| 913 | "How Is Your Fish Today?" | Xiaolu Guo | January 29, 2008 | Part drama, part documentary about screenwriting |
| 915 | "Banished" | Marco Williams | February 19, 2008 | Banishment of blacks in post-Civil War America |
| 916 | "Hard Road Home" | Macky Alston | February 26, 2008 | TBA |
| 917 | "Iron Ladies of Liberia" | Daniel Junge and Siatta Scott Johnson | March 18, 2008 | Beauty pageant |
| 918 | "Compañeras" | Matthew Buzzell and Elizabeth Massie | April 1, 2008 | TBA |
| 919 | "Water Flowing Together" | Gwendolen Cates | April 8, 2008 | TBA |
| 920 | "King Corn" | Aaron Woolf | April 15, 2008 | Industrialization of maize farming |
| 921 | "Na Kamalei: The Men of Hula" | Lisette Marie Flanary | May 6, 2008 | TBA |
| 922 | "A Dream in Doubt" | Tami Yeager | May 20, 2008 | TBA |
| 923 | "New Year Baby" | Socheata Poeuv | May 27, 2008 | TBA |
| 924 | "Writ Writer" | Susanne E. Mason | June 3, 2008 | TBA |
| 925 | "The Cool School" | Morgan Neville | June 10, 2008 | TBA |
| 926 | "Deep Water" | Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell | June 15, 2008 | Donald Crowhurst's attempted circumnavigation |
| 927 | "Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story" | Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim | June 19, 2008 | North Korean abduction of Megumi Yokota |
Season 10 (2008-09)
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1001 | "Chicago 10" | Brett Morgen | October 22, 2008 | Chicago Seven trial |
| 1002 | "Dinner With the President" | Sabiha Sumar and S. Sathananthan | October 28, 2008 | Pervez Musharraf |
| 1003 | "Knee Deep" | Michael Chandler | November 6, 2008 | TBA |
| 1004 | "Lioness" | Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers | November 13, 2008 | Women in the United States armed forces |
| 1005 | "March Point" | Annie Silverstein | November 18, 2008 | Swinomish (tribe) |
| 1006 | "The Atom Smashers" | Clayton Brown and Monica Long Ross | November 25, 2008 | Fermilab |
| 1007 | "Doc" | Immy Humes | December 9, 2008 | Harold L. Humes |
| 1008 | "Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic" | Jon H. Else | December 16, 2008 | Opera based on Trinity (nuclear test) |
| 1009 | "Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway" | Albert Maysles Albert Maysles | December 23, 2008 | Making of Grey Gardens (musical) |
| 1010 | "Operation Filmmaker" | Nina Davenport | December 30, 2008 | Making of Everything Is Illuminated (film) |
| 1011 | "Lakshmi and Me" | Nishtha Jain | March 24, 2008 | TBA |
| 1012 | "Helvetica" | Gary Hustwit | January 6, 2009 | Helvetica |
| 1013 | "Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene" | Loren Mendell | February 3, 2009 | TBA |
| 1014 | "Tulia, Texas" | Cassandra Herrman and Kelly Whalen | February 10, 2009 | TBA |
| 1015 | "Order of Myths" | Margaret Brown | February 24, 2009 | Mobile, Alabama's Carnival celebration |
| 1016 | "Arusi Persian Wedding" | Marjan Tehrani | March 17, 2009 | TBA |
| 1017 | "Recycle" | Mahmoud al Massad | March 31, 2009 | TBA |
| 1018 | "Milking the Rhino" | David E. Simpson | April 7, 2009 | TBA |
| 1019 | "Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai" | Alan Dater and Lisa Merton | April 14, 2009 | Wangari Maathai |
| 1020 | "Steal a Pencil for Me" | Michèle Ohayon | May 26, 2009 | TBA |
| 1021 | "At Home in Utopia" | Michal Goldman | April 28, 2009 | TBA |
| 1022 | "Wings of Defeat" | Risa Morimoto | May 5, 2009 | TBA |
| 1023 | "Crips and Bloods: Made in America" | Stacy Peralta | May 12, 2009 | TBA |
| 1024 | "Stranded: The Andes Plane Crash Survivors" | Gonzalo Arijón | May 19, 2009 | TBA |
| 1025 | "Ask Not" | Johnny Symons | June 19, 2009 | Don't ask, don't tell |
Season 11 (2009-10)
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1101 | "Herb & Dorothy" | Megumi Sasaki | October 13, 2009 | TBA |
| 1102 | "Butte, Montana" | Pamela Roberts | October 20, 2009 | Butte, Montana |
| 1103 | "Journals of a Wily School" | Sudeshna Bose | October 27, 2009 | TBA |
| 1104 | "Power Paths" | Bo Boudart | November 3, 2009 | TBA |
