Independent Lens

A groundbreaking look at Phil Sharp's rise from being a rural Kentucky farm boy who battled dyslexia to Nobel Prize-winning scientist. Narrated by Mark Ruffalo with insights from Walter Isaacson, "Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution" reveals how Sharp's RNA discovery transformed biology and launched the biotechnology revolution leading to life-saving treatments for millions.

"Ratified" brings the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to life through Virginia's pivotal ratification battle. Led by Black women and with the support of a multi-racial, multi-generational coalition, this documentary traces the legal, political, and deeply personal fight to enshrine gender equality in the U.S. Constitution nearly a century after the ERA was first proposed.

Filmmaker Reid Davenport investigates assisted dying and uncovers how ableism, policy, and systemic failures can make death seem like the only option. With gripping stories and a personal mission, "Life After" explores who gets real choice, and who doesn't, in life and death.

Librarians across the U.S. examine how restrictions on library content are shaping communities.

Why does the U.S. have the Electoral College? Learn more following four presidential electors during the 2020 election.

A Marine veteran hand-carves battlefield crosses to reconnect with Gold Star families of the fallen and find healing.

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 causal effects of natural and human-caused disasters while navigating a city in crisis.

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 reflects on sacrifices he's made in his career for a failing system; and Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown looks for respect while questioning the future of law enforcement amidst a seemingly endless cycle of incarceration.

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 commissioner has given 40 years of his life to his work but questions his role and identity; and the director of Health and Human Services wrestles with his new role while reflecting on his Asian American roots.

Meet a criminal district attorney bringing reform to an ineffectual yet functional incarceration system; a judge navigating the stress and expectations of upholding laws adversely affecting the very communities she comes from; the unapologetic owner of the largest bail bonds company in Dallas; and a community organizer with a mighty voice and warrior spirit.

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 make Dallas what it is, the final episode of Dallas, 2019 poses the question: What does it mean to be alive?

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 footage and candid interviews with groundbreaking artists—like Beeple, Latasha Alcindor, and Loish— at the center of this phenomenon, Minted delves into the complex world of the $40 billion NFT digital art market.

Thirteen years after leaving South Dakota, a Lakota dancer returns to the reservation to carry on the family legacy.

How a small hunger strike against solitary confinement at Pelican Bay prison turned into a massive statewide protest.

In tribute to the brother she lost, a filmmaker returns home to reflect on life on the U.S.-Mexico border.

A filmmaker reckons with Brazil's inequality when learning unhoused people occupy her father's architectural jewel.

After several health crises, a 70-year-old man embarks on a transformative long-distance cycling trip with his son.

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 overcomes injury as well as racial and class differences between her home and private school worlds, in peer groups, and against rival schools, Ashley strives to become her own person and leave a legacy behind.

"WE WANT THE FUNK!" is Stanley Nelson's syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning from African, soul, and early jazz roots, to its rise into the public consciousness. Featuring James Brown's dynamism, George Clinton's extraterrestrial Parliament Funkadelic, transformed girl group Labelle, and Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, the story also traces funk's influences on new wave and hip-hop.

"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 librarians who service the public despite working in a contentious age of closures and book bans, meet those who created a civic institution where everything is free, and the doors are open to all.

"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 transforms roles and relationships. Whether it's a partner becoming a caregiver or an adult child shifting into being their parent's caretaker, these stories show how families evolve when a loved one is diagnosed.

"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 his more progressive opponent, incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo. Following it all is independent journalist and Nobel-winner Maria Ressa, with an eye toward the specter of increasing autocracy. 

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 candid celebrity shots and a down-to-earth cross-section of Chinese American family life rarely captured so playfully. Then, during the pandemic, Jang set out to share his work with the world, street guerilla-style.

The life story of an incarcerated young man, told through dramatic reenactments.

An unlikely collaboration changes the course of forensic science and international human rights.

Muslim chaplains work for change inside the U.S. military, fighting for equality and religious freedom.

When arson strikes the local mosque, a Texas town must reckon with its troubled past.

When arson strikes the local mosque, a Texas town must reckon with its troubled past.

