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s27e14 · 2026-07-14
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Independent Lens
PBS Documentary
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Independent Lens is an anthology of independent documentary films.
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18 this season · 560 totals24e01 Hazing 2022-09-13 02:00
Hazing
Hazing is a widespread, far-reaching practice fueled by tradition, secrecy, groupthink, power, and the desire to belong in fraternities and sororities on college campuses across the U.S. Filmmaker Byron Hurt embarks on a deeply personal journey to understand the underground rituals of hazing, revealing the abuse and the lengths college students will go to fit in.
s24e02 TikTok, Boom. 2022-10-25 02:00
TikTok, Boom.
What does it mean to be a digital native? TikTok, Boom. dissects the platform along myriad cross-sections—algorithmic, socio-political, economic, and cultural—to explore the impact of the history-making app. Balancing a genuine interest with healthy skepticism, delve into the security issues, global political challenges, and racial biases behind the platform.
s24e03 Move Me 2022-11-08 03:00
Move Me
At 27, Kelsey Peterson dove into Lake Superior as a dancer and emerged paralyzed. But within the Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) community, she found allies in her quest to discover who she is now and to dance with disability. When a cutting-edge trial surfaces, it tests her expectations of a possible cure. She finds herself both scared it might not work—and scared that it might.
s24e04 Children of Las Brisas 2023-01-03 03:00
Children of Las Brisas
Young musicians in a youth orchestra in Venezuela's Las Brisas district strive for a better life through classical music.
s24e05 The Big Payback 2023-01-17 03:00
The Big Payback
Robin Rue Simmons and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) pressure the government to deliver monetary justice for Blacks harmed by chattel slavery, systemic injustice and corporate exploitation.
s24e06 No Straight Lines 2023-01-24 03:00
No Straight Lines
When Alison Bechdel received a coveted MacArthur Award for her best-selling graphic memoir Fun Home, it heralded the acceptance of LGBTQ+ comics in American culture. From DIY underground comix scene to mainstream acceptance, meet five smart and funny queer comics artists whose uncensored commentary left no topic untouched and explored art as a tool for social change.
s24e07 The Picture Taker 2023-01-31 03:00
The Picture Taker
The vibrant life of Ernest Withers—civil rights photographer, and FBI informant—was anything but black and white. From his Memphis studio, Withers' nearly 2 million images were a treasured record of Black history but his legacy was complicated by decades of secret FBI service revealed only after his death. Was he a friend of the civil rights community, or enemy—or both?
s24e08 Outta the Muck 2023-02-07 03:00
Outta the Muck
Wade into the rich soil of Pahokee, Florida, a town on the banks of Lake Okeechobee. Beyond its football legacy, including sending over a dozen players to the NFL (like Anquan Boldin, Fred Taylor, and Rickey Jackson), the fiercely self-determined community tells their stories of Black achievement and resilience in the face of tragic storms and personal trauma.
s24e09 Love in the Time of Fentanyl 2023-02-14 03:00
Love in the Time of Fentanyl
As fentanyl overdose deaths in Vancouver, Canada reach an all-time high, the Overdose Prevention Society opens its doors—a renegade safe injection site that employs current or former drug users. Its staff and volunteers save lives and give hope to a marginalized community, doing whatever it takes to remain open in this intimate documentary that looks beyond the stigma of injection drug users.
s24e10 Storming Caesars Palace 2023-03-21 02:00
Storming Caesars Palace
After losing her job as a hotel worker in Las Vegas, Ruby Duncan joined a welfare rights group of mothers who defied notions of the 'welfare queen.' In a fight for guaranteed income, Ruby and other equality activists took on the Nevada mob in organizing a massive protest that shut down Caesars Palace.
s24e11 Hidden Letters 2023-03-28 02:00
Hidden Letters
For centuries in China, the once-secret written language of Nüshu was calligraphed on folded fans and handkerchiefs as hidden letters so women could share stories and express solidarity in a repressive era when many women were denied literacy. Confronting patriarchy, two modern women find solace in Nüshu, rediscovering connections between traditional Chinese womanhood and contemporary feminism.
s24e12 Free Chol Soo Lee 2023-04-25 02:00
Free Chol Soo Lee
The rollercoaster life story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant wrongfully convicted of murder.