Every season of Independent Lens ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best seasons of Independent Lens!

Wannabe: Life and Death in a Small Town Gang

Nothing but the Truth

Visas and Virtues; I Am Viet Hung

The Man Who Drove with Mandela

The Jew in the Lotus

Holy Tortilla/Lock and Key

Secret People

I Can't Believe I Married a Lesbian

Now & Then: From Frosh to Seniors

No Hair Day

Short Stories

Born in the USA

Girl Gone Bad

Passing Through; Graham's Diner

The Return of Navajo Boy

Music in Their Bones

In Harm's Way; Carved from the Heart

A Wok in Progress

Confederacy Theory

Who Owns the Past?

Secrets of Silicon Valley

Gibtown

Abandoned: The Betrayal of America's Immigrants

Good Kurds, Bad Kurds

Open Outcry

The Split Horn

Undetectable

Romancing the Throne

Maggie Growls

“Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story,” a wry exploration of the industry in which record producers set amateurs' poems to music and record them (for a fee, of course). Included are interviews with producers, performers, observers and people who have submitted their poems for musical adaptation. And there's a sampling of the results (examples include “Non-Violent Tae-kwon-do Trooper” and “I Am a Ginseng Digger”). Most songs are “in one ear and out the other,” says musician Ellery Eskelin (the son of a song-poem “auteur”). But, he adds, “There's the 10 or 20 percent that are from another planet.”

Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story

On an isolated Maine island of 350 people, a clash over arts education spins out of control into vandalism and death threats, tearing apart friends and neighbors. Sigourney Weaver narrates this program following a former Broadway producer as he creates a musical to help the community heal its wounds through songs about lobstering, loneliness and the beauty of the sea.

On This Island

Since the 1980s, the rural working class town of North Adams, Massachusetts, has struggled to kick-start its economy following the mill closings. This program explores how, with the 1999 opening of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the town has united its blue collar base with visionaries from the art world to reinvent itself in the post-industrial economy.

Downside Up

Los Trabajadores/The Workers

Chiefs

Strange Fruit

Bird by Bird with Annie: A Portrait of Anne Lamott

Sisters in Resistance

Heart of the Sea is an hour-long documentary about Hawaiian legend Rell “Kapolioka'ehukai” Sunn who died in January 1998 of breast cancer at the age of 47. Known worldwide as a pioneer of women’s professional surfing, in the Islands Rell Sunn achieved the stature of an icon — not only for her physical power, grace and luminous beauty, but for her leadership in a community that loved her as much as she loved it. Named one of Hawai’i’s most influential women of the 20th century by ABC television, Sunn - whose Hawaiian name means Heart of the Sea - was eulogized in the New York Times for having “captured the heart of Hawai’i during a 14-year battle with cancer.”

Heart of the Sea: Kapolioka'ehukai

Guns and Mothers

Razing Appalachia

Hansel Mieth: Vagabond Photographer

Daddy & Papa is a one-hour documentary film made by producer/director Johnny Symons in 2002, it explores same-sex parenting as seen in the lives of four families headed by male couples. The film also examines the legal, social, and political challenges faced by gay parents and their children.

Daddy & Papa

Worst Possible Illusion: The Curiosity Cabinet of Vik Muniz

Foto-Novelas 2: `Junkyard Saints' and `Broken Sky'

Shaolin Ulysses: Kungfu Monks in America

A Wedding in Ramallah

Be Good, Smile Pretty

Livermore

Eroica!

Loaded Gun: Life and Death and Dickinson

Get the Fire: Young Mormon Missionaries Abroad is a United States PBS-sponsored documentary, by the independent filmmaker Nancy du Plessis. It examines the experiences of some Mormon missionaries who questioned their religious beliefs after serving their missions. It premiered in December 2003 and was 60 minutes long.

Some Mormon missionaries, including those serving missions in a foreign culture, may begin to question their religious upbringing and belief system. Get the Fire follows three LDS missionaries during their two-year missions in Germany. The documentary opens with the three future missionaries at their respective homes prior to knowing where they will serve. Surrounded by their family, each boy opens a mission call informing them they will serve in the Munich, Germany mission. The documentary follows them along the full two years of their mission from the Missionary Training Center until they leave the mission and return home. The film shows missionaries proselyting in public squares, knocking door to door, struggling with a foreign language, congregating in zone and district meetings, and meeting with the mission president. Topics covered include missionary slang, leaving a girlfriend at home, missionary morale, and relationships with family at home. The three missionaries appear to remain dedicated and faithful to their mission in the film.

Get the Fire! Young Mormon Missionaries Abroad

Man Bites Shorts

Make 'Em Dance: The Hackberry Ramblers' Story

Life Matters

Why Can't We Be a Family Again?; Downpour Resurfacing

Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property

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.

Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew

Sentencing the Victim

T-Shirt Travels

Every Child Is Born a Poet: The Life and Work of Piri Thomas

Love Inventory

Ram Dass: Fierce Grace

"Hello. I'm going to read a declaration of a state of war... Within the next 14 days we will attack a symbol or institution of American injustice." -- Bernardine Dohrn Thirty years ago, with these words, a group of young American radicals called The Weathermen announced their intention to overthrow the U.S. government. Fueled by outrage over the Vietnam War and racism in America, they went undergound during the 1970s, bombing targets across the country that they felt symbolized "the real violence" that the U.S. government and capitalist power were wreaking throughout the world.From pitched battles with police on Chicago's city streets, to bombing the U.S. Capitol building, to breaking acid-guru Timothy Leary out of prison, this carefully organized clandestine network attempted to incite a national revolution, while successfully evading one of the largest FBI manhunts in history.One of the top documentaries of the year, this award-winning film interweaves extensive archival material with modern-day interviews to explore the incredible story of "The Weather Underground." As former members reflect candidly about the idealistic passion that drove them to "bring the war home," they paint a compelling portrait of troubled and revolutionary times, with unexpected and often striking connections to the current world situation.

The Weather Underground

One Night at the Grand Star; Double Exposure

Refugee

Death of a Shaman

Cosmopolitan

In recent years, the ancient art of sumo has witnessed the rise of an increasing number of foreigners to the top of its professional ranks. From Hawaii to Atlantic City, the experiences of American wrestlers provide an entertaining glimpse at the past, present and future of sumo, revealing how this former bastion of Japanese tradition is grappling with globalizing Western forces.

Sumo East and West

The Amasong Chorus: Singing Out

The Political Dr. Seuss is a 2004 documentary film written by Ron Lamothe, Eric Martin and Lois Vossen, and directed by Ron Lamothe.

The Political Dr. Seuss

Polka Time

Afghanistan Unveiled

Los Angeles Now is a 60 minute documentary by producer/director Phillip Rodriguez. It first aired in November 2004 on PBS’s Independent Lens series.

The documentary investigates the city of Los Angeles as it comes of age and wrestles with its history and its future. The film includes conversations with a broad range of Los Angeles figures, from actress Salma Hayek and businessman/philanthropist Eli Broad to author and essayist Richard Rodriguez and Cardinal Roger Mahony.

Los Angeles Now

The Day My God Died

Girl Wrestler

Fine; Doki-Doki

Short, Not Sweet

A Hard Straight

A Touch of Greatness

Power Trip

February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four

Thunder in Guyana/Unites States of Poetry

Sisters of '77 is a documentary film that chronicles an unprecedented event in women's history, the first National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas in November 1977. The purpose of the National Women's Conference was to end discrimination against women and promote their equal rights. The conference was the first federally funded women's conference, and brought together over 20,000 women and men from around the United States.

Sisters of '77 provides a look at a pivotal weekend that changed the course of history and the lives of the women who attended. The film incorporates rare archival footage and interviews of leaders relating this history to the present. The conference attendees included former first ladies Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, and Rosalynn Carter. The women present included Republicans, Democrats, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinas, Native American, pro-choice, pro-life, straight, gay, liberal and conservative women. The most influential leaders attending the burgeoning women’s movement included Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Eleanor Smeal, Ann Richards, Coretta Scott King, Billie Jean King, and Barbara Jordan.

Sisters of '77

Sunset Story

Let the Church Say Amen

A Lion's Trail

Keeping Time: The Life, Music & Photographs of Milt Hinton

A profile of seminal punk band the Ramones includes concert footage, interviews with group members and clips of bands that influenced them or were influenced by them. Bassist Dee Dee Ramone died shortly after filming, while guitarist Johnny Ramone died soon after the film's release. Both are interviewed. Susan Sarandon introduces the film. Also: a preview of a movie about Joe Strummer, who is shown performing.

End of the Century: The Ramones; Joe Strummer Rocks Again

The Last Letter; Zyklon Portrait; The Walnut Tree

Imelda

How has Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines, managed to court, coddle, use and abuse power for nearly four decades? News clips, propaganda films, home movies, verite footage and interviews with Marcos, her friends and her enemies reveal her methods.

Imelda: Power, Myth, Illusion

Red Hook Justice

Double Dare; Piki and Poko: Taking the Dare!

Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story

Brother to Brother

“One Nation Under a Groove,” a profile of Parliament Funkadelic that features animation (including an “Afronaut” character voiced by Eddie Griffin) to explore P-Funk's unique mix of rock and R&B, and its rebellious vibe---tightly controlled by mastermind George Clinton, whose 50-year career links doo-wop and hip-hop. “It was just a party,” says singer Nona Hendryx

Parliament Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove

En Route to Baghdad

The Last Cowboy

A Family at War

Identical twins Margarita and Ramona de Saa became acclaimed ballerinas with the National Ballet of Cuba. Once inseparable, their relationship disintegrated as one sister left for America while the other embraced the Cuban revolution. This program is the story of two women forever linked by birth and dance, but struggling to overcome rifts not only between sisters but also between nations.

Mirror Dance

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 of their independent producers and featuring unforgettable stories about a unique individual, community or moment in history.

The Best Seasons of Independent Lens

The Best Seasons of Independent Lens

The Best Seasons of Independent Lens

Season 7

Season 8

Season 5

Season 16

Season 6

Season 23

Season 17

Season 18

Season 10

Season 22

Season 21

Season 15

Season 12

Season 19

Season 20

Season 14

Season 13

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 9

Season 11

Season 24

Season 25

Season 26