In Palm Springs, a historically Black neighborhood fights to remove a divisive wall of trees.

Liberty City, Miami, is home to one of the oldest segregated public housing projects in the U.S. Now with rising sea levels, the neighborhood's higher ground has become something else: real estate gold. Wealthy property owners push inland to higher ground, creating a speculators' market in the historically Black neighborhood previously ignored by developers and policy-makers alike.

There is a mental health crisis happening for many American farmers. A combination of climate change, the pandemic, and the domination of megafarms have contributed to increasing economic uncertainty and isolation. Following four family farms in the Midwest over several years, the documentary Greener Pastures is a story of perseverance and survival within the farming industry in the heartland.

A crew of 12 Mexican tree planters travel the United States regrowing America's forests.

Three individuals navigate their lives with determination in the face of Parkinson's disease.

An Alaska Native family maintains a subsistence life on a tiny Bering Sea island where, if you don't hunt, you die.

NASA psychologists prepare astronauts for the extreme isolation of a three-year-long mission to Mars.

The central mystery of this unconventional documentary isn't about theft; it's about the nature of sound itself.

Hazing is a widespread, far-reaching practice fueled by tradition, secrecy, groupthink, power, and the desire to belong in fraternities and sororities on college campuses across the U.S. Filmmaker Byron Hurt embarks on a deeply personal journey to understand the underground rituals of hazing, revealing the abuse and the lengths college students will go to fit in.

What does it mean to be a digital native? TikTok, Boom. dissects the platform along myriad cross-sections—algorithmic, socio-political, economic, and cultural—to explore the impact of the history-making app. Balancing a genuine interest with healthy skepticism, delve into the security issues, global political challenges, and racial biases behind the platform.

At 27, Kelsey Peterson dove into Lake Superior as a dancer and emerged paralyzed. But within the Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) community, she found allies in her quest to discover who she is now and to dance with disability. When a cutting-edge trial surfaces, it tests her expectations of a possible cure. She finds herself both scared it might not work—and scared that it might.

Young musicians in a youth orchestra in Venezuela's Las Brisas district strive for a better life through classical music.

Robin Rue Simmons and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) pressure the government to deliver monetary justice for Blacks harmed by chattel slavery, systemic injustice and corporate exploitation.

When Alison Bechdel received a coveted MacArthur Award for her best-selling graphic memoir Fun Home, it heralded the acceptance of LGBTQ+ comics in American culture. From DIY underground comix scene to mainstream acceptance, meet five smart and funny queer comics artists whose uncensored commentary left no topic untouched and explored art as a tool for social change.

The vibrant life of Ernest Withers—civil rights photographer, and FBI informant—was anything but black and white. From his Memphis studio, Withers' nearly 2 million images were a treasured record of Black history but his legacy was complicated by decades of secret FBI service revealed only after his death. Was he a friend of the civil rights community, or enemy—or both?

Wade into the rich soil of Pahokee, Florida, a town on the banks of Lake Okeechobee. Beyond its football legacy, including sending over a dozen players to the NFL (like Anquan Boldin, Fred Taylor, and Rickey Jackson), the fiercely self-determined community tells their stories of Black achievement and resilience in the face of tragic storms and personal trauma.

As fentanyl overdose deaths in Vancouver, Canada reach an all-time high, the Overdose Prevention Society opens its doors—a renegade safe injection site that employs current or former drug users. Its staff and volunteers save lives and give hope to a marginalized community, doing whatever it takes to remain open in this intimate documentary that looks beyond the stigma of injection drug users.

After losing her job as a hotel worker in Las Vegas, Ruby Duncan joined a welfare rights group of mothers who defied notions of the "welfare queen." In a fight for guaranteed income, Ruby and other equality activists took on the Nevada mob in organizing a massive protest that shut down Caesars Palace.

For centuries in China, the once-secret written language of Nüshu was calligraphed on folded fans and handkerchiefs as hidden letters so women could share stories and express solidarity in a repressive era when many women were denied literacy. Confronting patriarchy, two modern women find solace in Nüshu, rediscovering connections between traditional Chinese womanhood and contemporary feminism.

The rollercoaster life story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant wrongfully convicted of murder.