| 1105 | "D Tour" | Jim Granato | November 10, 2009 | TBA |
| 1106 | "No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos" | James Chressanthis | November 17, 2009 | TBA |
| 1107 | "Objectified" | Gary Hustwit | November 24, 2009 | TBA |
| 1108 | "Between the Folds" | Vanessa Gould | December 8, 2009 | Origami |
| 1109 | "Scenes from a Parish" | James Rutenbeck | December 29, 2009 | Lawrence, Massachusetts |
| 1110 | "Young@Heart" | Stephen Walker | January 12, 2010 | Young@Heart |
| 1111 | "Copyright Criminals" | Benjamin Franzen | January 19, 2010 | Ramifications of music sampling in hip-hop[2] |
| 1112 | "P-Star Rising" | Gabriel Noble | February 9, 2010 | P-Star |
| 1113 | "Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness" | Llewellyn Smith | February 2, 2010 | TBA |
| 1114 | "Mine" | Geralyn Pezanoski | February 16, 2010 | TBA |
| 1115 | "Behind the Rainbow" | Jihan El Tahri | February 23, 2010 | TBA |
| 1116 | "The Eyes of Me" | Keith Maitland | March 2, 2010 | TBA |
| 1117 | "Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas)" | Monika Navarro | March 23, 2010 | TBA |
| 1118 | "Whatever It Takes" | Christopher Wong | March 30, 2010 | TBA |
| 1119 | "Unmistaken Child" | Nati Baratz | April 7, 2010 | TBA |
| 1120 | "Blessed Is the Match" | Roberta Grossman | April 13, 2010 | TBA |
| 1121 | "Dirt! The Movie" | Bill Benenson and Eugene Rosow | April 20, 2010 | TBA |
| 1122 | "Garbage Dreams" | Mai Iskander | April 27, 2010 | Zabbaleen |
| 1123 | "Sunshine" | Karen Skloss | May 4, 2010 | TBA |
| 1124 | "The Horse Boy" | Michel Scott | May 11, 2010 | TBA |
| 1125 | "Project Kashmir" | Senain Kheshgi and Geeta V. Patel | May 18, 2010 | TBA |
| 1126 | "A Village Called Versailles" | Leo Chiang | May 25, 2010 | TBA |
| 1127 | "Goodbye Solo" | Ramin Bahrani | June 1, 2010 | TBA |
Season 12 (2010-11)
| # | Title | Directed by | Airdate | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1201 | "The Parking Lot Movie" | Meghan Eckman | October 19, 2010 | Parking lot workers |
| 1202 | "Art & Copy" | Doug Pray | October 26, 2010 | Advertising |
| 1203 | "Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian" | Neil Diamond | November 2, 2010 | Portrayal of Native Americans in Film |
| 1204 | "The Longoria Affair" | John J. Valadez | November 9, 2010 | Felix Z. Longoria Jr. |
| 1205 | "Lost Sparrow" | Chris Billing | November 16, 2010 | Child abuse |
| 1206 | "Deep Down" | Sally Rubin and Jen Gilomen | November 23, 2010 | Mountaintop removal mining |
| 1207 | "45365" | Bill Ross and Turner Ross | December 14, 2010 | Sidney, Ohio |
| 1208 | "The Calling: Part 1" | Danny Alpert | December 20, 2010 | Religion in the United States |
| 1209 | "The Calling: Part 2" | Danny Alpert | December 21, 2010 | Religion in the United States |
| 1210 | "Men Who Swim" | Dylan Williams | January 4, 2011 | Synchronized swimming |
| 1211 | "Children of Haiti" | Alexandria Hammond | January 11, 2011 | Orphans in Haiti |
| 1212 | "For Once in My Life" | Jim Bigham and Mark Moormann | February 1, 2011 | Spirit of Goodwill Band and Disability |
| 1213 | "When I Rise" | Mat Hames | February 8, 2011 | Barbara Smith Conrad and Desegregation |
| 1214 | "William S. Burroughs: A Man Within" | Yony Leyser | February 22, 2011 | William S. Burroughs |
| 1215 | "Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story" | Daniel Birman | March 1, 2011 | Juvenile delinquency, sexual abuse |
| 1216 | "Pushing the Elephant" | Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel | March 29, 2011 | Congolese American activist Rose Mapendo |
| 1217 | "The Desert of Forbidden Art" | Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev | April 5, 2011 | Igor Savitsky |
| 1218 | "Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child" | Tamra Davis | April 12, 2011 | Jean-Michel Basquiat |
| 1219 | "Waste Land" | Lucy Walker | April 19, 2011 | Vik Muniz land fill recycling "pickers" |
| 1220 | "Marwencol" | Jeff Malmberg | April 26, 2011 | Mark Hogancamp / Outsider art |
