Independent Lens

Reviews

Independent Lens: At Home in Utopia

By Cynthia Fuchs

Michal Goldman's film is a loving tribute to those hopes for a heaven on earth in the Coops. [28 April 2009]

Independent Lens: Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

By Cynthia Fuchs

As much as she is celebrated by her constituents and the documentary, Taking Root, Wangari Maathai maintains her faith in "the people." [14 April 2009]

Independent Lens: Milking the Rhino

By Cynthia Fuchs

Milking the Rhino tracks the shifting relations among African wildlife, their human neighbors, and eco-tourists. [7 April 2009]

Independent Lens: Recycle

By Cynthia Fuchs

As the day dawns in the discerning and detailed Recycle, a bulldozer is pushing cardboard. [31 March 2009]

Independent Lens: Lakshmi and Me

By Cynthia Fuchs

In her remarkable documentary, Lakshmi and Me, Nishtha Jain proposes to "cross a line," to film her maid, Lakshmi. [24 March 2009]

Independent Lens: Arusi Persian Wedding

By Cynthia Fuchs

While the wedding provides compelling visuals and some minor melodrama, Arusi Persian Wedding is most interesting as it integrates its personal stories details within a broad historical context. [17 March 2009]

Independent Lens: The Order of Myths

By Cynthia Fuchs

It's the careful, unsensational revelation of self-delusion that makes The Order of Myths so devastating. [24 February 2009]

Independent Lens: Tulia, Texas

By Cynthia Fuchs

As Tulia, Texas follows the many turns of the Drug Task Force case, from the initial convictions to investigations of undercover agent Tom Coleman, it becomes a cautionary tale. [10 February 2009]

Independent Lens: Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene

By Cynthia Fuchs

As Adjust Your Color recounts, Petey Greene used his groundbreaking radio and television talk shows to influence millions, winning two Emmy awards and varieties of adulation over the years. [3 February 2009]

Independent Lens: Helvetica

By Cynthia Fuchs

Helvetica, the film's experts repeat, is sort of generic -- in the sense that it is familiar and enduring, making readers feel comfortable and reassured. [6 January 2009]

Independent Lens: Operation Filmmaker

By Cynthia Fuchs

Operation Filmmaker brilliantly reveals how films, politics, and desires do their work. [30 December 2008]

Independent Lens: Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway

By Cynthia Fuchs

A charming, if aptly peculiar, holiday treat, Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway focuses on the translation of the Maysles' beloved documentary into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical. [23 December 2008]

Independent Lens: Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic

By Cynthia Fuchs

The challenges of portraying the Manhattan Project form the core of the excellent documentary Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic. [16 December 2008]

Independent Lens: Doc

By Cynthia Fuchs

Sinuous, dynamic, and utterly compelling, Doc remembers the man as his own lifelong project. [9 December 2008]

Independent Lens: The Atom Smashers

By Cynthia Fuchs

Science, in a previous version of the United States, was part of daily, popular culture, a subject and career considered respectable, even admirable. [25 November 2008]

Independent Lens: March Point

By Cynthia Fuchs

March Point concentrates on the boys' way out, that is, the movie as a way to tell their story. [18 November 2008]

Independent Lens: Lioness

By Cynthia Fuchs

Lioness, Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers' understated, affecting documentary on women in combat in Iraq, shows how they operate in a "grey zone," not quite legal, but following orders. [13 November 2008]

Independent Lens: Knee Deep

By Cynthia Fuchs

Knee Deep is actually less interested in the details of who shot Janette Osborne than in the multiple stories that emerged from the crime. [6 November 2008]

Independent Lens: Dinner with the President: A Nation’s Journey

By Cynthia Fuchs

Dinner with the President: A Nation’s Journey finds a particular, recurring focus in the question of women's rights. [28 October 2008]

Independent Lens: Chicago 10

By Cynthia Fuchs

Opening the Fall 2008 season of Independent Lens, Chicago 10 revises old ideas -- about what constitutes history and documentary. [22 October 2008]

Independent Lens: Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story

By Cynthia Fuchs

Abduction tells the story of 13-year-old Megumi, who was walking home from school in Nigata, Japan, and disappeared. [19 June 2008]

Independent Lens: Deep Water

By Cynthia Fuchs

Deep Water tracks Donald Crowhurst's voyage over the horizon and into himself, filtered through observations by associates and family members, and amplified by his own logs. [17 June 2008]

Independent Lens: The Cool School

By Cynthia Fuchs

Exploring the LA art scene of the 1950s and '60s, The Cool School appreciates the love of surface -- the self-performance and artifice, the illusory forward motion and devotion to consumption -- that defines the city. [10 June 2008]

Independent Lens: Writ Writer

By Cynthia Fuchs

As recounted in Susanne Mason's fascinating documentary, Writ Writer, Fred Cruz's story is by turns tragic and inspiring, astonishing and all too typical. [3 June 2008]

Independent Lens: New Year Baby

By Cynthia Fuchs

Traveling to Cambodia in her superb documentary, New Year Baby, Socheata Poeuv hopes to find faces to fill in the gaps in her family's story. [27 May 2008]

Independent Lens: A Dream in Doubt

By Cynthia Fuchs

A Dream in Doubt observes the struggle to understand American justice and oppression as the story becomes increasingly complicated. [20 May 2008]

Independent Lens: Nā Kamalei: The Men of Hula

By Cynthia Fuchs

As Robert Cazimero notes more than once Nā Kamalei: The Men of Hula, his devotion to hula hasn't always been easy. [6 May 2008]