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Independent Lens

1999 – nowShow28 seasons544 episodesTV-PG

Documentary
49
MediocreGoodWatch score
IMDb8.1
49
MediocreGoodWatch score
IMDb8.1

Summary

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.

Good for

  • Friends night
  • Teens
  • Drop-in friendly

Where to watch

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Not for scares, adrenaline or laughs.

Shows with

Independent Lens episodes

28 seasons · 544 episodes

  1. S1 E1 Wannabe: Life and Death in a Small Town Gang, 7.4
  1. S5 E2 Foto-Novelas 2: Broken Sky/Junkyard Saints, 7.6
  2. S5 E5 Be Good, Smile Pretty, 7.8
  3. S5 E16 Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew, 8.2
  4. S5 E22 The Weather Underground, 7.6
  5. S5 E25 Death of a Shaman, 7.7
  6. S5 E27 Sumo East and West, 7.4
  1. S6 E1 The Political Dr. Seuss, 7.8
  2. S6 E9 A Hard Straight, 8.3
  3. S6 E10 A Touch of Greatness, 8.5
  4. S6 E17 Let the Church Say Amen, 1.0
  5. S6 E18 A Lion's Trail, 6.8
  6. S6 E22 Imelda, 7.3
  1. S7 E1 Parliament Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove, 7.3
  2. S7 E6 Race Is the Place, 7.0
  3. S7 E8 Seoul Train, 7.8
  4. S7 E14 July '64, 8.6
  5. S7 E15 Almost Home, 9.2
  6. S7 E18 Taking the Heat: The First Women Firefighters of New York City, 9.0
  7. S7 E23 Fishbowl/American Made, 9.2
  1. S8 E7 A Sad Flower in the Sand, 6.7
  2. S8 E14 Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life, 9.3
  3. S8 E15 Motherland Afghanistan, 7.2
  4. S8 E16 Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, 8.6
  5. S8 E17 Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?, 8.4
  6. S8 E18 Stolen, 7.1
  7. S8 E19 Race to Execution, 8.5
  8. S8 E20 China Blue, 8.7
  9. S8 E22 Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, 7.8
  10. S8 E26 The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, 8.3
  11. S8 E27 La Lupe: Queen of Latin Soul, 8.0
  1. S9 E2 Please Vote for Me, 7.3
  2. S9 E11 Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, 6.2
  3. S9 E14 Banished, 5.9
  4. S9 E24 The Cool School, 7.6
  1. S10 E1 Chicago 10, 8.1
  2. S10 E6 The Atom Smashers, 6.5
  3. S10 E9 Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway, 7.5
  4. S10 E22 Crips and Bloods: Made in America, 7.4
  5. S10 E23 Stranded: The Andes Plane Crash Survivors, 8.0
  1. S11 E2 Herb and Dorothy, 6.7
  2. S11 E7 No Subtitles Necessary: László and Vilmos, 7.7
  3. S11 E8 Objectified, 6.2
  4. S11 E9 Between the Folds, 7.3
  5. S11 E11 Young@Heart, 7.7
  6. S11 E12 Copyright Criminals, 7.9
  7. S11 E18 Lost Souls, 7.9
  1. S12 E1 The Parking Lot Movie, 5.1
  2. S12 E3 Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian, 8.4
  3. S12 E4 The Longoria Affair, 8.0
  4. S12 E6 Deep Down, 7.7
  5. S12 E8 The Calling: Part I, 6.4
  6. S12 E13 When I Rise, 6.0
  7. S12 E14 William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, 6.8
  8. S12 E15 Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story, 7.6
  9. S12 E21 A Film Unfinished, 7.8
  1. S13 E1 Wham! Bam! Islam!, 6.5
  2. S13 E7 These Amazing Shadows, 8.3
  3. S13 E14 The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, 5.9
  4. S13 E15 More Than a Month, 7.2
  5. S13 E16 You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't, 7.2
  6. S13 E17 Being Elmo, 7.0
  7. S13 E18 When the Drum is Beating, 3.0
  8. S13 E19 Revenge of the Electric Car, 8.0
  9. S13 E20 Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison, 7.0
  10. S13 E23 Precious Knowledge, 7.4
  11. S13 E26 We Were Here, 8.5
