Independent Lens: Season 26
Season 26 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 25.
- 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 26 Progress Shield
One Person, One Vote?
Sep 30, 2024 · 77 min
At a time when many Americans question democratic institutions, One Person, One Vote? unveils the complexities of the Electoral College, the uniquely American and often misundersto
Make Peace or Die: Honor the Fallen
Nov 11, 2024 · 86 min
Riddled with survivor's guilt after his unit lost 17 men during "Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan, Marine veteran Anthony Marquez makes it his mission to reconnect with t
Dallas, 2019 | Episode 1
Jan 3, 2025 · 52 min
Tornados. Drive-by shootings. Environmental racism, The stark North-South Dallas economic divide. Dallas residents and city workers like City Manager T.C. Broadnax respond to the c
Dallas, 2019 | Episode 2
Jan 3, 2025 · 52 min
Dreaming of a brighter future through the eyes of three people: a graduating high school student prepares to navigate the real world; Dallas Superintendent Michael Hinojosa reflect
Dallas, 2019 | Episode 3
Jan 3, 2025 · 50 min
Three spirits with longstanding Texas roots struggle with their place in the world: a transgender woman working at an LGBTQ organization lives her full truth; a Dallas County Court
Dallas, 2019 | Episode 4
Jan 3, 2025 · 55 min
Meet a criminal district attorney bringing reform to a complex and disparate justice system; a judge who is dedicated to breaking cycles of incarceration and knows what it's like t
Dallas, 2019 | Episode 5
Jan 3, 2025 · 48 min
Featuring intimate stories of workers and young people—the chief medical examiner, a hospital worker, an auto body shop owner, and a high school senior—who all in their own ways ma
Minted
Jan 6, 2025 · 76 min
An insider’s look at the rise and fall of the NFT (non-fungible token) phenomenon and how technology transformed the traditional art world, for better and worse. Featuring verité f
Without Arrows
Jan 13, 2025 · 85 min
After 13 years living in Philadelphia, Delwin Fiddler Jr., a champion grass dancer, embraces indigenous culture by returning to his ancestral home on the Cheyenne River Reservation
The Strike
Feb 3, 2025 · 85 min
The high-security Pelican Bay prison was designed for mass-scale solitary confinement, often for a decade or more, and with little due process. In 2013, 30,000 prisoners went on a
The In Between
Feb 10, 2025 · 83 min
Following her brother's death, a filmmaker returns to Eagle Pass, the Texas bordertown where she grew up, to document the places that shaped their family. She finds a treasure trov
Skin of Glass
Feb 17, 2025 · 85 min
A journey to reckon with Brazil’s harsh inequality begins when filmmaker Denise Zmekhol discovers her father’s architectural masterpiece in São Paulo—a 24-story tall modernist icon
Bike Vessel
Feb 24, 2025 · 85 min
Knowing his dad miraculously recovered from three open-heart surgeries after discovering a passion for cycling, filmmaker Eric D. Seals proposes an ambitious idea: Bike together fr
Home Court
Mar 24, 2025 · 85 min
Home Court is the coming-of-age story of Ashley Chea, a Cambodian American basketball prodigy in Southern California whose life intensifies as recruitment heats up. As she overcome
WE WANT THE FUNK!
Apr 8, 2025 · 82 min
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
Free For All: The Public Library
Apr 29, 2025 · 84 min
Free For All: The Public Library tells the story of the quiet revolutionaries who made a simple idea happen. From the pioneering women behind the “Free Library Movement” to today's
Matter of Mind: My Alzheimer's
May 5, 2025 · 54 min
Matter of Mind: My Alzheimer’s is an intimate portrayal of three families confronting the unique challenges of Alzheimer’s and how this progressive neurodegenerative disease transf
And So It Begins
May 12, 2025 · 84 min
And So It Begins follows the Philippines’ turbulent 2022 presidential race, with the son of ousted former dictator Ferdinand Marcos waging a combative social media campaign against
Who is Michael Jang?
May 19, 2025 · 42 min
After a long career as a commercial and portrait photographer, mischievous San Francisco artist Michael Jang sat for decades on a hidden treasure of pictures taken in his 20s—both