Independent Lens (1999)

Name: Independent Lens
Genre: Documentary
Rating: 8.1
Cast: Stanley Tucci

Documentary

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.

IMDb rating: 8.1 (747 votes)
Seasons: 23
Streaming (US): YouTube TV · PBS · Thirteen · WETA+ · KQED
Language: EN
Type: TV series

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Ratings refreshed Aug 19, 2026 · 23 seasons indexed

Cast

Stanley Tucci

Seasons

Season 5 (2003)

7.73 avg 6 episodes 7.6 → 7.5 52 min avg

Season 5 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
2	Foto-Novelas 2: Broken Sky/Junkyard Saints	7.6	13
5	Be Good, Smile Pretty	7.8	64
16	Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew	8.2	42
22	The Weather Underground	7.6	6
25	Death of a Shaman	7.7	9
27	Sumo East and West	7.5	20

Season 6 (2003)

6.62 avg 6 episodes 7.8 → 7.3 72 min avg

Season 6 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Political Dr. Seuss	7.8	9
9	A Hard Straight	8.3	12
10	A Touch of Greatness	8.5	46
17	Let the Church Say Amen	1.0	11
18	A Lion's Trail	6.8	6
22	Imelda	7.3	250

Season 7 (2005)

8.36 avg 7 episodes 7.3 → 9.4 44 min avg

Slow burn

Season 7 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Parliament Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove	7.3	19
6	Race Is the Place	7.0	10
8	Seoul Train	7.8	8
14	July '64	8.6	10
15	Almost Home	9.4	21
18	Taking the Heat: The First Women Firefighters of New York City	9.0	16
23	Fishbowl/American Made	9.4	27

Season 8 (2005)

8.05 avg 11 episodes 6.7 → 8.0 81 min avg

Rollercoaster

Season 8 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
7	A Sad Flower in the Sand	6.7	8
14	Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life	9.3	59
15	Motherland Afghanistan	7.2	44
16	Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes	8.6	53
17	Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?	8.4	52
18	Stolen	7.1	79
19	Race to Execution	8.5	14
20	China Blue	8.7	8
22	Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room	7.8	4,545
26	The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill	8.3	9
27	La Lupe: Queen of Latin Soul	8.0	20

Season 9 (2007)

6.75 avg 4 episodes 7.3 → 7.6 93 min avg

Season 9 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
2	Please Vote for Me	7.3	10
11	Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita	6.2	8
14	Banished	5.9	11
24	The Cool School	7.6	7

Season 10 (2007)

7.50 avg 5 episodes 8.1 → 8.0 72 min avg

U-shaped

Season 10 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Chicago 10	8.1	20
6	The Atom Smashers	6.5	26
9	Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway	7.5	13
22	Crips and Bloods: Made in America	7.4	30
23	Stranded: The Andes Plane Crash Survivors	8.0	22

Season 11 (2009)

7.34 avg 7 episodes 6.7 → 7.9 85 min avg

Season 11 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
2	Herb and Dorothy	6.7	16
7	No Subtitles Necessary: László and Vilmos	7.7	10
8	Objectified	6.2	6
9	Between the Folds	7.3	17
11	Young@Heart	7.7	8
12	Copyright Criminals	7.9	12
18	Lost Souls	7.9	9

Season 12 (2010)

7.09 avg 9 episodes 5.1 → 7.8 69 min avg

Season 12 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Parking Lot Movie	5.1	10
3	Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian	8.4	25
4	The Longoria Affair	8.0	23
6	Deep Down	7.7	10
8	The Calling: Part I	6.4	10
13	When I Rise	6.0	11
14	William S. Burroughs: A Man Within	6.8	11
15	Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story	7.6	64
21	A Film Unfinished	7.8	14

Season 13 (2004)

6.91 avg 11 episodes 6.5 → 8.5 63 min avg

Season 13 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Wham! Bam! Islam!	6.5	18
7	These Amazing Shadows	8.3	12
14	The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975	5.9	16
15	More Than a Month	7.2	21
16	You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't	7.2	6
17	Being Elmo	7.0	12
18	When the Drum is Beating	3.0	8
19	Revenge of the Electric Car	8.0	7
20	Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison	7.0	6
23	Precious Knowledge	7.4	6
26	We Were Here	8.5	7

Season 14 (2012)