Three people with ALS confront complex choices in this intimate exploration.

In this coming-of-age documentary about generational trauma, follow Sam Harkness from age 11 to 36 as his middle-class Seattle family is heartbroken and unsure of what to do after his mother suddenly abandons them. Woven together with home movies lovingly crafted by Sam's half brother, director Reed Harkness, witness a boy grow up grappling with the ripple effects of a singular traumatic event.

One woman's journey to heal from childhood sexual abuse evolves into a family bonding over generational trauma.

Conservative, Christian beliefs have defined their lives. Now they're championing their LGBTQ children.

How does a father find purpose in pain? In 2014, Michael Brown Sr.'s son was killed by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, an event that fueled the global Black Lives Matter movement. But his personal story seeking justice and healing has not been told until now.

Does American democracy survive without the backbone of independent local journalism? Go inside The Storm Lake Times, a newspaper serving an Iowa town that has seen its fair share of changes in the 40 years since Big Agriculture came to the area. Pulitzer-winning editor Art Cullen and his family dedicate themselves to keeping the paper alive as local journalism across the country dies out.

75-year-old Rebecca loses the only job she's even known. She has no savings, no 401K safety net, and no employment prospects. Rebecca teams up with son Sian-Pierre to take the trip of a lifetime, one bucket list adventure at a time. Her journey uncovers the economic insecurity faced by millions of Americans.

"Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." This was the guiding principle that removed thousands of Native American children and placed them in Indian boarding schools. Among the many who died at Carlisle Indian Industrial School were three Northern Arapaho boys. Now, more than a century later, tribal members journey from Wyoming to Pennsylvania to help them finally come home.

A white filmmaker collaborates with Clemente Course students of color to reckon with Boston's racial history. 

The deadliest part of a migrant's journey is just beyond the border. For those missing, one man offers a last hope. 

Is the "American Dream" of home ownership a false promise? While the government's postwar housing policy created the world's largest middle class, it also set America on two divergent paths – one of perceived wealth and the other of systematically defunded, segregated communities.

What is the science behind consciousness? Six brilliant researchers from around the world—a brain scientist, a plant behaviorist, a healer, a philosophy professor, a psychedelics scientist, and a Buddhist monk—take you on a mind-blowing quest to investigate this seemingly unsolvable mystery.

In Milwaukee, a 15-year-old attempted to carjack law student Claude Motley and shot him in the face. Through multiple surgeries and catastrophic health care bills, the effects of gun violence upends Claude's life. Yet he still finds himself torn between punishment for the young man and the injustice of mass incarceration for Black men and boys. Can he find mercy in his heart for his attacker?

Three Indigenous students experience the highs and lows of adolescence while attending one of the most remote high schools in the United States. Living in the uniquely beautiful but isolated Diné community within the Navajo Nation reservation, they navigate life as teenagers and dream of a glittering future.

A Seattle-based restorative justice program based on Indigenous peacemaking circles aims to bring healing to families and communities while breaking the cycle of incarceration. 

Follow artist Matt Furie, creator of Pepe the Frog, as he fights to take back his cartoon image.

Meet three women fighting to reshape local politics on their own terms.

Follow Jonathan Scott on his mission to flip the switch on how Americans access power.

Hear the horrifying truth about modern-day eugenics and reproductive injustice in California prison.

On July 4, 2017, more than 90 film crews across the country capture one day in the life of America.

Female Minneapolis police officers seek gender equity. A fatal shooting threatens their progress.

Mr. SOUL! explores the first nationally broadcast all-Black variety show on public television, Ellis Haizlip's SOUL! 

In an increasingly data-driven, automated world, the question of how to protect individuals' civil liberties in the face of artificial intelligence looms larger by the day. Coded Bias follows M.I.T. Media Lab computer scientist Joy Buolamwini and her Algorithmic Justice League, along with data scientists, mathematicians, and watchdog groups from all over the world, as they fight to expose the discrimination within facial recognition algorithms now prevalent across all spheres of daily life. Join the fight to expose threats to civil liberties posed by our new data-driven, automated world. 

Pastors encourage an impoverished community to donate to Israel in anticipation of Jesus's return.

