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The Best Episodes of Independent Lens

Every episode of Independent Lens ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Independent Lens!

The Best Episodes of Independent Lens

This acclaimed Emmy Award-winning anthology series features documentaries and a limited number of fiction films united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement and unflinching visions...

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  1. 9.5/10(15 votes)

    #1 - Taking the Heat: The First Women Firefighters of New York City

    S7:E18

    No description available

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  2. 9.4/10(22 votes)

    #2 - Almost Home

    S7:E15

    No description available

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  3. 9.3/10(62 votes)

    #3 - Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life

    S8:E14

    No description available

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  4. 9.2/10(28 votes)

    #4 - Fishbowl; American Made

    S7:E23

    No description available

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  5. 9.0/10(1 votes)

    #5 - 1971

    S16:E17

    The story of the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, which broke into an FBI field office in Media, Pa., on the night of March 8, 1971, and stole hundreds of secret files that they then shared with members of Congress and the news media. Among the finds: evidence that the FBI spied on dissident political groups. The documentary includes remarks from members of the Citizens' Commission.

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  6. 8.9/10(19 votes)

    #6 - India's Daughter

    S17:E2

    The story of the brutal gang rape and murder in Delhi of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh, which sparked outrage and protests in India, a country beset by extreme poverty and gender inequality.

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    Director:Leslee Udwin
    Writer:N/A
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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Independent Lens

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  8. 8.8/10(6 votes)

    #7 - Love in the Time of Fentanyl

    S24:E9

    As fentanyl overdose deaths in Vancouver, Canada reach an all-time high, the Overdose Prevention Society opens its doors—a renegade safe injection site that employs current or former drug users. Its staff and volunteers save lives and give hope to a marginalized community, doing whatever it takes to remain open in this intimate documentary that looks beyond the stigma of injection drug users.

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  9. 8.7/10(8 votes)

    #8 - China Blue

    S8:E20

    They live crowded together in cement factory dormitories where water has to be carried upstairs in buckets. Their meals and rent are deducted from their wages, which amount to less than a dollar a day. Most of the jeans they make in the factory are purchased by retailers in the U.S. and other countries. China Blue takes viewers inside a blue jeans factory in southern China, where teenage workers struggle to survive harsh working conditions. Providing perspectives from both the top and bottom levels of the factory’s hierarchy, the film looks at complex issues of globalization from the human level. China Blue, which was made without permission from the Chinese authorities, offers an alarming report on the economic pressures applied by Western companies and the resulting human consequences, as the real profits are made—and kept—in first-world countries. The unexpected ending makes the connection between the exploited workers and U.S. consumers even clearer.

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  10. 8.6/10(10 votes)

    #9 - July '64

    S7:E14

    July ’64 tells the story of a historic three-day race riot that erupted in two African American neighborhoods in the northern, mid-sized city of Rochester, New York. On the night of July 24, 1964, frustration and resentment brought on by institutional racism, overcrowding, lack of job opportunity and police dog attacks exploded in racial violence that brought Rochester to its knees. Directed by Carvin Eison and produced by Chris Christopher, JULY ’64 combines historic archival footage, news reports and interviews with witnesses and participants to dig deeply into the causes and effects of the historic disturbance.

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    Director:Carvin Eison
    Writer:N/A
  11. 8.6/10(55 votes)

    #10 - Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes

    S8:E16

    Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes is a 2006 documentary film written, produced, and directed by Byron Hurt. The documentary explores the issues of masculinity, violence, homophobia and sexism in hip hop music and culture, through interviews with artists, academics and fans. Hurt's activism in gender issues and his love of hip-hop caused him to feel what he described as a sense of hypocrisy, and began working on the film.

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  12. 8.6/10(20 votes)

    #11 - Muscle Shoals

    S15:E17

    How a small town in Alabama became influential in the music of Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Aretha Franklin.

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  13. 8.6/10(8 votes)

    #12 - Matter of Mind: My ALS

    S24:E13

    Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neuromuscular disease with an average survival time of 2-5 years from diagnosis. In this intimate exploration, three people with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, bravely face different paths as they live with this progressively debilitating illness.