7.13 avg 12 episodes 6.7 → 7.8 80 min avg

Season 14 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	As Goes Janesville	6.7	8
4	Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream	8.1	41
5	Soul Food Junkies	7.2	29
6	Beauty Is Embarrasing	8.3	11
7	The Revisionaries	7.0	10
8	The Powerbroker: Whitney Young's Fight for Civil Rights	7.8	25
9	Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry	6.0	13
11	Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines the Film Get Involved Talkback	7.0	9
13	The Undocumented	5.2	14
14	Seeking Asian Female	7.4	12
18	Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey	7.0	1,258
20	The Revolutionary Optimists	7.8	8

Season 15 (2013)

7.28 avg 13 episodes 7.6 → 4.9

Season 15 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
4	Young Lakota	7.6	9
5	Playwright: From Page to Stage	7.4	20
6	Jiro Dreams of Sushi	8.8	10
7	How to Survive a Plague	8.4	8
8	At Berkeley	7.9	12
9	Blood Brother	7.5	9
10	The State of Arizona	6.0	8
11	Spies of Mississippi	6.7	13
16	The Trials of Muhammad Ali	6.6	15
17	Muscle Shoals	8.6	20
18	A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at the New York Times	7.0	8
19	Let the Fire Burn	7.2	12
20	God Loves Uganda	4.9	12

Season 16 (2014)

7.71 avg 15 episodes 8.8 → 7.5

Rollercoaster

Season 16 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Bully	8.8	9
2	Twin Sisters	8.5	24
3	Brakeless	6.2	6
4	Powerless	7.6	6
5	Happiness	8.0	7
6	Rich Hill	7.6	7
7	Evolution of a Criminal	6.6	7
8	The Kill Team	7.6	9
10	American Denial	8.5	29
11	Little White Lie	7.4	6
12	Little Hope Was Arson	8.0	8
14	The Great Invisible	7.3	10
15	Kumu Hina	8.4	9
17	1971	7.6	17
18	Limited Partnership	7.5	16

Season 17 (2015)

7.49 avg 18 episodes 7.8 → 6.9

Season 17 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Stray Dog	7.8	9
2	India's Daughter	8.9	19
3	Mimi and Dona	7.8	17
4	East of Salinas	7.1	12
5	Chuck Norris vs. Communism	7.5	25
6	Autism in Love	8.1	9
7	No Más Bebés	7.6	10
9	A Ballerina's Tale	7.2	6
10	The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution	8.7	21
11	(T)error	6.1	13
12	Wilhemina's War	6.9	8
13	An Honest Liar	8.0	25
14	Welcome to Leith	7.2	15
17	My Nazi Legacy	8.0	12
19	The Armor of Light	6.6	10
20	Dogtown Redemption	7.0	9
21	Trapped	7.4	12
22	T-rex Her Fight for Gold	6.9	10

Season 18 (2016)

7.45 avg 6 episodes 7.5 → 7.4 74 min avg

Season 18 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Best of Enemies	7.5	18
3	Best and Most Beautiful Things	6.2	6
5	What Was Ours	8.1	13
6	The Witness	8.1	16
7	Birth of a Movement	7.4	127
20	Real Boy	7.4	7

Season 19 (2018)

7.07 avg 10 episodes 6.7 → 7.5 55 min avg

Season 19 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
10	Rat Film	6.7	8
12	Dolores	7.2	7
14	When God Sleeps	5.6	6
15	The Art of the Shine	7.1	25
16	What Lies Upstream	7.1	8
17	Look & See: Wendell Berry's Kentucky	7.4	9
18	True Conviction	7.8	7
19	No Man's Land	7.0	6
20	ACORN and the Firestorm	7.3	7
21	Served Like a Girl	7.5	7

Season 20 (2018)

7.25 avg 11 episodes 8.0 → 7.2 55 min avg

Rollercoaster

Season 20 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Wildland	8.0	13
4	The Judge	8.0	6
5	Man on Fire	7.4	11
6	My Country No More	6.8	6
7	Rodents of Unusual Size	7.0	13
8	Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World	8.1	15
9	The King	6.7	22
10	Black Memorabilia	6.0	7
11	Won't You Be My Neighbor?	8.4	9
12	Hale County This Morning, This Evening	6.1	12
16	Charm City	7.2	11

Season 21 (2019)

7.48 avg 16 episodes 7.7 → 8.2 86 min avg

Season 21 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
2	Decade of Fire	7.7	8
3	The Interpreters	7.2	10
4	Conscience Point; Jewel's Hunt	7.2	6
5	Attla	7.5	9
7	The First Rainbow Coalition	7.6	7
8	Cooked: Survival by Zip Code	6.9	18
9	Leftover Women	7.4	5
10	We Believe in Dinosaurs	7.4	7
11	Always in Season	6.5	11
12	One Child Nation	8.0	9
13	Bedlam	8.0	6
15	Jim Allison: Breakthrough	6.7	6
16	Rewind	8.3	9
17	Eating Up Easter	7.8	6
18	Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project	7.3	13
20	Won't You Be My Neighbor?	8.2	12