Two marginalized communities must navigate an uneven criminal justice system together.

The life story of Christy's Donuts founder Ted Ngoy, who built a multimillion-dollar company in the U.S. after fleeing Cambodia. 

A Muslim casket maker in East Orange, N.J., teaches two young men how to embrace life as they learn about the Islamic burial tradition. 

Two women, one American and one Vietnamese, fight to hold the chemical industry accountable for a devastating legacy. 

Go inside the lives of four surrogates and the intended parents whose children they carry.

Discover why the Bronx burned in the 1970s and meet those who chose to resist, remain and rebuild.

The Interpreters is a poignant but tense portrayal of a very human and high-stakes side of war's aftermath. It's the story of how Afghan and Iraqi interpreters risked their lives aiding American troops--but then became the people we left behind and are now in danger themselves.

A Somalian father living in the U.S. strives to understand why his son would try to join ISIS.

Notable community groups in 1960s Chicago bridge race and ethnicity to form a surprising alliance.

Cooked: Survival by Zip Code tells the story of the tragic 1995 Chicago heatwave, the most traumatic in U.S. history, in which 739 citizens died over the course of just a single week, most of them poor, elderly, and African American. Cooked is a story about life, death, and the politics of crisis in an American city that asks the question: Was this a one-time tragedy, or an appalling trend?

Witness Creationism and science collide aboard an enormous Noah's Ark in rural Kentucky.

Always in Season follows the tragedy of African American teenager Lennon Lacy, who in August 2014, was found hanging from a swing set in North Carolina. His death was ruled a suicide, but Lennon's mother and family believe he was lynched. The film chronicles her quest to learn the truth and takes a closer look at the lingering impact of more than a century of lynching African Americans.

Explore the untold history and rippling impact of China's former one-child policy.

A psychiatrist visits ERs, jails and homeless camps to tell poignant stories behind mental illness.

Brett Story's critically acclaimed documentary The Hottest August raises the specter of climate change without ever mentioning it, spotlighting ordinary New Yorkers as they share their anxieties about what the future holds while bracing for what could be one of the hottest months on record.

The story of one warmhearted, stubborn man's visionary quest to find a cure for cancer, Jim Allison: Breakthrough is an homage to an unconventional superhero — a pioneering, harmonica-playing scientist from a small town in Texas who triumphed over a doubtful medical establishment to save innumerable lives around the world and win the Nobel Prize.

See how Easter Island provides a climate change and globalization wake-up call for the world.

Look inside the life of a radical activist who videotaped everything on television for 30 years.

Follow four ultra-talented young people playing in the Canadian International Organ Competition.

Meet a wildland firefighting crew whose members struggle with fear, loyalty, love and defeat.

Reveals the untold story and devastating impacts of Indigenous child removal in the U.S.

Explore the shadow industry of "content moderators" and learn who controls what we see online.

Meet the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East's Shari'a courts.

Meet the white preacher who set himself on fire to bring awareness to the racism in his Texas town.

See North Dakota's oil boom through the lens of a family fighting to save their way of life.

Go deep in the bayous where locals face invasive pests. Man vs. rodent: may the best mammal win.

Take an electrifying look at the Native American influence in popular music, despite attempts to ban, censor and erase Indian culture.

Climb into Elvis' 1963 Rolls-Royce for a musical road trip and meditation on modern America.

Meet the people who reproduce, consume and seek to reclaim black memorabilia.

Visit Hale County, Alabama for an intimate and eye-opening look at life in the South's Black Belt.

For young Chinese raised on social media, virtual relationships are replacing real-life connections.

Meet three of the estimated one in 14 American children growing up with a parent in prison.

Meet the rural doctors trying to care for patients amidst a physician shortage and opioid epidemic.

Get to know the people on the front lines of three years of unparalleled violence in Baltimore.

Hear the story of two Native Hawaiian prisoners sent 3,000 miles to a for-profit prison in Arizona.

Meet the unsung people who play a critical role in making some of Napa Valley's greatest wines.

Meet the statesman who served as cabinet secretary for Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.

