Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s
In Matter of Mind: My Parkinson's, three people navigate their lives with resourcefulness and determination in the face of a degenerative illness, Parkinson’s disease. An optician pursues deep brain stimulation surgery; a mother raising a pre-teen daughter becomes a boxing coach and an advocate for exercise; and a cartoonist contemplates how he will continue to draw as his motor control declines.
Episodes
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Space: The Longest Goodbye
S25 E16 - 1h 24m
NASA's goal to send astronauts to Mars would require a three-year absence from Earth, during which communication in real time would be impossible due to the immense distance. Meet the psychologists whose job is to keep astronauts mentally stable in outer space, as they are caught between their dream of reaching new frontiers and the basic human need to stay connected to home.
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Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s
S25 E14 - 54m 41s
In Matter of Mind: My Parkinson's, three people navigate their lives with resourcefulness and determination in the face of a degenerative illness, Parkinson’s disease. An optician pursues deep brain stimulation surgery; a mother raising a pre-teen daughter becomes a boxing coach and an advocate for exercise; and a cartoonist contemplates how he will continue to draw as his motor control declines.
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A Thousand Pines
S25 E13 - 55m 37s
Over the course of a grueling eight months, a crew of Oaxacan guest workers plant trees throughout the United States. This intimate portrait shows how hard it is to balance the physical demands of reforestation and extreme isolation while staying connected to the family back home.
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Greener Pastures
S25 E12 - 1h 24m
There is a mental health crisis happening for many American farmers. A combination of climate change and the pandemic have contributed to increasing economic uncertainty and isolation. Following four family farms in the Midwest over several years, the documentary Greener Pastures is a story of perseverance and survival within the farming industry in the heartland.
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Breaking The News
S25 E11 - 1h 24m
Who decides which stories get told? A scrappy group of women and LGBTQ+ journalists buck the white male-dominated status quo, banding together to launch The 19th*, a digital news startup aiming to combat misinformation. A story of an America in flux, and the voices often left out of the narrative, the documentary Breaking the News shows change doesn’t come easy.
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Sister Úna Lived a Good Death
S25 E10 - 55m 23s
Following a cancer diagnosis, Sister Úna—a mischievous, rule-breaking Catholic nun dedicated to social justice—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 to live.
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Razing Liberty Square
S25 E9 - 1h 23m
Liberty City, Miami, is home to one of the oldest segregated public housing projects in the U.S. Now with rising sea levels, the neighborhood’s higher ground has become something else: real estate gold. Wealthy property owners push inland to higher ground, creating a speculators’ market in the historically Black neighborhood previously ignored by developers and policy-makers alike.
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Racist Trees
S25 E8 - 1h 23m
Were trees intentionally planted to exclude and segregate a Black neighborhood?
Racial tensions ignite in this documentary, when a historically Black neighborhood in Palm Springs, California, fights to remove a towering wall of tamarisk trees. The trees form a barrier, believed by some to segregate the community, frustrating residents who regard them as an enduring symbol of racism. -
If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis
S25 E18 - 25m 43s
Rural hospitals around America are closing at alarming rates, leaving communities without care. Oscar and Emmy-nominated director Ramin Bahrani visits Appalachia, where American communities are left with limited or no access to healthcare. Explore the rural healthcare crisis in the South through the eyes of those struggling in it and the dedicated doctors trying to reach them.
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Beyond Utopia
S25 E7 - 1h 51m
They grew up believing their land was paradise. Now, they risk everything in escaping it. In an unforgettable documentary, follow families on a treacherous journey to defect from their homeland of North Korea, as the threat of severe punishment and possible execution looms over their passage, revealing a world many have never seen.
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A Town Called Victoria | Episode 3
S25 E6 - 54m 42s
The prosecution presents shocking evidence. As the trial concludes, the engaged citizens of Victoria seek a way to build a more inclusive community.
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A Town Called Victoria | Episode 2
S25 E5 - 54m 12s
With the arson trial near, the suspect’s family argues his innocence. Meanwhile, facets of Victoria reveal the ingredients that might have turned him to hate and support for the town’s Muslim community begins to wane.
Extras + Features
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Trailer | The Tuba Thieves
S25 E17 - 30s
What is the role of sound and what does it mean to listen? Hard of hearing filmmaker Alison O’Daniel uses a series of tuba thefts in Los Angeles high schools as a jumping-off point to explore these questions. Through several d/Deaf people telling stories in a unique game of telephone, the central mystery of The Tuba Thieves isn’t about theft of instruments; it’s about the nature of sound itself.
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Watch Space: The Longest Goodbye with PBS Passport
S25 E16 - 30s
Blast off to Space: The Longest Goodbye, as NASA psychologists prepare astronauts for the extreme isolation required by a Mars mission.
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Trailer | Space: The Longest Goodbye
S25 E16 - 30s
NASA's goal to send astronauts to Mars would require a three-year absence from Earth, during which communication in real time would be impossible due to the immense distance. Meet the psychologists whose job is to keep astronauts mentally stable in outer space, as they are caught between their dream of reaching new frontiers and the basic human need to stay connected to home.
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Trailer | One With the Whale
S25 E15 - 30s
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.