Season 22 (2020)

7.48 avg 12 episodes 7.8 → 8.3 83 min avg

Season 22 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Feels Good Man	7.8	10
2	Represent	5.8	6
3	Jonathan Scott's Power Trip	7.3	12
4	Belly of the Beast	8.0	6
5	A Woman's Work: The NFL's Cheerleader Problem	7.3	30
6	A Day in the Life of America	6.8	8
7	9 to 5: The Story of a Movement	8.3	11
9	Mr. SOUL!	7.6	9
10	Coded Bias	7.2	16
12	Down a Dark Stairwell	7.4	5
13	The Donut King	7.9	14
15	The People vs. Agent Orange	8.3	11

Season 23 (2021)

7.56 avg 15 episodes 8.0 → 6.2 85 min avg

Season 23 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Cured	8.0	18
2	Ferguson Rises	6.8	10
3	Storm Lake	7.7	8
4	Duty Free	7.7	14
5	Home From School: The Children of Carlisle	7.9	33
6	A Reckoning in Boston	7.1	11
7	Missing in Brooks County	7.7	8
8	Owned: A Tale of Two Americas	8.0	5
9	Bulletproof	7.3	10
10	Apart	7.5	6
11	Writing with Fire	8.0	8
12	AWARE: Glimpses of Consciousness	8.0	17
13	Try Harder!	7.7	13
14	When Claude Got Shot	7.8	6
15	Scenes From the Glittering World	6.2	7

Season 24 (2022)

7.35 avg 14 episodes 6.6 → 7.4 83 min avg

Season 24 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Hazing	6.6	12
2	TikTok, Boom.	7.7	14
4	Children of Las Brisas	7.0	7
5	The Big Payback	6.1	11
6	No Straight Lines	7.2	9
7	The Picture Taker	7.5	12
8	Outta the Muck	6.8	5
9	Love in the Time of Fentanyl	8.8	6
11	Hidden Letters	6.8	7
12	Free Chol Soo Lee	7.5	10
13	Matter of Mind: My ALS	8.6	8
14	Sam Now	8.0	10
15	Silent Beauty	6.9	8
16	Mama Bears	7.4	9

Season 25 (2023)

7.18 avg 16 episodes 5.9 → 5.9 94 min avg

Season 25 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Sansón and Me	5.9	13
2	El Equipo	7.6	15
3	Three Chaplains	6.7	10
4	A Town Called Victoria: Part 1	7.4	6
5	A Town Called Victoria: Part 2	7.6	6
6	A Town Called Victoria: Part 3	7.8	6
7	Beyond Utopia	8.6	17
8	Racist Trees	6.2	17
9	Razing Liberty Square	6.5	11
10	Sister Úna Lived a Good Death	8.0	10
11	Breaking the News	6.1	11
12	Greener Pastures	8.4	14
13	A Thousand Pines	7.8	11
15	One with the Whale	7.3	14
16	Space: The Longest Goodbye	7.0	12
17	The Tuba Thieves	5.9	11

Season 26 (2024)

7.28 avg 12 episodes 6.3 → 8.0 83 min avg

Season 26 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	One Person, One Vote?	6.3	11
8	Minted	8.0	11
9	Without Arrows	5.5	8
10	The Strike	6.8	11
11	The In Between	5.6	8
12	Skin of Glass	7.3	6
13	Bike Vessel	7.8	6
14	Home Court	7.8	7
15	We Want the Funk!	7.8	225
16	Free for All: The Public Library	8.7	19
17	Matter of Mind: My Alzheimer's	7.7	8
19	Who Is Michael Jang?	8.0	7

Season 27 (2025)

7.47 avg 10 episodes 8.1 → 7.2 72 min avg

Season 27 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution	8.1	11
3	Life After	7.4	6
5	The Librarians	8.6	15
6	The Inquisitor	7.7	7
7	Keep Quiet and Forgive	7.9	7
8	The Tallest Dwarf	7.6	7
10	Natchez	7.7	10
11	Light of the Setting Sun	6.6	6
14	True North: Canadian Myths and Black Power	5.9	12
15	Flood	7.2	6