Explore the life of jazz great John Coltrane; Denzel Washington speaks the words of Coltrane.

Explore the billion-dollar global arms trade through those who perpetrate and investigate it.

Meet Naomi, an Orthodox Jewish girl with a surprising talent: breaking world powerlifting records.

Follow filmmaker Jennifer Brea's struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in this intimate film.

Explore James Baldwin's unfinished book about race in America in this Oscar-nominated documentary.

Go deep inside the long-troubled Oakland Police Department as it struggles with demands for reform.

Join Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang and a charming young drifter as they explore freedom and America.

Explore the life of Winnie Mandela and her struggle to bring down apartheid.

The rich history of America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) began before the end of slavery, flourished in the 20th century, and profoundly influenced the course of the nation for over 150 years — yet remains largely unknown. With Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities, the latest documentary from Stanley Nelson (Black Panthers, Freedom Riders) and Marco Williams, the powerful story of the rise, influence, and evolution of HBCUs comes to life.  A haven for Black intellectuals, artists, and revolutionaries — and a path of promise toward the American dream — HBCUs have educated the architects of freedom movements and cultivated leaders in every field while remaining unapologetically Black for more than 150 years. These institutions have nurtured some of the most influential Americans of our time, from Booker T. Washington to Martin Luther King, Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois to Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison to Oprah Winfrey, Alice Walker to Spike Lee to Common. A key driver of Black social, political, and economic progress, HBCUs were also a place of unprecedented freedom for African American students and a refuge from the rampant racism raging outside the campus walls. Tell Them We Are Rising captures this important history to tell the dynamic story of Americans who refused to be denied a higher education and — in their resistance — created a set of institutions that would influence and shape the landscape of the country for centuries to come.

Trace Baltimore's history through a film that uses rats to chronicle oppression in poor communities.

Meet the indomitable Dolores Huerta, who has tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice.

Explore the journey of Iranian musician Shahin Najafi after clerics issue a fatwa for his death.

Meet the unforgettable people who are turning the job of shoe shiner into an art form.

Travel to West Virginia to uncover the truth behind a massive chemical spill.

Look & See: Wendell Berry's Kentuckyis a portrait of the changing landscapes and shifting values of rural America through the voice of writer, farmer, and activist Wendell Berry. Centered in his native Henry County, Kentucky,Look & Seeis an elegy to a lost way of life that was once the bedrock of America–the culture of agriculture.

There's a new detective agency in Dallas, run by three exonerated men who all spent decades in prison. Their mission: to free other innocent people still behind bars.After serving a combined 60 years in prison for crimes they did not commit, three recently exonerated Texans — Christopher Scott, Johnnie Lindsey and Steven Phillips — join forces to form the unlikeliest of investigative teams, on a mission to help wrongfully convicted prisoners obtain freedom like they did. Scott, a dad and grandfather, formed House of Renewed Hope to help fight for the gift of "a second chance at life." In True Conviction, brotherly bonds are formed out of shared hardships — lengthy prison sentences in a state that executes more inmates than any other.

Go inside the 2016 standoff at Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Explore the charged battle to take down ACORN, a controversial national community-organizing group.

Join five women rebuilding their lives with humor and heart in the Ms. Veteran America Competition.

The debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley during the 1968 political conventions.

Explore the influence of culture and identity on an intense, personal, important part of life - love.

Join a quirky young woman on a journey of self-discovery that celebrates outcasts everywhere.

Governments around the world struggle to protect future generations from nuclear waste; excerpt from "Uranium Drive-In.''

Join a group of Native Americans as they embark on a journey to reclaim lost tribal artifacts.

Get a fresh look at the notorious 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, a crime that defined an era.

Learn how Griffith's 1915 The Birth of a Nation sparked a dialogue on racism that continues today.

Meet an African American musician out to challenge racism by befriending members of the KKK.

Explore the deadly 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas through interviews with survivors.

Visit a remote Mojave Desert high school where educators help at-risk students build better futures.

Join the East LA bike crew Ovarian Psycos and explore the impact of their unique brand of feminism.

Explore the aftermath and resilience of a community devastated by the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook.