| 1221 | "A Film Unfinished" | Yael Hersonski | May 3, 2011 | History of a Nazi propaganda film on the Warsaw Ghetto |
| 1222 | "Bhutto" | Duane Baughman and Johnny O'Hara | May 10, 2011 | Benazir Bhutto |
| 1223 | "Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo" | Jessica Oreck | May 17, 2011 | Insect aficionados in Japan |
| 1224 | "Welcome to Shelbyville" | Kim A. Snyder | May 24, 2011 | Immigration to the United States |
| 1225 | "Two Spirits" | Lydia Nibley | June 14, 2011 | Two-Spirit people |
Season 13 (2011-12)
| # | Title | Directed by | Airdate | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1301 | "Wham! Bam! Islam!" | Isaac Solotaroff | October 13, 2011 | The 99 |
| 1302 | "Donor Unknown" | Jerry Rothwell | October 20, 2011 | Donor conceived person |
| 1303 | "Lives Worth Living" | Eric Neudel | October 27, 2011 | Disability rights movement |
| 1304 | "Deaf Jam" | Judy Lieff | November 3, 2011 | Deaf Poetry slam |
| 1305 | "We Still Live Here - Âs Nutayuneân" | Anne Makepeace | November 17, 2011 | Saving the language of the Wampanoag people |
| 1306 | "The Woodmans" | C. Scott Willis | December 22, 2011 | Francesca Woodman |
| 1307 | "These Amazing Shadows" | Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton | December 29, 2011 | National Film Registry |
| 1308 | "Have You Heard From Johannesburg? - Episode 1: The Road to Resistance" | Connie Field | January 12, 2012 | South Africa under apartheid |
| 1309 | "Have You Heard From Johannesburg? - Episode 2: The New Generation" | Connie Field | January 12, 2012 | South Africa under apartheid |
| 1310 | "Have You Heard From Johannesburg? - Episode 3: From Selma to Soweto" | Connie Field | January 19, 2012 | South Africa under apartheid |
| 1311 | "Have You Heard From Johannesburg? - Episode 4: The Bottom Line" | Connie Field | January 19, 2012 | South Africa under apartheid |
| 1312 | "Have You Heard From Johannesburg? - Episode 5: Free at Last" | Connie Field | January 26, 2012 | South Africa under apartheid |
| 1313 | "Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock" | Sharon La Cruise | February 2, 2012 | Daisy Bates (civil rights activist) |
| 1314 | "Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" | Goran Hugo Olsson | February 9, 2012 | Black Power movement |
| 1315 | "More Than a Month" | Shukree Hassan Tilghman | February 16, 2012 | Black History Month |
| 1316 | "You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't" | Scott Kirschenbaum | March 29, 2012 | Living with Alzheimer's disease |
| 1317 | "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey" | Constance Marks | April 5, 2012 | Kevin Clash and Elmo |
| 1318 | "When the Drum is Beating" | Whitney Dow | April 12, 2012 | Septentrional and the Music of Haiti |
| 1319 | "Revenge of the Electric Car" | Chris Paine | April 19, 2012 | The re-emergence of the Electric car |
| 1320 | "Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison" | Doug Hawes-Davis | April 26, 2012 | American bison |
| 1321 | "Circo" | Aaron Schock | May 3, 2012 | Mexican Circus family |
| 1322 | "Summer Pasture" | Lynn True, Nelson Walker, Tsering Perlo | May 10, 2012 | Nomads in Eastern Tibet |
| 1323 | "Precious Knowledge" | Ari Luis Palos | May 17, 2012 | Controversy over Ethnic studies in Arizona |
| 1325 | "Left by the Ship" | Emma Rossi Landi and Alberto Vendemmiati | May 24, 2012 | Amerasian children in the Philippines |
| 1324 | "Hell and Back Again" | Danfung Dennis | May 28, 2012 | Sgt. Nathan Harris, veteran of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) |
| 1326 | "We Were Here" | David Weissman | June 14, 2012 | The AIDS crisis in San Francisco |
| 1327 | "Strong!" | Julie Wyman | July 26, 2012 | Former U.S. Olympic weightlifting team member Cheryl Haworth |
Season 14 (2012-13)
"Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" was a special co-presentation between Independent Lens and Show of Force.
Episode 1410 "Kind Hearted Woman" is a co-presentation with the PBS series Frontline (U.S. TV series).
