Independent Lens - Season 9
Episode List
E1 - Wordplay
Aired: October 16, 2007
Fifty million Americans do crossword puzzles each week, many in the venerable New York Times , where Will Shortz has been editor for 12 years. "Wordplay" presents an entertaining and informative look at Shortz' work and that of the puzzle constructors with whom he collaborates, as well as coverage of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, an annual competition founded by Shortz, that profiles a number of intelligent and ingratiating contestants.
E2 - Please Vote for Me
Aired: October 23, 2007
This film follows eight-year-old students in an elementary school in China as they campaign for school monitor. This is the first election for a class leader to be held in a school in China. The three candidates campaign, holding debates and showing their intellectual and artistic skills, until one is voted the winner.
E3 - Storm of Emotions
Aired: October 30, 2007
This is a film explores the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip and efforts to achieve democracy amidst great social and political turmoil. Told from the perspective of the Israeli police force, this film explores how these individuals try to balance their emotions, beliefs and conscience while attempting to maintain civil order and a democratic outcome.
E4 - Red White Black & Blue
Aired: November 06, 2007
U.S. soldiers who fought on the island of Attu in Alaska during WWII journey back to the location.
E5 - Miss Navajo
Aired: November 13, 2007
E6 - The Creek Runs Red
Aired: November 20, 2007
E8 - The Paper
Aired: December 11, 2007
Chronicles the pressure of a year in the life of Pennsylvania State University's Daily Collegian.
E9 - An Unreasonable Man
Aired: December 18, 2007
This program offers an unsparing look at Ralph Nader, one of the most important and controversial political figures of our time.
E10 - Today's Man
Aired: January 08, 2008
E11 - A Son's Sacrifice
Aired: January 22, 2008
Dr. Jack Kessler, a prominent neurologist, shifts his diabetes research to stem cell research when his daughter is paralyzed from the waist down. The program brings the stem cell debate to the forefront and examines the constantly evolving interplay between the promise of new discoveries, the controversy of modern science and the courage of people living with devastating disease and injury.
E12 - American Made
Aired: January 22, 2008
E13 - How Is Your Fish Today?
Aired: January 29, 2008
While working on his latest screenplay in Beijing, Hui Rao experiences writer's block and begins to live the life of the character he is trying to create.
E14 - Banished
Aired: February 19, 2008
E15 - Hard Road Home
Aired: February 26, 2008
Banished is a documentary film about four U.S. cities, which were part of many communities that violently forced African American families to flee in post-reconstruction America. In incidents which took place in Texas, Missouri, Georgia and Indiana between 1886 and 1923.
E16 - Iron Ladies of Liberia
Aired: March 18, 2008
Follows two former felons in different stages of life "on the outside." / Examines the challenges faced by ex-convicts as they adjust to life after incarceration. The film focuses on the Exodus Transitional Community, a New York City-based organization (founded by Julio Medina).
E17 - CompaƱeras
Aired: April 01, 2008
With unprecedented access, this intimate documentary goes behind the scenes with Africa's first freelyelected female head of state, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, president of Liberia. The film explores the challenges facing the new president and the extraordinary women surrounding her as they develop and implement policy to rebuild their ravaged country and prevent a descent back into civil war.
E18 - Water Flowing Together
Aired: April 08, 2008
E19 - Water Flowing Together
Aired: April 08, 2008
Jock Soto, who is Navajo Indian and Puerto Rican as well as gay, retired in June 2005 from the New York City Ballet after a 24-year career; this story climaxes with his emotional retirement at age 40. This is not a film solely for a ballet audience; it is also an exploration of identity, heritage, transition and family.
E20 - Na Kamalei: The Men of Hula
Aired: May 06, 2008
King Corn is a feature documentary film released in October 2007 following college friends Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis as they move to Greene, Iowa to grow and farm an acre of corn. In the process, Cheney and Ellis examine the role that the increasing production of corn has for American society. The film shows how the industrialization of corn has all but eliminated the family farm, which is being replaced by larger and larger industrial farms. This trend reflects a larger industrialization of the North American food system, whereby, as was outlined in the film, decisions relating to what crops are grown, and how they are grown, are based more on economic considerations than their ramifications on the environment or the population. This is demonstrated in the film by the production of high fructose corn syrup, an ingredient found in many cheap food products, such as fast food. The two return to the same small town that was coincidentally home to both of their great-grandfathers.
E21 - A Dream in Doubt
Aired: May 20, 2008
E22 - New Year Baby
Aired: May 27, 2008
E23 - The Cool School
Aired: June 10, 2008
This film follows one woman's quest to uncover the secrets of how her family survived the Khmer Rouge genocide. Socheata Poeuv's family survived the Killing Fields, escaped across the border and became Americans. She searches for the truth about what her family escaped from and why her history has been buried in secrecy for so long.
E24 - Writ Writer
Aired: June 03, 2008
Reveals a little-known battle of the Civil Rights Movement, led by an indigent, under-educated prisoner. Texas-born, Mexican American Fred Cruz came of age and found his life's calling in prison, where the sanctioned cruelty and brutality among inmates and guards moved him to fight the state prison system in the court of law.
E25 - Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story
Aired: June 19, 2008
E26 - Deep Water
Aired: June 15, 2008
The amazing and compelling true story of the fateful voyage of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur yachtsman who enters the most daring nautical challenge ever - the very first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race. Through re-enactments and interviews with family and friends, the viewer witnesses Crowhurst's maritime inexperience and eventually an ending that shocked a nation.
E27 - Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story
Aired: June 19, 2008
A Japanese family searches for their daughter who was abducted by North Korean spies in 1977. / Recalls the 1977 kidnapping of schoolgirl Megumi Yokota from her Japanese hometown by North Korean agents, who took her to North Korea.