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Trailer | Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s
S25 E14 - 30s
In Matter of Mind: My Parkinson's, three people navigate their lives with resourcefulness and determination in the face of a degenerative illness, Parkinson’s disease. An optician pursues deep brain stimulation surgery; a mother raising a pre-teen daughter becomes a boxing coach and an advocate for exercise; and a cartoonist contemplates how he will continue to draw as his motor control declines.
-
Trailer | A Thousand Pines
S25 E13 - 30s
Over the course of a grueling eight months, a crew of Oaxacan guest workers plant trees throughout the United States. This intimate portrait shows how hard it is to balance the physical demands of reforestation and extreme isolation while staying connected to the family back home.
-
Trailer | Greener Pastures
S25 E12 - 30s
Following four multigenerational family farms in the Midwest over several years, Greener Pastures is a story of perseverance and survival within the farming industry in the heartland.
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RIP Local News
S25 E11 - 9m 3s
Some of the biggest news stories in our country were revealed by local journalists; from early 20th century lynchings to the Rodney King beating to the murder of Breonna Taylor, local news was there first. But as budgets drop and outlets disappear, this type of coverage is in jeopardy.
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Spring Season Trailer 2024 | Coming to Independent Lens
S25 - 1m
We’re blooming this spring with a lineup of docs, including Matter of Mind: My Parkinson's, Space: The Longest Goodbye, One With The Whale, and The Tuba Thieves. Stream Independent Lens with the PBS App.
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How Did Opinions Get In Our News?
S25 E11 - 7m 44s
Even though objectivity is seen as the gold standard for news coverage, OpEds and commentary have been part of the news landscape since the early days of America – and it's not always easy to spot the difference between facts and opinion.
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Has Journalism Always Been This Stressful?
S25 E11 - 8m 52s
As news evolved over the last 40 years from a single daily paper or nightly news show to something that's pushed 24/7, a mental health crisis has taken shape in our newsrooms as journalists race to cover traumatic events and get the most views.
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How Did This Women-Owned Newspaper Revolutionize Journalism?
S25 E11 - 7m 8s
In 1850s America, one women-led newsroom blazed a trail for women's rights, shifting the media landscape and ultimately affecting how we see and cover "women's" issues today.
Schedule
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Independent Lens
TikTok, Boom.
Tuesday
Apr 16
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Dissecting TikTok, one of the most influential platforms of the social media landscape. -
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Independent Lens
A Reckoning in Boston
Tuesday
Apr 16
1 Hour 30 Minutes
A white filmmaker collaborates with students enrolled in Boston's Clemente Course in the Humanities to explore violence, racism and gentrification in Boston. -
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Independent Lens
Matter of Mind: My ALS
Wednesday
Apr 17
1 Hour
Three people face different paths as they live with the progressively debilitating illness ALS -- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. -
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Independent Lens
Matter of Mind: My ALS
Wednesday
Apr 17
1 Hour
Three people face different paths as they live with the progressively debilitating illness ALS -- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. -
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Independent Lens
One With the Whale
Tuesday
Apr 23
1 Hour 30 Minutes
An Alaska native family is blindsided when their son, the youngest ever to harpoon a whale for his village, is targeted by animal activists. -
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Independent Lens
One With the Whale
Tuesday
Apr 23
1 Hour 30 Minutes
An Alaska native family is blindsided when their son, the youngest ever to harpoon a whale for his village, is targeted by animal activists. -
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Independent Lens
One With the Whale
Wednesday
Apr 24
1 Hour 30 Minutes
An Alaska native family is blindsided when their son, the youngest ever to harpoon a whale for his village, is targeted by animal activists. -
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Independent Lens
One With the Whale
Wednesday
Apr 24
1 Hour 30 Minutes
An Alaska native family is blindsided when their son, the youngest ever to harpoon a whale for his village, is targeted by animal activists. -
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Independent Lens
Ferguson Rises
Wednesday
Apr 24
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Michael Brown Sr. seeks justice and healing after his son is killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. -
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Independent Lens
One With the Whale
Wednesday
Apr 24
1 Hour 30 Minutes
An Alaska native family is blindsided when their son, the youngest ever to harpoon a whale for his village, is targeted by animal activists. -
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Independent Lens
One With the Whale
Thursday
Apr 25
1 Hour 30 Minutes
An Alaska native family is blindsided when their son, the youngest ever to harpoon a whale for his village, is targeted by animal activists. -
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Independent Lens
One With the Whale
Thursday
Apr 25
1 Hour 30 Minutes
An Alaska native family is blindsided when their son, the youngest ever to harpoon a whale for his village, is targeted by animal activists. -
Image
Independent Lens
One With the Whale
Saturday
Apr 27
1 Hour 30 Minutes
An Alaska native family is blindsided when their son, the youngest ever to harpoon a whale for his village, is targeted by animal activists. -
Image
Independent Lens
One With the Whale
Saturday
Apr 27
1 Hour 30 Minutes
An Alaska native family is blindsided when their son, the youngest ever to harpoon a whale for his village, is targeted by animal activists. -
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Independent Lens
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary
Sunday
Apr 28
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Events, passions and experiences that impacted the life and music of jazz artist John Coltrane. -
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Independent Lens
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary
Tuesday
Apr 30
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Events, passions and experiences that impacted the life and music of jazz artist John Coltrane.
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