Follow passionate seed keepers determined to protect humanity's 12,000-year-old food legacy.

Hear Jewish comics discuss whether any topic - even the Holocaust - should be off-limits in comedy.

Investigate the U.S. drone war with two women and a former NSA analyst who become whistleblowers.

Explore how the tentacles of America's criminal justice system reach far beyond the prison walls.

Two Muslim soccer players picked up by Israel's Beitar Jerusalem F.C. are subjected to racist attacks by their own fans.

Step behind the walls of the facility where Los Angeles houses its most violent juvenile criminals.

An Army combat veteran manages his PTSD and becomes a farmer in North Carolina following his deployments in Iraq.

Meet Bennett, a transgender teen on a journey to find his voice as a musician, a son and a man.

Cameras follow an unconventional veteran of the Vietnam War as he rides his motorcycle with fellow servicemen to the Vietnam Memorial and runs a business with his wife while contending with the conflict's legacy and reaching out to others.

The rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi, India, sparks an international movement.

A 92-year-old woman, still caring for her 64-year-old disabled daughter, realizes it is time to find her daughter a new home.

Born in Mexico but living in Salinas, California, 3rd-grader Jose Ansaldo loves school. With little support at home, he turns to his teacher, Oscar Ramos, who like Jose was born the son of migrant farm workers, and who inspires him to imagine a life beyond the fields. Jose dutifully finishes his math homework before eating dinner or watching TV. He's anxious to get good grades so he can join the class field trip to the beach — a place he's never been despite living on the California coast. Follow Jose's quest for a better life away from the rough streets of LA.

A black market VHS racketeer and a female translator bring the magic of film to Romanians during the 1980s.

Four adults with varying degrees of autism navigate dating, romance and relationships.

Polynesian-American high-school football players in Utah aim for careers in pro sports while dealing with day-to-day gang violence and poverty.

The history of Mexican-American women who were sterilized against their will during the 1960s and '70s at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

Few dancers reach the elite level of ballet; of that already small number only a fraction are black women. Misty Copeland shattered those barriers in 2015, making history as the first African American principal dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre (ABT).A Ballerina's Tale intimately documents Copeland's historic rise while shining a light on the absence of women of color at major ballet companies. The film also explores how ballet's emphasis on waifish bodies impacts the health of ballerinas while sending a negative message to young fans.

Meet three street recyclers who fight to survive in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Oakland, CA.

Visit the front lines of the fight over controversial laws designed to restrict abortion access.

T-Rex: Her Fight for Gold is the coming-of-age story of boxing phenom Claressa Shields, who was just 17 years old when she won the Olympic gold medal for women's boxing in 2012. Now with a record of 69-1, she is ranked number one in the world heading into her second Olympic competition, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games.

Get an unflinching look at the effects of bullying on the lives of five kids and their families.

Examine the inextricable bond between adopted twins reared apart.

Examine the Japanese pursuit of efficiency, even at the expense of safety.

See a man who provides illegal electrical services in India and the woman trying to dismantle them.

See how television may affect a Bhutanese child isolated from commerce, materialism and celebrity.

Witness the challenges, hopes and dreams of three boys in an economically depressed Missouri town.

Learn about a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan who tried to alert military to war crimes committed by his platoon.

Sequel to the series based on Half the Sky, as Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn track stories of women overcoming gender-based oppression, sexual violence and sex trafficking

Explore the power of unconscious biases, using Myrdal's 1944 investigation of Jim Crow racism.

See what happens when a filmmaker unlocks a powerful family secret about her real father's identity.

See how the burning of 10 churches ignited the largest criminal investigation in East Texas history.

Follow three ambitious Chicago teens who fight to stay in school, graduate and build a future.

Watch a transgendered teacher inspire a young girl to claim leadership of an all-male hula troupe.

Follow the evolution of daredevil choreographer Elizabeth Streb's movement philosophy.

Hear from eight citizens who stole secret FBI files and shared them with the public and the press.

Meet one of the first gay couples to marry, and learn about their 40-year fight for legal status.

Follow the personal journey of Arnel Pineda, of the rock band Journey, on a whirlwind world tour.