| # | Title | Directed by | Airdate | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -- | "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" | Maro Chermayeff, Jamie Gordon, and Mikaela Beardsley | October 1, 2012 | Half the Sky movement and Women's rights |
| 1401 | "As Goes Janesville" | Brad Lichtenstein | October 8, 2012 | Controversy over 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 and effects of 2008–2012 global recession in Janesville, Wisconsin |
| 1402 | "Love Free or Die" | Macky Alston | October 29, 2012 | Gene Robinson and Homosexuality and Anglicanism |
| 1403 | "Solar Mamas" | Jehane Noujaim and Mona Eldaief | November 5, 2012 | Barefoot College and Women's rights |
| 1404 | "Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream" | Alex Gibney | November 12, 2012 | Wealth inequality in the United States and power |
| 1405 | "Soul Food Junkies" | Byron Hurt | January 14, 2013 | Soul food and Obesity in the United States |
| 1406 | "Beauty is Embarrassing" | Neil Berkeley | January 21, 2013 | Wayne White (artist) |
| 1407 | "The Revisionaries" | Scott Thurman | January 28, 2013 | Texas Education Agency and Intelligent design in politics |
| 1408 | "The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights" | Bonnie Boswell, Christine Khalafian, and Taylor Hamilton | February 18, 2013 | Whitney Young |
| 1409 | "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" | Alison Klayman | February 25, 2013 | Ai Weiwei |
| 1410 | "Kind Hearted Woman" | David R. Sutherland | April 1, 2013 | Domestic violence in Oglala Lakota community. |
| 1411 | "The House I Live In" | Eugene Jarecki | April 8, 2013 | America's War on Drugs |
| 1412 | "Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines" | Kristy Guevara-Flanagan | April 15, 2013 | History of Wonder Woman and other female super heroes. |
| 1413 | "The Island President" | Jon Shenk | April 22, 2013 | Mohamed Nasheed and Climate change |
| 1414 | "The Undocumented" | Marco Williams | April 29, 2013 | Illegal immigration to the United States |
| 1415 | "Seeking Asian Female" | Debbie Lum | May 6, 2013 | Asian fetish and Mail-order bride |
| 1416 | "The Invisible War" | Kirby Dick | May 13, 2013 | Sexual assault in the United States military |
| 1417 | "Detropia" | Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady | May 27, 2013 | Detroit and Urban decay |
| 1418 | "The Revolutionary Optimists" | Nicole Newnham and Maren Grainger-Monsen | June 17, 2013 | Children working to alleviate effects of Poverty in India |
Season 15 (2013-14)
| # | Title | Directed by | Airdate | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1501 | "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey" | Ramona S. Diaz | September 30, 2013 | How Arnel Pineda became lead singer of Journey |
| 1502 | "The Waiting Room" | Pete Nicks | October 21, 2013 | Health care in the United States and Highland Hospital (Oakland, California) |
| 1503 | "The Graduates/Los Graduados" | Bernardo Ruiz | October 28, 2013 | Latinos and high school |
| 1504 | "Indian Relay" | Charles Dye | November 18, 2013 | Native Americans in the United States and horse racing |
| 1505 | "Young Lakota" | Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt | November 25, 2013 | Cecilia Fire Thunder and controversy over Planned Parenthood on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation |
| 1506 | "Playwright: From Page to Stage" | Robert Levi | December 16, 2013 | Playwrights Tarell Alvin McCraney and Rajiv Joseph |
| 1507 | "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" | David Gelb | December 23, 2013 | Sushi master chef Sukiyabashi Jiro |
| 1508 | "How to Survive a Plague" | David France (writer) | December 30, 2013 | AIDS epidemic and grassroots activists ACT UP and TAG |
| 1509 | "At Berkeley" | Frederick Wiseman | January 13, 2014 | University of California, Berkeley |
| 1510 | "Blood Brother" | Steve Hoover | January 20, 2014 | AIDS orphans in India. |
| 1511 | "The State of Arizona" | Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini | January 27, 2014 | Arizona SB 1070 and the debate over immigration in Arizona |
| 1512 | "Spies of Mississippi" | Dawn Porter | February 10, 2014 | Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and Civil rights movement |
| 1513 | "Las Marthas" | Cristina Ibarra | February 17, 2014 | The Laredo, Texas Society of Martha Washington Debutante ball |
| 1514 | "All of Me" | Alexandra Lescaze | March 24, 2014 | Women who met via National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance |
| 1515 | "Medora" | Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart | March 31, 2014 | High school basketball team in Medora, Indiana |
| 1516 | "Brothers Hypnotic" | Reuben Atlas | April 7, 2014 | The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Phil Cohran |
| 1517 | "The Trials of Muhammad Ali" | Bill Siegel | April 14, 2014 | Muhammad Ali’s refusal to serve in Vietnam War and subsequent ban from boxing |