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  14. 8.6/10(15 votes)

    #13 - Beyond Utopia

    S25:E7

    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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  15. 8.5/10(47 votes)

    #14 - A Touch of Greatness

    S6:E10

    No description available

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  16. 8.5/10(7 votes)

    #15 - We Were Here

    S13:E26

    When AIDS arrived in San Francisco in 1981, it decimated a community, but also brought people together in inspiring and moving ways to support and care for one another and to fight for dignity and a cure.

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  17. 8.4/10(54 votes)

    #16 - Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?

    S8:E17

    Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? is a 2006 documentary film written by Matt Coen, Mike Kime and Frank Popper and directed by Frank Popper.

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  18. 8.4/10(24 votes)

    #17 - Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian

    S12:E3

    The portrayal of Native Americans in cinema. / Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond takes an entertaining, insightful, and often humorous look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through a century of cinema and examining the myth of "the Injun." Narrated by Diamond with infectious enthusiasm and good humor, this film is a loving look at cinema through the eyes of the people who appeared in its very first flickering images and have survived to tell their stories their own way.

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  19. 8.4/10(8 votes)

    #18 - How to Survive a Plague

    S15:E7

    This acclaimed film tells the story of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group), two groups whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these determined activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry to help identify promising new drugs and move them from experimental trials to patients. With unfettered access to a treasure trove of never-before-seen archival footage, the film reveals the controversial actions, heated meetings, heartbreaking failures and exultant breakthroughs of heroes in the making. By David France.

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  20. 8.4/10(9 votes)

    #19 - Hale County This Morning, This Evening

    S20:E11

    RaMell Ross's Hale County This Morning, This Evening, one of the year's most critically acclaimed films, is a dreamy and intimate journey through the world of Hale County, Alabama, a richly detailed glimpse into life in America’s Black Belt.

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  21. 8.4/10(53 votes)

    #20 - WE WANT THE FUNK!

    S26:E15

    WE WANT THE FUNK! is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning from African, soul, and early jazz roots, to its rise into the public consciousness. Featuring James Brown's dynamism, the extraterrestrial funk of George Clinton's Parliament Funkadelic, transformed girl group Labelle, and Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, the story also traces funk's influences on both new wave and hip-hop.

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  22. 8.3/10(11 votes)

    #21 - Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream

    S14:E6

    No description available

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    Director:Alex Gibney
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  23. 8.3/10(19 votes)

    #22 - The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

    S17:E10

    Weaving together a treasure trove of rare footage with the voices of a diverse group of people who were there, Stanley Nelson tells the vibrant story of a pivotal movement as urgent today as it was then.

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  24. 8.3/10(13 votes)

    #23 - What Was Ours

    S18:E5

    Residents of Wyoming's isolated Wind River Indian Reservation, a young Arapaho journalist, and a teenage powwow princess travel with a Shoshone elder to search for missing artifacts in the vast archives of Chicago's Field Museum. There they discover a treasure trove of ancestral objects, setting them on a journey to recover what has been lost, and build hope for the future.

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  25. 8.3/10(11 votes)

    #24 - 9to5: The Story of a Movement

    S22:E7

    When Dolly Parton sang “9 to 5,” she was singing about a real movement that started with a group of secretaries in the early 1970s. Their goals were simple—better pay, more advancement opportunities and an end to sexual harassment—but as seen in 9to5: The Story of a Movement, their fight that inspired a hit would change the American workplace forever.

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  26. 8.2/10(42 votes)

    #25 - Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew

    S5:E16

    Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew is a film portrait of the now famous jazz vocalist who was "rediscovered" decades after he disappeared from the public eye. The documentary blends concert footage, rare photos and candid interviews with Jimmy Scott, his family and his colleagues.

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Best Episodes Summary

"Taking the Heat: The First Women Firefighters of New York City" is the best rated episode of "Independent Lens". It scored 9.5/10 based on 15 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 3/28/2006. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "Almost Home".