View the healthcare system through the eyes of those stuck in an ER waiting room in Oakland.

Watch two young playwrights, African- and Indian-American, create a new language for the stage.

Go back to school in Frederick Wiseman's intimate and sprawling documentary about UC Berkeley.

Trace Rocky Braat's journey from America to India, where he devotes his life to HIV-infected orphans.

Witness the tense emotions and complex realities behind Arizona's struggle with illegal immigration.

Learn about a spy agency formed by the state of Mississippi in the 50s-60s to preserve segregation.

Follow the Mexican-American girls who help preserve the Martha Washington debutante ball in Laredo.

Follow a down-but-not-out basketball team whose struggles parallel its town's fight for survival.

See how the eight band members test their father's ideals against their own brotherly vision.

Track Ali's battle to overturn his five-year prison sentence for refusing U.S. military service.

See how the African-American community grapples with the divisive gay rights issue.

Spend time in Janesville, Wisconsin - the front lines of the debate over the future of the middle class.

Experience the struggles and triumphs of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay elected bishop.

Explore India's Barefoot College, which gives impoverished women skills to change their communities.

Witness the economic disparities faced by New Yorkers only minutes from one another as the crow flies.

Learn about soul food's relevance to black cultural identity.

Enter the world of artist Wayne White, an iconic auteur of the weird, the silly and the joyfully absurd.

Learn why the textbook tempest in Texas is jeopardizing the next generation's education.

Follow Whitney Young's journey from segregated Kentucky to head of the National Urban League.

Learn about the life and work of celebrated Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei.

Explore the human-rights implications of the nation's least winnable war-the war on drugs.

See how President Mohamed Nasheed is trying to prevent the drowning of 385,000 Maldivians.

Meet the Arizonans who try to identify the bodies of illegal crossers lost in the desert.

View the love story between an aging white man and the Chinese bride he finds online.

Hear about the epidemic of rape and sexual assault within the ranks of the U.S. military.

Learn how Detroit residents are ready to create a radically new post-industrial city.

Witness the transformation some of the poorest slums of Kolkata through the empowerment of children.

After the murder of resistance leader Steven Biko, young people in the West join a movement to isolate South Africa.

African Americans lead a grassroots movement to force the United States to reverse its policies toward South Africa.

A grassroots boycott and divestment campaign targets Western corporations doing business with the South African regime.

The apartheid regime in Pretoria crumbles under pressure, and the freed Nelson Mandela is elected president of a democratic South Africa.

As a black woman who was a feminist before the term was invented, Daisy Bates refused to accept her assigned place in society. Learn why this unconventional revolutionary paid dearly for her instant fame.

Find out why an African-American filmmaker wants to end Black History Month.

Experience a total immersion into the fragmented day-to-day experience of a man with Alzheimer's.

Every day, millions tune in to SESAME STREET to see one of the world's most adored and recognizable characters - a furry red monster named Elmo. Yet, with all of Elmo's fame, the man behind the icon is able to walk down the street without being recognized.

Explore Haiti's complex past and present through the music of the country's oldest and best-known band.

Review the rich history of human sustenance, exploitation, conservation and spiritual relations with the ultimate icon of wild America: bison.

Accompany the Ponce family circus as it struggles to make a living in Mexico's collapsing rural economy.

Get a rare view of an insular community seldom seen by outsiders: nomads living in the high grasslands of eastern Tibet.

Watch as student leaders in Tucson High School's Mexican American Studies Program fight to save their classes.

With four Amerasian children, delve into the consequences of the U.S. military presence in the Philippines.

Witness the overlapping stories of a Marine at war and the same Marine in recovery at home.

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 for dignity and a cure.

Follow a champion weightlifter who struggles to defend her status as her career inches towards its end.

A profile of Hannah Senesh (1921-44), a heroic Jewish woman from Budapest who, although safe in British-controlled Palestine, joined a 1944 mission to rescue fellow Jews---including her mother---from the Nazis. She was captured, tortured and executed by the Gestapo, a fate witnessed by her mother. The documentary features remarks from classmates, fellow kibbutz members, fellow prisoners and her nephews, and also includes photos and excerpts from her letters.