Independent Lens is an anthology of independent documentary films.

The story of Roger Sharpe, the young midwesterner who overturned New York City's 35 year-old ban on pinball machines.

In the Bolivian highlands, an elderly Quechua couple has been living the same daily life for years. During an uncommonly long drought, Virginio and Sisa face a dilemma: resist or be defeated by the environment and time itself.

26-year-old American missionary John Chau was killed as he attempted to make contact with an Indigenous group off the coast of India, one of the last communities on the planet still living in isolation.

As a sci-fi obsessed woman living in near isolation, Beverly Glenn-Copeland wrote and self-released Keyboard Fantasies in Huntsville, Ontario back in 1986. Recorded in an Atari-powered home studio, the cassette featured seven tracks of a curious folk-electronica hybrid, a sound realised far before its time. Three decades on the musician - now Glenn Copeland - began to receive emails from people across the world, thanking him for the music they'd recently discovered. Courtesy of a rare-record collector in Japan, a reissue of Keyboard Fantasies and subsequent plays by Four Tet, Caribou and more, the music had finally found its audience two generations down the line. Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story sees the protagonist commit his life and music to screen for the first time - an intimate coming of age story spinning pain and the suffering of prejudice into rhythm, hope and joy. Half aural-visual history, half DIY tour-video, the film provides a vehicle for our newly appointed queer elder to connect with youth across the globe. A timely lullaby to soothe those souls struggling to make sense of the world.

Buckjumping is a cinematic journey through the soul of New Orleans. The film explores different communities as they express themselves through movement, painting a dynamic portrait of a city's spirituality, defiance and resourcefulness.

The film the voting machine corporations don't want you to see. HACKING DEMOCRACY follows investigator/grandmother, Bev Harris, and her citizen-activists as they set out to uncover how America counts its votes. Proving the votes can be stolen without a trace culminates in a duel between the Diebold corporation's voting machines and a computer hacker - with America's democracy at stake.

Narrated by multi-Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, Welcome Nowhere tells the true story of a community of Roma people (commonly known as Gypsies) struggling to find their place in the world after centuries of racism.

Historians and modern animators discuss classic era Warner cartoons without "stars": characters who returned in subsequent cartoons.

Michael Pollan, a professor of journalism and a student of food, presents the history of four plants, each of which found a way to make itself essential to humans, thus ensuring widespread propagation. Apples, for sweetness; tulips, for beauty; marijuana, for pleasure; and, potatoes, for sustenance. Each has a story of discovery and adaptation; each has a symbiotic re...Read all

Narrated by Lily Tomlin, this documentary short traces mankind's long history with elephants and explores the many problems that arise when they are brought to live in captivity in zoos and circuses.

A man discovers purpose helping rescue a trafficked baby pangolin in South Africa. He dedicates himself to rehabilitating the endangered animal for release into the wild, in this film from My Octopus Teacher's director.

Pulls back the curtain on the world's top brands, exposing the hidden tactics and covert strategies used to keep all of us locked in an endless cycle of buying, no matter the cost.

The Arc of Oblivion illuminates the strange world of archives, record-keeping, and memory through a filmmaker's quixotic quest to build an ark in Maine.

An immersive, all-archival retelling of the "Y2K" millennium bug and the mass hysteria that changed the fabric of modern society.

In Doolin, an isolated village teetering on the western edge of Ireland, a community of musicians seek joy and connection through music as they face a modernizing world.

In the early twentieth century, a mysterious ecological crisis nearly wiped out the fish that most people cared about in the largest freshwater ecosystem on earth-the Great Lakes.

Marion Stokes secretly recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years from 1975 until her death in 2012. For Marion taping was a form of activism to seek the truth, and she believed that a comprehensive archive of the media would be invaluable for future generations. Her visionary and maddening project nearly tore her family apart, but now her 70,000 VHS tapes are being digitized and they'll be searchable online.

This film exposes the dangers of genetically modified foods and features leading scientists, physicians, professors, attorneys and activists. You'll see the corruption surrounding GMOs and the deception being perpetrated against the world.

Renowned academic and author Noam Chomsky elucidates 10 principles of concentration of wealth and power that have led to unprecedented inequality and the hollowing out of the American middle class.

The documentary follows the booming artificial intelligence industry, what opportunities and challenges it brings and its impact on the global community.

A crew search for all of the old Atari 2600 game cartridges of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" that were tossed into a landfill in the 1980s.

An impressive bottle of fine Scotch is in your hand. From barley to barrel, who made it and how did they do it?

Wars of the future will be fought over water as they are over oil today, as the source of human survival enters the global marketplace and political arena. Corporate giants, private investors, and corrupt governments vie for control of our dwindling supply, prompting protests, lawsuits, and revolutions from citizens fighting for the right to survive. Past civilization...Read all

Welcome to Riotsville, a fictional town built by the US military. Using all archival footage, the film explores the militarization of the police and creates a counter-narrative to the nation's reaction to the uprisings of the late '60s.

Startups use AI to create avatars that allows to talk with their loved ones after death. Exploration of deep human desire for immortality, questioning consequences of commodifying this age-old dream.

Through the riveting stories of five American communities, 'Right to Harm' exposes the devastating public health impact that factory farming has on many of our country's most disadvantaged citizens.

Two struggling actors find solace from lockdown isolation by staging Hamlet in Grand Theft Auto Online (2022), battling griefers as they connect through William Shakespeare.

Superhot spicy peppers are on fire lately - but while most experiment with heat, others live their lives in pursuit of fire. Superhot is a wild ride into the Spicy World of Pepper People - the self-proclaimed chili heads who have taken the chili pill and want to find out how deep the rabbit hole goes. This 10-part series goes deep into a subculture fueled by spice: from the elite growers who strive to create new superhots to the chili eaters who chase the endorphin rush of consuming them. Along the way, one legendary chili head sets out on a quest to answer the spiciest of questions: is there a pepper that can challenge the world's hottest?

Epic Ride: The Story of Universal Theme Parks celebrates the history and legacy of Universal Destinations & Experiences. Through unprecedented access, rare archival and intimate interviews with directors, producers, executives, and A-list celebrities, the series will explore Universal's iconic film and theme park history as well as provide an exclusive behind-the-scenes countdown to the opening of its groundbreaking new theme park, Universal Epic Universe.  

This three-part pop culture and historical documentary confronts and reclaims the Wild West while revealing the story of the Black cowboy — a history that has largely been untold. 

Investigative journalist Sarah Dingle thought she was an only child, but after discovering at the age of 27 that she was donor conceived, she begins a confronting journey that reveals she could not have been further from the truth.

A photo editor's 52-year-old secret sparks a two-year investigation into one of the Vietnam War's most famous images.

A tracing of the $3 billion active shooter preparedness industry in the United States and its effect on students and educators.

A look at the New York City punk-rock scene and the venerable nightclub, CBGB.

In 1980, new wave band Devo scored a hit with "Whip It" and gained mainstream success with their message of societal "de-evolution", formed in response to the 1970 Kent State shootings.

The New Yorker's centennial reveals behind-the-scenes access to editors, writers, and archives of this culturally vital magazine, one of print's last survivors.