National Screening Series Returns With Sneak Previews of PBS’s INDEPENDENT LENS Documentaries Followed By Community-Driven Conversations
INDEPENDENT LENS announced the launch of the new season of Indie Lens Pop-Up, the long-running community screening series that has brought people together for community-driven conversations around its thought-provoking documentaries.
Through its roster of documentary projects this season, Indie Lens Pop-Up will ignite conversations on a range of topics impacting communities around the U.S., including climate gentrification, and race and gender equity in mainstream media. This season’s topics also aim to expand perspectives through deeply personal stories, like what it means to live with Parkinson’s disease, and how the Deaf and hard of hearing community redefine what it means to listen. Each film will make its television debut on INDEPENDENT LENS, PBS’s award-winning documentary anthology series, and will be available to stream on the PBS App.
The 2024 Indie Lens Pop-Up lineup includes the following documentaries:
Katja Esson’s “Razing Liberty Square” chronicles a public housing community in Miami that becomes ground zero for climate gentrification.
“Breaking the News” from filmmakers Heather Courtney, Princess A. Hairston, Chelsea Hernandez, and Diane M Quon sheds light on a group of women and LGBTQ+ journalists who launch The 19th*, a news startup bucking the status quo.
“Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s” from filmmakers Anna Moot-Levin and Laura Green follows three people as they navigate their lives, with resourcefulness and determination, in the face of a degenerative illness, Parkinson’s disease.
To close out the Indie Lens Pop-Up season, “The Tuba Thieves” from hard of hearing filmmaker Alison O'Daniel is an exploration of musicality set against a theft.
Indie Lens Pop-Up events provide a space to watch and discuss timely issues explored in its award-winning documentaries. Since its inception in 2005, more than 7,000 Indie Lens Pop-Up events have brought an estimated 420,000 participants together to discuss issues that impact local communities.
Pickford Film Center is proud to partner with Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival, who will facilitate discussion after the screening, along with other local community partners.
Pickford Film Center is proud to launch our twelfth season of Indie Lens Pop-Up and to again partner with Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival, who will facilitate discussions after the screenings, along with other local community partners. The films empower our community to come together and think about topics that might be otherwise difficult to address, and with community partnerships, we’re not only able to watch films, but create open, safe forums to talk about important issues affecting our neighborhoods today and to provide useful resources for those who need them.
Says James Loucky, Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival, “Hosting the Indie Lens series for a twelfth year exemplifies how the public is central to both the Pickford and PBS. The probing cinematography and insider perspectives featured in these documentaries, coupled with opportunity for audience feedback, are vital for understanding the nature and prospects of some of society’s toughest challenges.”
Below is more info on the Indie Lens Pop-Up 2024 lineup:
“Razing Liberty Square” by Katja Esson
January 21st, 2024 | 10:00 AM
Liberty City, Miami, is home to one of the oldest segregated public housing projects in the United States. Now with rising sea levels, the neighborhood’s higher ground has become something else: real estate gold.
“Breaking the News” by Heather Courtney, Princess A. Hairston, Chelsea Hernandez, and Diane M Quon
February 24th, 2024 | 10:00 AM | Official Selection - Doctober 2023
Frustrated by the lack of representation in the media, a group of women and LGBTQ+ journalists launched The 19th*, a digital news startup whose work is guided by elevating the voices often left out of the American story.
“Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s” by Anna Moot-Levin and Laura Green
March 24th, 2024 | 10:00 AM
Three people—a political cartoonist, a mother-turned-boxing coach, and an optician—navigate their lives with resourcefulness and determination in the face of a degenerative illness, Parkinson’s disease.
“The Tuba Thieves” by Alison O'Daniel
May 26th, 2024 | 10:00 AM
Between 2011 and 2013, tubas were stolen from high schools across Southern California. Against this backdrop, hard of hearing filmmaker Alison O'Daniel generates new sensitivity to sound and meaning in an unconventional documentary experience.
About Indie Lens Pop-Up
Indie Lens Pop-Up is a community series that brings people together for film screenings and conversations. Featuring documentaries seen on PBS's INDEPENDENT LENS, Indie Lens Pop-Up draws local residents, leaders, and organizations to discuss what matters most. Learn more at pbs.org/indielenspopup
About INDEPENDENT LENS
INDEPENDENT LENS is an Emmy® Award-winning PBS documentary series. With founding executive producer Lois Vossen, the series has been honored with 10 Academy Award nominations and features documentaries united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement, and unflinching visions of independent filmmakers. Presented by ITVS, INDEPENDENT LENS is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Acton Family Giving, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts. Stream anytime on the PBS App. For more visit pbs.org/independentlens.
Founded in 1998, the Pickford Film Center serves the Whatcom community by screening independent films 365 days a year, producing and presenting the annual Doctober film festival, the Bellingham Children’s Film Festival, numerous film series and special events. The Pickford offers free documentary film showings to all Whatcom middle schools through Doc-ED and partners with students and schools for many other events during the year.
