Alex Gibney
Director
Independent Lens (1999)
Season 8
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 of their independent producers and featuring unforgettable stories about a unique individual, community or moment in history.
Released Aug. 9, 1999
Episode 61 min
10+
Genres: Documentary
Keywords: imdb.celebrity, awards.emmy-award-winner, awards.emmy-award-nominated
Watch Providers: PBS, PBS, YouTube TV, KQED, WETA+WETA+
Production Companies: ITVS
Network: PBS
Country: United States
Languages:
English
S8E1 - Still Life With Animated Dogs
The World According to Sesame Street is a 2005 feature-length documentary created by Participant Productions, looking at the cultural impact of the children's television series Sesame Street, and the complexities of creating international adaptations.[1] It focuses on the adaptations of Sesame Street in Bangladesh (Sisimpur), Kosovo (Rruga Sesam, in Albanian; and Ulica Sezam, in Serbian), and South Africa (Takalani Sesame).
Oct. 24, 2006, midnight
S8E2 - The World According to Sesame Street
None
Oct. 24, 2006, midnight
S8E3 - Muskrat Lovely
None
Oct. 31, 2006, midnight
S8E4 - Paul Conrad: Drawing Fire
None
Nov. 7, 2006, midnight
S8E5 - Democracy on Deadline
None
Nov. 21, 2006, midnight
S8E6 - Two Square Miles
Residents, artists and activists in Hudson, N.Y., protest the proposal for a multinational coal-fired cement plant.
Nov. 28, 2006, midnight
S8E7 - A Sad Flower in the Sand
None
Dec. 12, 2006, midnight
S8E8 - Revolucion: Five Visions
This documentary tells the story of five Cuban photographers whose lives and work span more than four decades and whose perspectives on photography are as varied as their opinions about the Cuban Revolution. From photographers whose lens portrayed the heroic masses to more contemporary photographers who seek to portray individual truths, their stories uncover the power of art to liberate.
Dec. 19, 2006, midnight
S8E9 - Short Stack 2006
None
Dec. 26, 2006, midnight
S8E10 - A Fish Story
Meet two women who lead in a battle against a coalition of national environmental groups for control of the ocean. Three hundred years of fishing tradition and the health of the ocean hang in the balance.
Jan. 2, 2007, midnight
S8E11 - Shadya
Shadya Zoabi, a charismatic 17-year-old karate world champion, strives to succeed on her own terms within her traditional Muslim village in northern Israel. Despite her father's support, she faces the challenge of balancing her dreams with her religious commitments and others' expectations. This film takes an intimate look at the evolution of a young Arab-Israeli woman with feminist ideas in a male-dominated culture.
Jan. 16, 2007, midnight
S8E12 - Beyond the Call
None
Jan. 23, 2007, midnight
S8E13 - Twisted
None
Jan. 30, 2007, midnight
S8E14 - Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life
As Duke Ellington's co-composer, arranger, and right-hand man, Billy Strayhorn wrote some of the greatest American music of the 20th century. But as a gay man in the ’40s and ’50s, Strayhorn had to lead a discreet existence, while Ellington played to thunderous applause on center stage.
Feb. 6, 2007, midnight
S8E15 - Motherland Afghanistan
None
Feb. 13, 2007, midnight
S8E16 - Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes
Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes is a 2006 documentary film written, produced, and directed by Byron Hurt. The documentary explores the issues of masculinity, violence, homophobia and sexism in hip hop music and culture, through interviews with artists, academics and fans. Hurt's activism in gender issues and his love of hip-hop caused him to feel what he described as a sense of hypocrisy, and began working on the film.
Feb. 20, 2007, midnight
S8E17 - Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?
Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? is a 2006 documentary film written by Matt Coen, Mike Kime and Frank Popper and directed by Frank Popper.
Feb. 27, 2007, midnight
S8E18 - Stolen
In 1990, two thieves dressed as police officers gained entrance to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, successfully executing the largest art heist in modern history. Among the 13 priceless works lifted was Vermeer's "The Concert," thought to be the world's most valuable stolen painting. This riveting film thoroughly explores the theft and the fascinating, disparate characters involved.