  1. S14 E1 As Goes Janesville, 6.7
  2. S14 E4 Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream, 8.1
  3. S14 E5 Soul Food Junkies, 7.2
  4. S14 E6 Beauty Is Embarrasing, 8.3
  5. S14 E7 The Revisionaries, 7.0
  6. S14 E8 The Powerbroker: Whitney Young's Fight for Civil Rights, 7.8
  7. S14 E9 Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, 6.0
  8. S14 E11 Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines the Film Get Involved Talkback, 7.0
  9. S14 E13 The Undocumented, 5.2
  10. S14 E14 Seeking Asian Female, 7.4
  11. S14 E18 Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey, 7.0
  12. S14 E20 The Revolutionary Optimists, 7.8
  1. S15 E4 Young Lakota, 7.6
  2. S15 E5 Playwright: From Page to Stage, 7.4
  3. S15 E6 Jiro Dreams of Sushi, 8.8
  4. S15 E7 How to Survive a Plague, 8.4
  5. S15 E8 At Berkeley, 7.9
  6. S15 E9 Blood Brother, 7.5
  7. S15 E10 The State of Arizona, 6.0
  8. S15 E11 Spies of Mississippi, 6.7
  9. S15 E16 The Trials of Muhammad Ali, 6.6
  10. S15 E17 Muscle Shoals, 8.6
  11. S15 E18 A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at the New York Times, 7.0
  12. S15 E19 Let the Fire Burn, 7.2
  13. S15 E20 God Loves Uganda, 4.9
  1. S16 E1 Bully, 8.8
  2. S16 E2 Twin Sisters, 8.5
  3. S16 E3 Brakeless, 6.2
  4. S16 E4 Powerless, 7.6
  5. S16 E5 Happiness, 8.0
  6. S16 E6 Rich Hill, 7.6
  7. S16 E7 Evolution of a Criminal, 6.6
  8. S16 E8 The Kill Team, 7.6
  9. S16 E10 American Denial, 8.5
  10. S16 E11 Little White Lie, 7.4
  11. S16 E12 Little Hope Was Arson, 8.0
  12. S16 E14 The Great Invisible, 7.3
  13. S16 E15 Kumu Hina, 8.4
  14. S16 E17 1971, 7.6
  15. S16 E18 Limited Partnership, 7.5
  1. S17 E1 Stray Dog, 7.8
  2. S17 E2 India's Daughter, 8.9
  3. S17 E3 Mimi and Dona, 7.8
  4. S17 E4 East of Salinas, 7.1
  5. S17 E5 Chuck Norris vs. Communism, 7.5
  6. S17 E6 Autism in Love, 8.1
  7. S17 E7 No Más Bebés, 7.6
  8. S17 E9 A Ballerina's Tale, 7.2
  9. S17 E10 The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, 8.7
  10. S17 E11 (T)error, 6.1
  11. S17 E12 Wilhemina's War, 6.9
  12. S17 E13 An Honest Liar, 8.0
  13. S17 E14 Welcome to Leith, 7.2
  14. S17 E17 My Nazi Legacy, 8.0
  15. S17 E19 The Armor of Light, 6.6
  16. S17 E20 Dogtown Redemption, 7.0
  17. S17 E21 Trapped, 7.4
  18. S17 E22 T-rex Her Fight for Gold, 6.9
  1. S18 E1 Best of Enemies, 7.5
  2. S18 E3 Best and Most Beautiful Things, 6.2
  3. S18 E5 What Was Ours, 8.1
  4. S18 E6 The Witness, 8.1
  5. S18 E7 Birth of a Movement, 7.4
  6. S18 E20 Real Boy, 7.4
  1. S19 E10 Rat Film, 6.7
  2. S19 E12 Dolores, 7.2
  3. S19 E14 When God Sleeps, 5.6
  4. S19 E15 The Art of the Shine, 7.2
  5. S19 E16 What Lies Upstream, 7.1
  6. S19 E17 Look & See: Wendell Berry's Kentucky, 7.4
  7. S19 E18 True Conviction, 7.8
  8. S19 E19 No Man's Land, 7.0
  9. S19 E20 ACORN and the Firestorm, 7.3
  10. S19 E21 Served Like a Girl, 7.5
  1. S20 E1 Wildland, 8.0
  2. S20 E4 The Judge, 8.0
  3. S20 E5 Man on Fire, 7.4
  4. S20 E6 My Country No More, 6.8
  5. S20 E7 Rodents of Unusual Size, 7.0
  6. S20 E8 Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, 8.1
  7. S20 E9 The King, 6.7
  8. S20 E10 Black Memorabilia, 6.0
  9. S20 E11 Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 8.4
  10. S20 E12 Hale County This Morning, This Evening, 6.1
  11. S20 E16 Charm City, 7.2
  1. S21 E2 Decade of Fire, 7.7
  2. S21 E3 The Interpreters, 7.2
  3. S21 E4 Conscience Point; Jewel's Hunt, 7.2
  4. S21 E5 Attla, 7.5
  5. S21 E7 The First Rainbow Coalition, 7.6
  6. S21 E8 Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, 6.9
