Every year its executive behind the scenes, Lois Vossen, has had to recruit a different celebrity host to introduce the 30 or so movies shown that season. Susan Sarandon did all the intros one year. Angela Bassett, Edie Falco and Don Cheadle also took a turn. This is public TV, after all, and I'm guessing the gig doesn't pay much.
Then last season, the actor Terrence Howard agreed to do the walk-and-talks. On his way out of the recording studio, he pulled Vossen aside and made an unprecedented request. “He asked me, 'Can I do this next season, too?'” she said.
My esteem for Terrence Howard went way up after Vossen told me that story. He gets “Independent Lens,” as do I. Simply put, the variety of people met and stories told in a typical season of “Independent Lens” is unlike any on television. PBS has begun promoting it as “a film festival in your living room,” which is about right, assuming you can get it in your living room.
Vossen and her colleagues at ITVS, the San Francisco-based service that produces “Lens” for PBS, has had to fight hard to convince public TV stations to carry the series. Many stations pick and choose which films they'll carry, while farsighted managers like Mike Murphy at KCPT air the whole season in a regular time slot.
Howard welcomes us to the first film in the series at 9 p.m. Tuesday on KCPT. It's the critically praised “Wordplay,” which did for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament what “Spellbound” did for the National Spelling Bee: it humanizes a geekfest. Some of the top contestants are profiled, including Jon Delfin, the all-time tournament winner (7 championships), and up-and-comer Tyler Hinman, who has already won three times before the age of 25.
With cameo appearances by crossword junkies Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart, Indigo Girls and Mike Mussina, “Wordplay” is that rare thing: a high-wattage documentary not made by Michael Moore. It took two years for Vossen to negotiate the rights to the movie away from other suitors. In one way, this is a trend she welcomes -- docufilms used to exist on the fringes of popular culture -- but Vossen does look back wistfully at the time when “I used to be able to pick up the phone” and work out the rights with each filmmaker instead of going through layers of agents.
Most weeks' films will be under an hour and will air at 10 p.m. Tuesdays, like “Please Vote for Me,” next week's selection (Oct. 23). This charming subtitled documentary follows a third-grade Chinese classroom that undertakes a strange new process known as democracy, as three students square off in an election for class monitor. It's a typical Vossen find: a small story that tells a bigger story, namely about the wrenching cultural changes the next generation of Chinese can expect as the ways of the West continue to seep in.
“Our audience loves character driven shows,” said Vossen, who estimates she watched 500 films this year in order to settle on the 34 she picked. “It could be the most ordinary person, but what they're doing is extraordinary.”
Some of this year's selections will cover tough issues, like the abuse of women in Africa (“Sisters in Law,” Nov. 27) and environmental disaster in Oklahoma (“The Creek Runs Red,” Nov. 20). But others are clearly meant to inspire, like “Miss Navajo” (Nov. 13), about an Indian pageant that rewards more than mere beauty; and “An Unreasonable Man” (Dec. 18), about the life and times of consumer advocate Ralph Nader.
“So much of documentary film is tackling difficult social issues, but I also like to find films that show the good side of humanity,” said Vossen.
Other highlights this season include:
- “The Paper” (Dec. 11), about students at Penn State who believe their college newspaper can be a community force in a way 24-hour news can't.
- “Red White Black and Blue” (Nov. 6), in which two World War II veterans return to the Alaskan island where they helped fight back a Japanese invasion. The ensuing bloodshed killed 4,000 on American soil, more than died in the 9/11 attacks.
- “Iron Ladies of Liberia” (spring 2008), a portrait of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first female head of state. “Banished” (spring), about towns in America that violently expelled their African-American communities.
- “King Corn” (spring), which takes a different approach to the subject of obesity. Two young men buy an acre of farmland in Iowa, grow corn on it and then follow it down the food production chain until it becomes high fructose syrup.
Hear a podcast of Aaron's interview with Lois Vossen about “Independent Lens”
I loved Please Vote For Me raved about it this week. Do yourself a favor and watch that episode.
Posted by: The Pop View | October 23, 2007 at 11:03 AM
I loved Please Vote For Me raved about it this week. Do yourself a favor and watch that episode.
Posted by: The Pop View | October 23, 2007 at 11:09 AM
I consider myself a neophyte word nerd; I found myself being just a bit jealous of the people in "Wordplay". They seem to have found their niche.
Knowing there's a whole subculture out there that still cares about the English language, spelling, grammar, puns -- wordplay -- makes me ecstatic. I "am totally into" Independent Lens and proud to be an employee of the local PBS affiliate. (Yes, we air it.)
Posted by: DBoz | February 02, 2008 at 11:17 AM