NaN/100 votes#1 - Wordplay
Season 9 Episode 1 - Aired 10/16/2007
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.3/1010 votes
#2 - Please Vote for Me
Season 9 Episode 2 - Aired 10/23/2007
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#3 - Storm of Emotions
Season 9 Episode 3 - Aired 10/30/2007
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#4 - Red White Black & Blue
Season 9 Episode 4 - Aired 11/6/2007
U.S. soldiers who fought on the island of Attu in Alaska during WWII journey back to the location.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#5 - Miss Navajo
Season 9 Episode 5 - Aired 11/13/2007
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#6 - The Creek Runs Red
Season 9 Episode 6 - Aired 11/20/2007
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#7 - The Paper
Season 9 Episode 8 - Aired 12/11/2007
Chronicles the pressure of a year in the life of Pennsylvania State University's Daily Collegian.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#8 - An Unreasonable Man
Season 9 Episode 9 - Aired 12/18/2007
This program offers an unsparing look at Ralph Nader, one of the most important and controversial political figures of our time.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#9 - Today's Man
Season 9 Episode 10 - Aired 1/8/2008
No description available
Director: Lizzie Gottlieb
Writer: N/A
- 6.1/108 votes
#10 - A Son's Sacrifice
Season 9 Episode 11 - Aired 1/22/2008
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#11 - American Made
Season 9 Episode 12 - Aired 1/22/2008
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#12 - How Is Your Fish Today?
Season 9 Episode 13 - Aired 1/29/2008
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 5.9/1011 votes
#13 - Banished
Season 9 Episode 14 - Aired 2/19/2008
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#14 - Hard Road Home
Season 9 Episode 15 - Aired 2/26/2008
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.
Director: Marco Williams
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#15 - Iron Ladies of Liberia
Season 9 Episode 16 - Aired 3/18/2008
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).
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#16 - Compañeras
Season 9 Episode 17 - Aired 4/1/2008
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#17 - Water Flowing Together
Season 9 Episode 18 - Aired 4/8/2008
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#18 - Water Flowing Together
Season 9 Episode 19 - Aired 4/8/2008
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#19 - Na Kamalei: The Men of Hula
Season 9 Episode 20 - Aired 5/6/2008
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#20 - A Dream in Doubt
Season 9 Episode 21 - Aired 5/20/2008
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#21 - New Year Baby
Season 9 Episode 22 - Aired 5/27/2008
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#22 - The Cool School
Season 9 Episode 23 - Aired 6/10/2008
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/107 votes
#23 - Writ Writer
Season 9 Episode 24 - Aired 6/3/2008
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#24 - Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story
Season 9 Episode 25 - Aired 6/19/2008
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#25 - Deep Water
Season 9 Episode 26 - Aired 6/15/2008
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Independent Lens Season 9
Every episode of Independent Lens Season 9 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Independent Lens Season 9!
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 9 Ratings Summary
"Wordplay" is the best rated episode of "Independent Lens" season 9. It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 10/16/2007. This episode is rated NaN points higher than the second-best, "Please Vote for Me".