  7. S21 E9 Leftover Women, 7.4
  8. S21 E10 We Believe in Dinosaurs, 7.4
  9. S21 E11 Always in Season, 6.5
  10. S21 E12 One Child Nation, 8.0
  11. S21 E13 Bedlam, 8.0
  12. S21 E15 Jim Allison: Breakthrough, 6.7
  13. S21 E16 Rewind, 8.3
  14. S21 E17 Eating Up Easter, 7.8
  15. S21 E18 Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, 7.3
  16. S21 E20 Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 8.2
  1. S22 E1 Feels Good Man, 7.8
  2. S22 E2 Represent, 5.8
  3. S22 E3 Jonathan Scott's Power Trip, 7.3
  4. S22 E4 Belly of the Beast, 8.0
  5. S22 E5 A Woman's Work: The NFL's Cheerleader Problem, 7.3
  6. S22 E6 A Day in the Life of America, 6.8
  7. S22 E7 9 to 5: The Story of a Movement, 8.3
  8. S22 E9 Mr. SOUL!, 7.6
  9. S22 E10 Coded Bias, 7.2
  10. S22 E12 Down a Dark Stairwell, 7.4
  11. S22 E13 The Donut King, 7.9
  12. S22 E15 The People vs. Agent Orange, 8.3
  1. S23 E1 Cured, 8.0
  2. S23 E2 Ferguson Rises, 6.8
  3. S23 E3 Storm Lake, 7.7
  4. S23 E4 Duty Free, 7.7
  5. S23 E5 Home From School: The Children of Carlisle, 7.9
  6. S23 E6 A Reckoning in Boston, 7.1
  7. S23 E7 Missing in Brooks County, 7.7
  8. S23 E8 Owned: A Tale of Two Americas, 8.0
  9. S23 E9 Bulletproof, 7.3
  10. S23 E10 Apart, 7.5
  11. S23 E11 Writing with Fire, 8.0
  12. S23 E12 AWARE: Glimpses of Consciousness, 8.0
  13. S23 E13 Try Harder!, 7.7
  14. S23 E14 When Claude Got Shot, 7.8
  15. S23 E15 Scenes From the Glittering World, 6.2
  1. S24 E1 Hazing, 6.6
  2. S24 E2 TikTok, Boom., 7.7
  3. S24 E4 Children of Las Brisas, 7.0
  4. S24 E5 The Big Payback, 6.1
  5. S24 E6 No Straight Lines, 7.2
  6. S24 E7 The Picture Taker, 7.5
  7. S24 E8 Outta the Muck, 6.8
  8. S24 E9 Love in the Time of Fentanyl, 8.8
  9. S24 E11 Hidden Letters, 6.8
  10. S24 E12 Free Chol Soo Lee, 7.5
  11. S24 E13 Matter of Mind: My ALS, 8.6
  12. S24 E14 Sam Now, 8.0
  13. S24 E15 Silent Beauty, 6.9
  14. S24 E16 Mama Bears, 7.4
  1. S25 E1 Sansón and Me, 5.9
  2. S25 E2 El Equipo, 7.6
  3. S25 E3 Three Chaplains, 6.7
  4. S25 E4 A Town Called Victoria: Part 1, 7.4
  5. S25 E5 A Town Called Victoria: Part 2, 7.6
  6. S25 E6 A Town Called Victoria: Part 3, 7.8
  7. S25 E7 Beyond Utopia, 8.6
  8. S25 E8 Racist Trees, 6.2
  9. S25 E9 Razing Liberty Square, 6.5
  10. S25 E10 Sister Úna Lived a Good Death, 8.0
  11. S25 E11 Breaking the News, 6.1
  12. S25 E12 Greener Pastures, 8.4
  13. S25 E13 A Thousand Pines, 7.8
  14. S25 E14 Matter of Mind: My Parkinson's, 7.8
  15. S25 E15 One with the Whale, 7.5
  16. S25 E16 Space: The Longest Goodbye, 7.0
  17. S25 E17 The Tuba Thieves, 6.1
  1. S26 E1 One Person, One Vote?, 6.3
  2. S26 E8 Minted, 8.0
  3. S26 E9 Without Arrows, 5.5
  4. S26 E10 The Strike, 6.8
  5. S26 E11 The In Between, 5.6
  6. S26 E12 Skin of Glass, 7.3
  7. S26 E13 Bike Vessel, 7.8
  8. S26 E14 Home Court, 7.8
  9. S26 E15 We Want the Funk!, 7.8
  10. S26 E16 Free for All: The Public Library, 8.6
  11. S26 E17 Matter of Mind: My Alzheimer's, 7.7
  12. S26 E19 Who Is Michael Jang?, 8.0
  1. S27 E1 Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution, 8.1
  2. S27 E2 Ratified, 6.8
  3. S27 E3 Life After, 7.2
  4. S27 E5 The Librarians, 8.6
  5. S27 E6 The Inquisitor, 7.6
  6. S27 E7 Keep Quiet and Forgive, 7.9
  7. S27 E8 The Tallest Dwarf, 7.6
  8. S27 E10 Natchez, 7.6
  9. S27 E11 Light of the Setting Sun, 6.3
  10. S27 E12 Third Act, 7.2
  11. S27 E14 True North: Canadian Myths and Black Power, 6.4
  12. S27 E15 Flood, 7.2
  1. S28 E1 Ghost in the Machine, 7.3
  2. S28 E3 , 7.6