| 1518 | "Muscle Shoals" | Greg Camalier | April 21, 2014 | The famous Muscle Shoals, Alabama music studios FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio |
| 1519 | "A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at The New York Times" | Samantha Grant | May 5, 2014 | Jayson Blair, The New York Times, and plagiarism |
| 1520 | "Let the Fire Burn" | Jason Osder | May 12, 2014 | 1985 standoff between MOVE and Philadelphia Police Department |
| 1521 | "God Loves Uganda" | Roger Ross Williams | May 19, 2014 | International House of Prayer's efforts to spread Christianity and promote Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill |
| 1522 | "The New Black" | Yoruba Richen | June 16, 2014 | African American divide on Same-sex marriage in Maryland and Maryland Question 6 |
Season 16 (2014-15)
| # | Title | Directed by | Airdate | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1601 | "Bully" | Lee Hirsch | October 13, 2014 | Bullying in United States schools |
| 1602 | "Twin Sisters" | Mona Friis Bertheussen | October 20, 2014 | Twins adoption from China to the United States and Norway |
| 1603 | "Brakeless" | Kyoko Miyake | October 27, 2014 | Amagasaki rail crash in Japan |
| 1604 | "Powerless" | Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar | November 3, 2014 | Kanpur, India and Electricity sector in India |
| 1605 | "Happiness" | Thomas Balmès | November 17, 2014 | When television and internet came to Bhutan |
| 1606 | "Rich Hill" | Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos | January 5, 2015 | Challenges, hopes, and dreams of three young residents of a rural, impoverished American town |
| 1607 | "Evolution of a Criminal" | Darius Clark Monroe | January 12, 2015 | Filmmaker explores the Bank robbery he committed as a teenager |
| 1608 | "The Kill Team" | Dan Krauss | January 19, 2015 | Maywand District murders during the War in Afghanistan |
| 1609 | "A Path Appears" | Maro Chermayeff | January 26, 2015 | Sequel to the series based on Half the Sky, as Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn track stories of women overcoming gender-based oppression, sexual violence and sex trafficking |
| 1610 | "Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People" | Thomas Allen Harris | February 16, 2015 | African American photography from American Civil War to present |
| 1611 | "American Denial" | Llewellyn Smith, Christine Herbes-Sommers, and Kelly Thomson | February 23, 2015 | Gunnar Myrdal and unconscious racism in the United States of America |
| 1612 | "Little White Lie" | Lacey Schwartz | March 23, 2015 | A Jewish filmmaker discovers she may also be African-American |
| 1613 | "Little Hope Was Arson" | Theo Love | April 6, 2015 | 2010 East Texas church burnings |
| 1614 | "The Homestretch" | Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly | April 13, 2015 | Homeless teenagers in Chicago |
| 1615 | "The Great Invisible" | Margaret Brown | April 20, 2015 | BP oil spill in the Gulf in 2010 and its aftermath |
| ? | "After the Storm" | ? | April 27, 2015 | "tells the story of what happens in the wake of a devastating tornado that ripped through central Alabama in 2011" |
| 1616 | "Kumu Hina" | Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson | May 4, 2015 | Transgender Hawaiian teacher |
| 1617 | "Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity" | Catherine Gund | May 11, 2015 | Choreographer Elizabeth Streb |
| 1618 | "1971" | Johanna Hamilton | May 18, 2015 | Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, FBI and COINTELPRO |
| 1619 | "Limited Partnership" | Thomas G. Miller and Kirk Marcolina | June 15, 2015 | On one of the first Same-sex marriages, a couple then denied legal status by Immigration and Naturalization Service |
| ? | "In the Shadow of Ebola" | Sarita Siegel and Gregg Mitman | June 22, 2015 | TBA |
Season 17 (2015-16)
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| ? | "Immigration Battle" | Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini | October 20, 2015 |
| 1701 | "Stray Dog"[5] | Debra Granik | November 9, 2015 |
| 1702 | "India’s Daughter"[5] | Leslee Udwin | November 16, 2015 |
| 1703 | "Mimi and Dona"[5] | Sophie Sartain | November 23, 2015 |
| 1704 | "East of Salinas"[5] | Laura Pacheco and Jackie Mow | December 28, 2015 |
| 1705 | "Chuck Norris vs Communism"[5] | Ilinca Calugareanu | January 4, 2016 |
| 1706 | "Autism in Love"[5] | Matt Fuller | January 11, 2016 |
| 1707 | "In Football We Trust" | Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn | January 25, 2016 |
| 1708 | "No Más Bebés (No More Babies)"[5] | Renee Tajima-Peña | February 1, 2016 |
| 1709 | "A Ballerina’s Tale" | Nelson George | February 8, 2016 |
| 1710 | "The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution" | Stanley Nelson | February 16, 2016 |
| 1711 | "(T)ERROR" | Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe | February 22, 2016 |
