Lois Vossen: Last News

Sasha Urban editorEmmy Award-winning PBS series “Independent Lens” has announced its spring slate of documentary films, including Sundance favorite “Try Harder!,” from director Debbie Lum. The spring lineup kicks off on April 25 at 10 p.m., with additional titles available on PBS.org and the PBS Video app.“This spring we’re focusing on stories that shine light on a spectrum of youth perspectives, from ambitious high school students in San Francisco striving to navigate the college admissions system that feels stacked against them to Indigenous students in Utah’s Navajo Nation balancing universal teenage trials with issues in their community,” said Lois Vossen, executive producer of “Independent Lens.” “We hope viewers are inspired to think about new systems and practices in education, criminal justice reform, and representation that are needed within their own communities.” In addition to “Try Harder!,” which offers an up-close look at the competitive college admissions process for a group of San Francisco high schoolers, “Independent Lens” announced that it will kick off the season with the documentary “Aware: Glimpses of Consciousness,” about the different sides of human consciousness, from directors Frauke Sandig and Eric Black.”Aware” premieres on May 2, and will be followed on May 9 by “When Claude Got Shot,” from executive producer Snoop Dogg and director Brad Lichtenstein.

Independent Lens, the Emmy-winning ITVS series that airs on PBS stations, has acquired TV and digital rights to Nicholas Bruckman’s latest documentary, Minted.

When the Oscar nominations were announced last month, it marked a watershed moment for the Documentary Feature category. All the nominated films focused on international subjects – stories from Uganda, Tunisia, Ukraine, India and Chile — and not a single American director was recognized.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Madeleine Gavin’s Sundance award-winning documentary “Beyond Utopia” will kick off the winter season of PBS documentary series “Independent Lens” on Jan. 9. Using hidden camera footage, the 115-minute doc follows the high-stakes journey that a handful of desperate families make in order to defect from North Korea — a country with the most brutal regime on earth, led by a dictator, Kim Jong-un.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will celebrate its 2023 Gold and Silver Circle Inductees at the 44th Annual News & Documentary Awards on September 27-28 in New York.

Sophia Scorziello editor The Award-winning PBS documentary series “Independent Lens” has released its spring slate of documentary films, which will begin debuting on April 24. This season’s films will highlight a myriad of marginalized communities and current affairs by documenting both personal and important stories from around the world.   First to debut is documentary film “Free Chol Soo Lee” from filmmakers Julie Ha and Eugene Yi. The Sundance favorite uses archival material to travel back to 1970’s San Francisco and tell the story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant who was wrongfully convicted of murder, and the Asian American activist movement that sought to free him.  

Sofia Behzadi The PBS anthology series “Independent Lens” returns for a new season September 12th, starting with three documentaries making their television debuts.The fall slate spans from September to November and features Byron Hurt’s “Hazing,” Shalini Kantayya’s “TikTok, Boom” and Kelsey Peterson and Daniel Kleins’ “Move Me.” “Hazing,” which premiered earlier this summer at the Tribeca Film Festival, will open the season with a closer look at the hazing culture across US colleges and universities. The film is from director Byron Hurt, who is best-known for directing Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes and Soul Food Junkies.Next will be “TikTok, Boom” which makes its broadcast debut on October 24.

Ellise Shafer “Flee” won best feature at the International Documentary Association’s annual awards ceremony on Friday night.Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, “Flee” is also nominated for best documentary feature at this year’s Oscars. Leading the ceremony with the most wins, however, was “Summer of Soul,” which took home the best director prize for Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson as well as best music documentary and best editing.The ceremony also handed out speciality awards, honoring Roger Ross Williams with the Career Achievement Award, Ronan Farrow with the Truth to Power Award, Cecilia Aldarondo with the Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award, Jean Tsien with the Pioneer Award and Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh with the Courage Under Fire Award. Below, find the full list of winners.Best Feature“Flee” (Denmark, France, Norway / NEON, Participant.

Naman Ramachandran PBS documentary anthology series “Independent Lens” has acquired the documentary feature “Outta The Muck” from directors Ira Mckinley and Bhawin Suchak, who previously co-directed award-winning documentary “The Throwaways.” Based on Mckinley’s family roots, the film, a narrative of Black achievement, tells the story of a fiercely self-determined family in the deep south as it resists despair with love. It blends family, football and history in an intimate portrait of the Dean family, longtime residents of the historic town of Pahokee, Florida and journeys back home with McKinley as he reconnects with his niece Bridget and nephew Alvin and explores their shared family history that spans seven generations.

Wyatte Grantham-Philips editor“Free Chol Soo Lee” has been acquired by global distributor, streamer and production company MUBI.The documentary, which premiered last week at the Sundance Film Festival, will come to U.S. theaters in 2022, with release plans in other territories (Latin America, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Turkey, the U.K.