Cast

10 of 10 · most episodes first

Crew

Directors
Alex Gibney, Marco Williams, Geeta Patel
Written by
Alex Gibney, Geeta Patel, Chris Tashima
Produced by
Lois Vossen, Connie Field, Tami Yeager
Music by
David Robbins, Sharon Jones

Everyone

Pick a department, or search for a name or a job (“editor”, “stunt”).

Facts

August 9, 1999 · September 21, 2026 · Still running

First aired
August 9, 1999
Latest episode
September 21, 2026
Status
Still running
Length
28 seasons · 544 episodes
Age rating
TV-PG
Content
Strong Language, Drug Use, Sexual Content
Genres
Documentary
Original language
English
Made in
United States
Available in
1 country

Q&A

6 questions, like "Where can I stream Independent Lens?"

Questions about Independent Lens

Quick answers from GoodWatch data.

Where can I stream Independent Lens?

YouTube TVPBSKQEDThirteenWETA+

In the United States, Independent Lens streams on YouTube TV, PBS, Thirteen, and WETA+, and it is free with ads on KQED.

Is Independent Lens worth watching?

49
MediocreGoodWatch score

Reviews are weak, with a GoodWatch score of 49 (IMDb 8.1). Season 9 is the weak spot, with an IMDb average of 6.7 against 8.5 for the best season.

Which season of Independent Lens is best?

Season 7, with an IMDb average of 8.5. Season 9 is the weakest at 6.7. The highest-rated episode is Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life (season 8, episode 14) at 9.3, and the lowest is Let the Church Say Amen (season 6, episode 17) at 1.0.

Is Independent Lens okay for kids?

TV-PGStrong languageDrug useSexual content

Not for young kids: it's rated TV-PG in the United States for strong language, drug use, and sexual content, and the viewing guide lists it for teens and adults.

How long does it take to watch Independent Lens?

544 h

About 544 hours: 544 episodes in 28 seasons of about 60 minutes each since 1999, and it's still in production.

Is Independent Lens plot-driven or character-driven?

CharactersPlot

Mostly character-driven: it leans on character depth (8 of 10) and pathos (7 of 10) more than on its plot.