| 1712 | "Wilhemina’s War" | June Cross | February 29, 2016 |
| 1713 | "An Honest Liar" | Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein | March 28, 2016 |
| 1714 | "Welcome to Leith" | Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker | April 4, 2016 |
| 1715 | "Democrats" | Camilla Nielsson | April 18, 2016 |
| 1716 | "My Nazi Legacy" | David Evans | May 2, 2016 |
| 1717 | "Peace Officer" | Brad Barber and Scott Christopherson | May 9, 2016 |
| 1718 | "The Armor of Light" | Abigail Disney | May 10, 2016 |
| 1719 | "Dogtown Redemption" | Amir Soltani and Chihiro Wimbush | May 16, 2016 |
| 1720 | "Trapped" | Dawn Porter | June 2016 |
| 1721 | "T-Rex: Her Fight for Gold" | Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari | August 2, 2016 |
Season 18 (2016-17)
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1801 | "Best of Enemies"[7] | Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville | October 3, 2016 |
| 1802 | "Meet the Patels"[8] | Ravi Patel and Geeta Patel | December 26, 2016 |
| 1803 | "Best and Most Beautiful Things"[9] | Garrett Zevgetis | January 2, 2017 |
| 1804 | "Containment"[10] | Robb Moss and Peter Galison | January 9, 2017 |
| 1805 | "What Was Ours"[11] | Mat Hames | January 16, 2017 |
| 1806 | "The Witness"[12] | James Solomon | January 23, 2017 |
| 1807 | "Birth of a Movement"[13] | Susan Gray and Bestor Cram | February 6, 2017 |
| 1808 | "Accidental Courtesy"[14] | Matt Ornstein | February 13, 2017 |
| 1809 | "TOWER"[15] | Keith Maitland | February 14, 2017 |
| 1810 | "The Bad Kids"[16] | Lou Pepe and Keith Fulton | March 20, 2017 |
| 1811 | "Ovarian Psycos"[17] | Kate Trumbull-LaValle and Joanna Sokolowski | March 27, 2017 |
| 1812 | "Newtown"[18] | Kim A. Snyder | April 3, 2017 |
| 1813 | "SEED: The Untold Story"[19] | Jon Betz and Taggart Siegel | April 17, 2017 |
| 1814 | "The Last Laugh"[20] | Ferne Pearlstein | April 24, 2017 |
| 1815 | "National Bird"[21] | Sonia Kennebeck | May 1, 2017 |
| 1816 | "The Prison in Seven Landscapes"[22] | Brett Story | May 8, 2017 |
| 1817 | "Forever Pure"[23] | Maya Zinshtein | May 15, 2017 |
| 1818 | "They Call Us Monsters"[24] | Ben Lear | May 22, 2017 |
| 1819 | "Farmer/Veteran"[25] | D.L. Anderson, Alexandra Blair and Jeremy Lange | May 29, 2017 |
| 1820 | "Real Boy"[26] | Shaleece Haas and Charlotte Lagarde | June 19, 2017 |
Season 19 (2017-18)
| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 | "Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary"[28] | John Scheinfeld | November 6, 2017 | |
| The great saxophonist John Coltrane, the man and the musical artist. | ||||
| 1902 | "Shadow World"[29] | Johan Grimonprez | November 20, 2017 | |
| The billion-dollar global arms trade. | ||||
| 1903 | "Supergirl"[30] | Jessie Auritt | December 18, 2017 | |
| The story of Naomi Kutin, an ordinary Orthodox Jewish pre-teen with extraordinary powerlifting talent. | ||||
| 1904 | "The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin"[31] | Jennifer Kroot | January 1, 2018 | |
| The story of writer Armistead Maupin, whose Tales of the City series inspired millions to claim their own truth. | ||||
| 1905 | "Unrest"[32] | Jennifer Brea | January 8, 2018 | |
| Filmmaker Jennifer Brea’s struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. | ||||
| 1906 | "I Am Not Your Negro"[33] | Raoul Peck | January 15, 2018 | |
| The book James Baldwin never finished is envisioned to examine race in America then and now. | ||||
| 1907 | "The Force"[34] | Peter Nicks | January 22, 2018 | |
| Inside the long-troubled Oakland Police Department as it struggles with demands for reform during tumultuous times. | ||||
| 1908 | "I Am Another You"[35] | Nanfu Wang | January 29, 2018 | |
| A charismatic young homeless drifter who left a comfortable home life for a life on the road. | ||||
| 1909 | "Winnie"[36] | Pascale Lamche | February 5, 2018 | |
| The overshadowed life of Winnie Mandela and her contributions to bring down apartheid from the inside. | ||||
| 1910 | "Tell Them We Are Rising"[37] | Stanley Nelson Jr. and Marco Williams | February 19, 2018 | |
| The pivotal role historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have played over the course of 150 years in American history, culture, and identity. | ||||
| 1911 | "Rat Film"[38] | Theo Anthony | February 26, 2018 | |
| The history of Baltimore via the rat and the city's connection between infestations and economic inequity. | ||||
| 1912 | "Dolores"[39] | Peter Bratt | March 27, 2018 | |
| Activist icon Dolores Huerta, who led the fight for racial and labor justice. | ||||
| 1913 | "When God Sleeps"[40] | Till Schauder | April 2, 2018 | |
| A rap-punk-rock documentary about Iranian musician Shahin Najafi, who is forced into hiding after hardline clerics issue a fatwa for his death. | ||||
| 1914 | "The Art of the Shine"[41] | Stacey Tenenbaum | April 9, 2018 | |
