Independent Lens

Trailer | Beyond Utopia

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.

Trailer | Beyond Utopia

30s

  • One With the Whale: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    One With the Whale

    S25 E15 - 1h 18m

    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.

  • Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    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.

  • A Thousand Pines: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    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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