The Tuba Thieves
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.
Episodes
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The Tuba Thieves
S25 E17 - 1h 25m
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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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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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.
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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.
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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Can Humans Get to Mars Without Going Insane?
S25 E16 - 12m 32s
Humanity's first Martian explorers will face extreme confinement, isolation and disruption of all bodily rhythms. The psychological stress from all of this could lead to a breakdown of social order among those on the mission – even mutiny. Are there lessons that can be learned about this from terrestrial explorers of the past?
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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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What an Antarctic Disaster Can Teach Us About Getting to Mars
S25 E16 - 15m 9s
A manned mission to Mars presents a huge array of challenges for scientists and explorers to figure out. Chief among them: how to keep humans sane and relatively content on the isolating, confining, and potentially years long journey to the red planet and back. Turns out, explorers from generations ago here on Earth survived similar challenges that tomorrow's astronauts can learn from.
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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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Extended Trailer | Space: The Longest Goodbye
S25 E16 - 1m
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Schedule
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Image
Independent Lens
No Straight Lines
Saturday
Jun 8
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Cartoonists provide a window into LGBTQ lives from the 1970s onward. -
Image
Independent Lens
No Straight Lines
Sunday
Jun 9
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Cartoonists provide a window into LGBTQ lives from the 1970s onward. -
Image
Independent Lens
No Straight Lines
Sunday
Jun 9
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Cartoonists provide a window into LGBTQ lives from the 1970s onward. -
Image
Independent Lens
No Straight Lines
Sunday
Jun 9
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Cartoonists provide a window into LGBTQ lives from the 1970s onward. -
Image
Independent Lens
Cured
Monday
Jun 10
1 Hour
Activists fight the psychiatry establishment over labeling homosexuality as a mental illness that needs to be "cured." -
Image
Independent Lens
Mama Bears
Monday
Jun 10
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Although conservative, Christian beliefs have defined their lives, mothers fight for the rights of their LGBTQ+ children. -
Image
Independent Lens
Cured
Tuesday
Jun 11
1 Hour
Activists fight the psychiatry establishment over labeling homosexuality as a mental illness that needs to be "cured." -
Image
Independent Lens
Mama Bears
Tuesday
Jun 11
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Although conservative, Christian beliefs have defined their lives, mothers fight for the rights of their LGBTQ+ children. -
Image
Independent Lens
Cured
Tuesday
Jun 11
1 Hour
Activists fight the psychiatry establishment over labeling homosexuality as a mental illness that needs to be "cured." -
Image
Independent Lens
Mama Bears
Tuesday
Jun 11
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Although conservative, Christian beliefs have defined their lives, mothers fight for the rights of their LGBTQ+ children. -
Image
Independent Lens
Cured
Saturday
Jun 15
1 Hour
Activists fight the psychiatry establishment over labeling homosexuality as a mental illness that needs to be "cured." -
Image
Independent Lens
Mama Bears
Sunday
Jun 16
1 Hour 30 Minutes
Although conservative, Christian beliefs have defined their lives, mothers fight for the rights of their LGBTQ+ children. -
Image
Independent Lens
Sunday
Jun 16
1 Hour 30 Minutes
As the title suggests, a series of documentaries resembles an independent film festival in its diversity of subject matter, from hula dancing to crossword mania as captured by a roster of edgy and creative filmmakers.
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