7.9/1017 votes#1 - Cured
Season 23 Episode 1 - Aired 10/11/2021
When doctors classified homosexuality as a mental illness to be “cured,” they employed cruel treatments like electroshock and lobotomies. LGBTQ+ activists and their allies fought back — and won a momentous victory when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its manual of mental disorders in 1973.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.9/1010 votes#2 - Ferguson Rises
Season 23 Episode 2 - Aired 11/8/2021
How does a father find purpose in pain? In 2014, Michael Brown Sr.’s son was killed by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, an event that fueled the global Black Lives Matter movement. But his personal story seeking justice and healing has not been told until now.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.8/108 votes#3 - Storm Lake
Season 23 Episode 3 - Aired 11/15/2021
Does American democracy survive without the backbone of independent local journalism? Go inside The Storm Lake Times, a newspaper serving an Iowa town that has seen its fair share of changes in the 40 years since Big Agriculture came to the area. Pulitzer-winning editor Art Cullen and his family dedicate themselves to keeping the paper alive as local journalism across the country dies out.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.6/1014 votes#4 - Duty Free
Season 23 Episode 4 - Aired 11/22/2021
75-year-old Rebecca loses the only job she's even known. She has no savings, no 401K safety net, and no employment prospects. Rebecca teams up with son Sian-Pierre to take the trip of a lifetime, one bucket list adventure at a time. Her journey uncovers the economic insecurity faced by millions of Americans.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.9/1032 votes#5 - Home From School: The Children of Carlisle
Season 23 Episode 5 - Aired 11/23/2021
"Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” This was the guiding principle that removed thousands of Native American children and placed them in Indian boarding schools. Among the many who died at Carlisle Indian Industrial School were three Northern Arapaho boys. Now, more than a century later, tribal members journey from Wyoming to Pennsylvania to help them finally come home.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.0/1010 votes#6 - A Reckoning in Boston
Season 23 Episode 6 - Aired 1/17/2022
What happens when you discover that your assumptions are flawed? A white filmmaker starts his academic inquiry by documenting low-income, adult students of color at the Clemente Course in Boston. After time, he comes to terms with his own complicity in racism. Alongside students, a unique filmmaking collaboration forms to explore the area's history of racism and gentrification.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.6/108 votes#7 - Missing in Brooks County
Season 23 Episode 7 - Aired 1/31/2022
Migrants go missing in rural South Texas more than anywhere else in the U.S. For many families whose loved ones have disappeared after crossing the Mexico border, activist detective Eddie Canales is their last hope. Unlock the mysteries and confront the agonizing facts of life and death in Brooks County, 80 miles north of the border.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/105 votes#8 - Owned: A Tale of Two Americas
Season 23 Episode 8 - Aired 2/7/2022
Is the "American Dream" of home ownership a false promise? While the government’s postwar housing policy created the world’s largest middle class, it also set America on two divergent paths – one of perceived wealth and the other of systematically defunded, segregated communities.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.3/1010 votes#9 - Bulletproof
Season 23 Episode 9 - Aired 2/14/2022
What is the cost of feeling safe? In an era of mass shootings, lockdown drills and teacher firearms training are as much a part of life as homecoming dances and basketball practice. Take a provocative look at fear, violence, and what Americans will do to feel safe in schools.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.5/106 votes#10 - Apart
Season 23 Episode 10 - Aired 2/21/2022
Since the beginning of the War on Drugs, the number of women in U.S. prisons has grown drastically. The majority are mothers. Three unforgettable formerly incarcerated mothers, jailed for drug-related charges, fight to overcome alienation—and a society that labels them "felons"—to readjust to life with their families.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/108 votes#11 - Writing With Fire
Season 23 Episode 11 - Aired 3/28/2022
In a male-dominated media landscape, the women journalists of India's all-female Khabar Lahariya ("News Wave") newspaper risk it all, including their own safety, to cover the country's political, social, and local news from a women-powered perspective. From underground network to independent media empire, they defy the odds to redefine power. Nominated for an Academy Award.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/1017 votes#12 - AWARE: Glimpses of Consciousness
Season 23 Episode 12 - Aired 4/4/2022
What is the science behind consciousness? Six brilliant researchers from around the world—a brain scientist, a plant behaviorist, a healer, a philosophy professor, a psychedelics scientist, and a Buddhist monk—take you on a mind-blowing quest to investigate this seemingly unsolvable mystery.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.7/1013 votes#13 - Try Harder!
Season 23 Episode 13 - Aired 5/2/2022
At Lowell High School, San Francisco's academic pressure cooker, the kids are stressed out. With a majority Asian American student body, high-achieving seniors share their dreams and anxieties about getting into a top university. But is college worth the grind?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.8/106 votes#14 - When Claude Got Shot
Season 23 Episode 14 - Aired 5/9/2022
In Milwaukee, a 15-year-old attempted to carjack law student Claude Motley and shot him in the face. Through multiple surgeries and catastrophic health care bills, the effects of gun violence upends Claude’s life. Yet he still finds himself torn between punishment for the young man and the injustice of mass incarceration for Black men and boys. Can he find mercy in his heart for his attacker?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.2/106 votes#15 - Scenes From The Glittering World
Season 23 Episode 15 - Aired 5/16/2022
Three Indigenous students experience the highs and lows of adolescence while attending one of the most remote high schools in the United States. Living in the uniquely beautiful but isolated Diné community within the Navajo Nation reservation, they navigate life as teenagers and dream of a glittering future.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Independent Lens Season 23
Every episode of Independent Lens Season 23 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Independent Lens Season 23!
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...
Genre:Documentary
Network:PBS
Season 23 Ratings Summary
"Cured" is the best rated episode of "Independent Lens" season 23. It scored 7.9/10 based on 17 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 10/11/2021. This episode is rated 1.0 points higher than the second-best, "Ferguson Rises".