| An intimate look at the people around the world who restore dignity and delight to a forgotten profession. | ||||
| 1915 | "What Lies Upstream"[42] | Cullen Hoback | April 16, 2018 | |
| The 2014 Elk River chemical spill (the unprecedented loss of clean water for over 300,000 people in West Virginia). | ||||
| 1916 | "Look & See: Wendell Berry’s Kentucky"[43] | Laura Dunn | April 23, 2018 | |
| Rural America in the era of industrial agriculture, through the eyes of beloved poet and farmer Wendell Berry. | ||||
| 1917 | "True Conviction"[44] | Jamie Meltzer | April 30, 2018 | |
| After a combined 60 years in prison before exoneration, 3 Texans form a detective agency to free other innocent people. | ||||
| 1918 | "No Man’s Land"[45] | David Byars | May 7, 2018 | |
| The 2016 standoff between protesters in Oregon’s Malheur Refuge and federal authorities. | ||||
| 1919 | "ACORN and the Firestorm"[46] | Reuben Atlas and Sam Pollard | May 21, 2018 | |
| A sting to bring down community organizers sets off media frenzy affecting real people on all sides of political divide. | ||||
| 1920 | "Served Like a Girl"[47] | Lysa Heslov | May 28, 2018 | |
| A group of women veterans as they transition from active US military duty to civilian life with its challenges, and their participation in the “Ms. Veteran America” competition. | ||||
Season 20 (2018-19)
| Prod. code[49] | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Original airdate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 1 | "Wildland"[50] | Alex Jablonski and Kahlil Hudson | October 29, 2018 | |
| A firefighting crew training to battle nature's most extraordinary force. | |||||
| 2002 | 2 | "Dawnland"[51] | Adam Mazo and Ben Pender-Cudlip | November 5, 2018 | |
| An untold story of indigenous child removal, the stakes of family separation policy are no less than cultural survival. | |||||
| 2003 | 3 | "The Cleaners"[52] | Moritz Riesewieck and Hans Block | November 12, 2018 | |
| The shadow industry of "content moderators," hired by Silicon Valley leaders to control what we see online. (Duration: 86 min.) | |||||
| 2004 | 4 | "The Judge"[53] | Erika Cohn | November 19, 2018 | |
| The story of the first-ever female judge in Palestine's religious courts who overcame a male-dominated tradition to change minds. (Duration: 81 min.) | |||||
| 2005 | 5 | "Man on Fire"[54] | Joel Fendelman | December 17, 2018 | |
| A community deals with the aftermath of a shocking public suicide. | |||||
| 2009 | 6 | "My Country No More"[55] | Rita Baghdadi and Jeremiah Hammerling | January 7, 2019 | |
| The human cost of the oil boom seen through the intimate lens of a family fighting for their agricultural way of life. | |||||
| 2007 | 7 | "Rodents of Unusual Size"[56] | Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer | January 14, 2019 | |
| The story of the introduction of nutria (20-pound rodents) to Louisiana and the creative efforts being used in the attempts to eradicate them. | |||||
| 2008 | 8 | "RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World"[57] | Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana | January 21, 2019 | |
| The electric story of how Native American influence shaped rock and roll, a missing chapter in music history. (Duration: 86 min.) | |||||
| 2006 | 9A | "The King"[58] | Eugene Jarecki | January 28, 2019 | |
| Climb into Elvis’s 1963 Rolls-Royce for a musical road trip and meditation on modern America. (Duration: 107 min.) | |||||
| - | 9B | "Accident, MD"[59] (short) | Dan Rybicky | January 28, 2019 | |
| A short documentary about America’s healthcare crisis as seen in the town of Accident, Maryland during the summer before the 2016 election. (Duration: 8 min.) | |||||
| 2010 | 10 | "Black Memorabilia"[60] | Chico Colvard | February 4, 2019 | |
| A look at those who reproduce, consume and reclaim racially-charged memorabilia. | |||||
| TBA | 11 | "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"[61] | Morgan Neville | February 9, 2019 | |
| An intimate look at America’s favorite neighbor: Mister Rogers. | |||||
| 2011 | 12A | "Hale County This Morning, This Evening"[62] | RaMell Ross | February 11, 2019 | |
| A journey through the world of Hale County, Alabama, an intimate glimpse into the southern black experience. (Nominated for an Academy Award; Timeslot: 90 min.) | |||||
| - | 12B | "While I Yet Live"[63] (short) | Maris Curran | February 11, 2019 | |
| A short documentary about five acclaimed quilters from Gee's Bend, Alabama as they are quilting and talk about love, religion and their fight for civil rights. | |||||
| 2012 | 13 | "People's Republic of Desire"[64] | Hao Wu | February 25, 2019 | |
| The stunning but lonely world of Chinese live-streaming "showrooms." (Timeslot: 90 min.) | |||||
| 2013 | 14 | "Tre Maison Dasan"[65] | Denali Tiller | April 1, 2019 | |
| Life with a parent in prison through eyes of their children. (Timeslot: 90 min.) | |||||
| 2014 | 15 | "The Providers"[66] | Laura Green & Anna Moot-Levin | April 8, 2019 | |
