Independent Lens: Season 13
Season 13 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Independent Lens Season 12.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 13 Progress Shield
Wham! Bam! Islam!
Oct 13, 2011 · 60 min
Episode Synopsis: Season 13 premieres with new host Mary-Louise Parker introducing "Wham! Bam! Islam," about the challenges involving "The 99," a comic book about Muslim superheroe
Donor Unknown
Oct 20, 2011 · 60 min
Episode Synopsis: "Donor Unknown" charts the story of 20-year-old JoEllen Marsh, who was raised by two mothers in Pennsylvania, as she searches for her sperm-donor father, known on
Lives Worth Living
Oct 27, 2011 · 60 min
"Lives Worth Living" tells the story of the disability rights movement in America, which began after WWII when disabled veterans returned home; and culminated in 1990 with the pass
Deaf Jam
Nov 3, 2011 · 60 min
"Deaf Jam" chronicles the experiences of Aneta Brodski, a deaf Israeli teen living in New York, as she moves from American Sign Language poetry, where body movements convey meaning
We Still Live Here -- as Nutayunean
Nov 17, 2011 · 60 min
Anne Makepeace's "We Still Live Here—As Nutayunean" tells the story of linguist Jessie Little Doe Baird's work to resurrect the long-forgotten language of the Wampanoag (the Native
The Woodmans
Dec 22, 2011 · 60 min
"The Woodmans" charts the short life of influential photographer Francesca Woodman, who took her own life in 1981 at the age of 22. The profile includes comments from her parents,
These Amazing Shadows
Dec 29, 2011 · 60 min
"These Amazing Shadows" focuses on the National Film Registry, an eclectic collection of movies considered to be "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Nati
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: Road to Resistance
Jan 12, 2012 · 60 min
The five-part "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?," a history of the global anti-apartheid movement, opens with "Road to Resistance," which recalls the 1948 implementation of govern
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The New Generation
Jan 12, 2012 · 60 min
Part 2 of 5 of "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?" examines "The New Generation," and its effort to overturn South Africa's apartheid system. Included: the refusal of western natio
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: From Selma to Soweto
Jan 19, 2012 · 60 min
Part 3 of 5 of "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?," "From Selma to Soweto," details the anti-apartheid movement in the U.S., where in 1986 legislation was passed that imposed sanct
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The Bottom Line
Jan 19, 2012 · 60 min
Part 4 of 5 of "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?, The Bottom Line," details how international grassroots campaigns to boycott and divest from companies that did business in South
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: Free at Last
Jan 26, 2012 · 60 min
The conclusion of "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?, Free at Last," recalls the end stage of South Africa's apartheid system, when internal and external pressures forced the gover
Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock
Feb 2, 2012 · 60 min
Daisy Bates was a complex, unconventional, and largely forgotten heroine of the civil rights movement who led the charge to desegregate the all-white Central High School in Little
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Feb 9, 2012 · 60 min
The Black Power Mixtape examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in the black community and Diaspora from 1967 to 1975. The film combines music, startling 16mm footage (l
More Than A Month
Feb 16, 2012 · 60 min
Shukree Hassan Tilghman, a 29-year-old African-American filmmaker, is on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month. Through this tongue-in-cheek journey, “More Than a Mon
You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't
Mar 30, 2012 · 60 min
In Danville, California, Lee Gorewitz wanders on a soul-searching odyssey through her Alzheimer’s & Dementia care unit. Confined by the limits of her physical boundaries, she scave
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
Apr 5, 2012 · 60 min
Every day, millions tune in to Sesame Street to see one of the world’s most adored and recognizable characters — a furry red three-and-a-half year-old monster named Elmo. Yet, with
When the Drum Is Beating
Apr 12, 2012 · 60 min
Interweaves the extraordinary story of Septentrional’s six decades of creativity with the history of Haiti. How did the country go from being the first free black republic with a
Revenge of the Electric Car
Apr 19, 2012 · 60 min
Revenge follows four entrepreneurs from 2007 through the end of 2010 as they fight to bring the electric car back to the world market in the midst of a global recession. The protag
Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison
Apr 26, 2012 · 60 min
Millions of bison once roamed the Great Plains. Can this nearly extinct icon of the American West make a 21st century comeback?
Circo
May 3, 2012 · 60 min
The Ponce family circus has been living and performing in rural Mexico for seven generations. Its history dates back to the late 19th century, when Genaro Ponce founded the Circo P
Summer Pasture
May 10, 2012 · 60 min
Locho and Yama are nomadic herders in Tibet's high grasslands, who carve their existence from the land as their ancestors have for generations. As traditional nomadic life confront
Precious Knowledge
May 17, 2012 · 60 min
When a highly successful Mexican American Studies program at a high school in Tucson comes under fire for teaching ethnic chauvinism, teachers and students fight back. This modern
Left by the Ship
May 24, 2012 · 60 min
JR, Charlene, Margarita, and Robert are half American; they are among the many children born to local women and U.S. servicemen who were stationed in military bases in the Philippi
Hell and Back Again
May 28, 2012 · 60 min
U.S. Marine Sergeant Nathan Harris, 25, leads his unit to fight a ghostlike enemy in Afghanistan. Wounded in battle, Harris returns to North Carolina and his devoted wife to fight
We Were Here
Jun 7, 2012 · 60 min
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
Strong!
Jun 26, 2012 · 60 min
A formidable figure standing at 5'8" and weighing more than 300 pounds, Cheryl Haworth struggles to defend her champion status as her lifetime weightlifting career inches towards i