March 20, 2007, midnight
S8E19 - Race to Execution
Race discrimination infects America’s capital punishment system. According to a landmark study regarding race and the death penalty, a black defendant who kills a white victim is up to 30 times more likely to be sentenced to death than a white defendant who kills a black victim. RACE TO EXECUTION, a film by Rachel Lyon, traces the fates of two death row inmates, Robert Tarver in Russell County, Alabama and Madison Hobley in Chicago, Illinois. Their compelling personal stories are enlarged and enriched by attorneys who fought for these men’s lives, and by prosecutors, criminal justice scholars and experts in the fields of law and the media.
RACE TO EXECUTION reveals how, beyond DNA and the issue of innocence, the shameful open secret of America's capital punishment system is a matter of race. Once a victim’s body is discovered, his or her race—and the race of the accused—deeply influence the legal process: how a crime scene is investigated and the deployment of police resources, the
March 27, 2007, midnight
S8E20 - China Blue
They live crowded together in cement factory dormitories where water has to be carried upstairs in buckets. Their meals and rent are deducted from their wages, which amount to less than a dollar a day. Most of the jeans they make in the factory are purchased by retailers in the U.S. and other countries. China Blue takes viewers inside a blue jeans factory in southern China, where teenage workers struggle to survive harsh working conditions. Providing perspectives from both the top and bottom levels of the factory’s hierarchy, the film looks at complex issues of globalization from the human level.
China Blue, which was made without permission from the Chinese authorities, offers an alarming report on the economic pressures applied by Western companies and the resulting human consequences, as the real profits are made—and kept—in first-world countries. The unexpected ending makes the connection between the exploited workers and U.S. consumers even clearer.
April 3, 2007, midnight
S8E21 - Black Gold
This eye-opening expose of the $80 billion coffee industry traces one man's fight for fair trade.
April 10, 2007, midnight
8.0
S8E22 - Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Enron dives from the seventh largest US company to bankruptcy in less than a year in this tale told chronologically. The emphasis is on human drama, from suicide to 20,000 people sacked: the personalities of Ken Lay (with Falwellesque rectitude), Jeff Skilling (he of big ideas), Lou Pai (gone with $250 M), and Andy Fastow (the dark prince) dominate. Along the way, we watch Enron game California's deregulated electricity market, get a free pass from Arthur Andersen (which okays the dubious mark-to-market accounting), use greed to manipulate banks and brokerages (Merrill Lynch fires the analyst who questions Enron's rise), and hear from both Presidents Bush what great guys these are.
April 24, 2007, midnight
S8E23 - The Cats of Mirikitani
In 2001, Japanese American painter Jimmy Mirikitani, over 80 years old, is living in the streets of lower Manhattan. Filmmaker Hattendorf takes an interest, and begins to engage with him to create a documentary of his life. After the World Trade Center destruction on September 11, 2001, the debris- and dust-choked streets are deserted. When Hattendorf looks for Mirikitani, he is still in his usual spot near Washington Square Park. She invites him to stay a while at her apartment nearby to recover from the devastation and unhealthy air in the streets. Gradually we learn who he is, and of his past...with amazing and unexpected results. (The cats of the title are featured in Mirikitani's artwork.)
May 8, 2007, midnight
S8E24 - Sentenced Home
None
May 15, 2007, midnight
S8E25 - Knocking
None
May 22, 2007, midnight
S8E26 - The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
This film tells the true story of a bohemian St. Francis and his remarkable relationship with a flock of wild red-and-green parrots. Former street musician and San Francisco dharma bum Mark Bittner falls in with the flock as he searches for meaning in his life, unaware that the parrots will bring him everything he seeks.
May 29, 2007, midnight
S8E27 - La Lupe Queen of Latin Soul
Legendary Afro-Cuban pop singer Lupe Victoria Yoli, “The Queen of Latin Soul Music,” aka La Lupe or La Yiyiyi, rose to fame in the 1960s and died in 1992 virtually unknown. Beautiful, sexual and the epitome of Afro-Cuban 60s sophistication, La Lupe remains the quintessential bad girl and perpetual outsider, renowned for emotional performances and as the embodiment of female narcissism who stopped at nothing in the name of love and passion. Shot in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the U.S., this film tells her story through interviews and rare archival footage from the groundbreaking musical era.
May 6, 2007, midnight
PBS
61 min/ep
32723 min
Aug. 9, 1999
Oct. 27, 2025, midnight
Returning Series
TV-PG / 10+
Action
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