| Three rural healthcare providers try to make a difference in the lives of their patients against overwhelming odds. (Timeslot: 90 min.) | |||||
| FRON 3710[67] | 16 | "Marcos Doesn't Live Here Anymore"[68] | David Sutherland | April 15, 2019 | |
| This documentary examines the US immigration system through the eyes of a couple (a decorated US Marine veteran and her undocumented husband) separated by deportation. (A special presentation of Independent Lens, FRONTLINE and VOCES; Timeslot: 120 min.) | |||||
| 2015 | 17 | "Charm City"[69] | Marilyn Ness | April 22, 2019 | |
| Meet the people working to stem the tide of violence in Baltimore, in Marilyn Ness's acclaimed documentary. (Timeslot: 90 min.) | |||||
| 2016 | 18 | "Out of State"[70] | Ciara Lacy | May 6, 2019 | |
| Follows the journeys of native Hawaiians in a prison thousands of miles from home. | |||||
| 2017 | 19 | "Harvest Season"[71] | Bernardo Ruiz | May 13, 2019 | |
| Documentary spotlights California’s Latino winemakers and the migrant workers behind every bottle. (Timeslot: 90 min.) | |||||
| 2018 | 20 | "Wrestle"[72] | Suzannah Herbert & Lauren Belfer | May 20, 2019 | |
| An intimate and inspiring portrait of an Alabama high school wrestling team as they face challenges on and off the mat. (Timeslot: 90 min.) | |||||
Season 21 (2019)
| Prod. code[49] | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Original airdate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2101 | 1 | "Made in Boise"[74] | Beth Aala | October 29, 2019 | |
| Four surrogates carry children for intended parents, developing bonds like no other. (Timeslot: 90 min.) | |||||
| 2102[75] | 2 | "Decade of Fire"[76] | Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran | November 4, 2019 | |
| Discover why the Bronx burned in the 1970s displacing a quarter-million residents and meet those who chose to resist, remain and rebuild. | |||||
| 2103 | 3 | "The Interpreters"[77] | Andrés Caballero and Sofian Khan | November 11, 2019 | |
| Meet local interpreters who helped US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, now in danger themselves. | |||||
| 2104 | 4A | "Conscience Point"[78] | Treva Wurmfeld | November 18, 2019 | |
| Development in the Hamptons of Long Island, including mega-mansions and the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club built atop a sacred burial ground, triggers a woman's relentless fight to protect her tribe, the Shinnecock Indian Nation, from the onslaughts of development. (Duration: 74 min.) | |||||
| - | 4B | "Jewel's Hunt"[79] (short) | Alexandra Stergiou | November 18, 2019 | |
| Sixteen-year-old high school student Jewel Wilson explores what it means to come of age as an Inupiat subsistence hunter in Unalakleet, Alaska. (Timeslot: 15 min.) | |||||
| 2105 | 5 | "Attla"[80] | Catharine Axley | December 16, 2019 | |
| The inspiring true story of the one-good-legged legendary Alaska Native dogsled champion George Attla is woven with his coming out of retirement to train his twenty-year-old grandnephew, Joe Bifelt, to compete in one of the world’s largest dogsled sprint races. | |||||
| TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | |
| TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | |
| TBA | TBA | "We Believe in Dinosaurs"[81] | TBA | February 17, 2020 | |
| Ark Encounter, tax breaks, and evolution. | |||||
| TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | |
| TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | |
| 11 | TBA | "Always in Season" | TBA | TBA | |
| Death of Lennon Lacy | |||||
gollark: If you want to know about what *you* should do, then it's more reasonable to ask about the morality of actions, not people, because the people way runs into accursed counterfactuals very fast.
gollark: For that the purpose is probably something like "should you be eternally tortured", which I think the answer to is literally always "no".
gollark: First, consider for what purpose you want to know whether it's "evil" or not to have been that person.
gollark: I don't believe in objective evil and I subscribe to the view that asking whether something is "evil" or not is not very useful because it's a very fuzzy word/category.
gollark: /are doing
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... "Decade of Fire" (INLE) (#2102) ...
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External links
- Independent Television Service: Film Catalog (Major producer of Independent Lens films; alphabetical list)
- Independent Lens Broadcast Schedule
- Independent Lens Film Guide (Searchable by topic or title, for all episodes beginning with season 4)
- Independent Lens Community Cinema (Provides public screenings nationwide of select films from current season)
- Independent Lens Community Classroom (Educator resources and video modules related to select films)
- PBS Pressroom
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