Indie Films

Independent Lens

Authentic stories. Extraordinary people.

And So It Begins

1h 23m

And So It Begins follows the Philippines’ turbulent 2022 presidential race, with the son of ousted former dictator Ferdinand Marcos waging a combative social media campaign against his more progressive opponent, incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo. Following it all is independent journalist and Nobel-winner Maria Ressa, with an eye toward the specter of increasing autocracy.

  • LA Street Food, South Asian Style | Spice Road, Episode 4: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    LA Street Food, South Asian Style | Spice Road, Episode 4

    16m 31s

    Actor Rupak Ginn returns home to Los Angeles, where he dines on Desi street food delicacies with a twist at Paratta. He joins friend actor/writer/comedian Kiran Deol at a South Asian grocery store to shop, while pondering the future of South Asians in America, and then share hearty laughs and heartfelt conversation over a delicious meal. LA Street Food, South Asian Style | Spice Road, Episode 4

  • Back to the Motherland-ish | Spice Road, Episode 3: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Back to the Motherland-ish | Spice Road, Episode 3

    20m 51s

    The ancestors are calling as actor Rupak Ginn (Royal Pains) heads to New Jersey to dine with actor/writer Sheetal Sheth (The World Unseen) at Mejwaani, a Maharashtrian restaurant, in honor of his mother's heritage. He then travels to his hometown of New York for a mom-cooked meal—and to ask his parents some pressing questions. Back to the Motherland-ish | Spice Road, Episode 3

  • Southern Fried Tikka Masala | Spice Road, Episode 2: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Southern Fried Tikka Masala | Spice Road, Episode 2

    16m 31s

    Pani puri, pakoras, and… pageants? Actor Rupak Ginn (Royal Pains) travels to Taaza, an Indian restaurant tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southern Virginia. There he discovers how his African American wife Nancy Redd’s heritage intersects with his own, and how people and cultures strive to stay alive. Southern Fried Tikka Masala | Spice Road, Episode 2

  • Tandoori Truck Stop | Spice Road, Episode 1: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Tandoori Truck Stop | Spice Road, Episode 1

    16m 8s

    What do truckers and tandooris have in common? Actor Rupak Ginn (Royal Pains) travels to the highly-acclaimed Punjabi Dhaba in Bakersfield, California, to find out. He learns about immigrant Balvinder Singh Saini’s journey from truck driver to dhaba owner and is joined by celebrated actor and comedian, Nik Dodani (Dear Evan Hansen, Escape Room). Tandoori Truck Stop | Spice Road, Episode 1

  • Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go

    11m 54s

    Exploring the field of “climate psychology,” Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go is a candid and comedic self-portrait in which the filmmaker turns the camera on herself and goes in search of a cure for her crippling climate anxiety. This personal documentary asks how we can find a space of emotional balance, where we can stay attentive to the climate crisis without becoming debilitated by it.

  • Maletero: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Maletero

    15m 32s

    Luciano, once an immigrant himself, now makes a living as a maletero, a porter driving across the border, delivering goods from immigrants who settled in Texas to their families in the same Mexican town they all left decades ago.

  • Underground: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Underground

    9m 46s

    The hustle and bustle of New York City subways provides a veil of anonymity, making invasions of personal space inevitable. There are innocuous interactions, but also violations that cross the line. Vividly shot in New York subways and stations, Underground emboldens the survivors of these incidents to share their stories in hopes of changing the stigma surrounding public violations.

  • The Command Center to Bring Women Home: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Command Center to Bring Women Home

    20m 58s

    Through a collaborative writing process with filmmakers, three women bring to life “The Command Center to Bring Women Home,” an imagined space run by formerly incarcerated women for those with nowhere else to turn but to each other, a place where mothers can reunite and heal with their children, and women are able to hold and comfort one another.

  • Brother: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Brother

    14m 21s

    A filmmaker's intimate phone calls with her brother explore his fragile recovery from opioid addiction.
    Using imaginative animation, they journey both into the cosmos—a place her brother has encyclopedic knowledge about—and an all-too-real world where shame and pain take their toll.

  • Our League: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Our League

    36m 38s

    Following an extended hiatus, Michelle Guzowski takes a risk by returning to her favorite local bowling alley in the Ohio Rust Belt, after coming out to fellow bowlers as a trans woman. While the alley's new owners made it seem a welcoming space, the changes are hard for old-school bowlers.

  • Folk Frontera: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Folk Frontera

    14m 8s

    Far West Texas is a place where local folklore looms as large as the landscape. Two fronteriza women—one a public radio music show host, the other a Mariachi and folklórico dancer—live in two cultures at the same time, as they struggle to find their place in the vast Chihuahuan Desert. Touches of magical realism infuse this portrait of life along the U.S.- Mexico border.

  • When I'm Her: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    When I'm Her

    14m 30s

    When I'm Her follows the double life of a dancer who inhabits an alter ego. A luminary figure at American Ballet Theatre in New York, Michael Cusumano had a stellar career ahead of him, but after past trauma prevented him from realizing his artistic and professional potential, he finds refuge and liberation by becoming Russian ballet instructor Madame Olga, the mentor he never had for himself.

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