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“Real Boy”
Real Boy is the coming-of-age story of Bennett, a trans teenager with dreams of musical...

Independent Lens

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. INDEPENDENT LENS features unforgettable stories about a unique individual, community or moment in history. The series is supported by interactive companion Web sites and national publicity and community engagement campaigns.

Real Boy airs Monday, June 19, at 10:00 p.m.

A moving and intimate story of a family in transition, Real Boy follows the journey of trans teen Bennett as he navigates adolescence, sobriety, and the physical and emotional ramifications of his changing gender identity. Through the process, his mother Suzy makes her own transformation — travelling a difficult road toward accepting that the daughter she raised as Rachael is now her son Bennett. Filmed over the course of four years, Real Boy is a love story about a mother and son who rediscover connection with each other and find support from their communities, reminding us that families are not only given, but chosen. 

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“Real Boy”
Real Boy is the coming-of-age story of Bennett, a trans teenager with dreams of musical...
“Farmer/Veteran”
A combat veteran starts a farm to help cultivate a healthier life outside the Army. While...
“They Call Us Monsters”
This film takes viewers behind the walls of the Compound, the facility where Los Angeles...
“Forever Pure”
The story of famed Israeli soccer club Beitar Jerusalem F.C. after it acquired two Muslim...
“The Prison In Twelve Landscapes”
More people are imprisoned in the United States at this present moment than in any other...
“National Bird”
National Bird is the first in-depth investigation of the U.S. drone war with unique...
“The Last Laugh”
Hear Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, Carl Reiner and other Jewish comics and thinkers...
“Seed: The Untold Story”
Follow passionate seed keepers around the world who are determined to protect humanity's...
“Newtown”
Newtown explores the aftermath of the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20...
“Ovarian Psycos”
Based in the heart of Los Angeles' Eastside, and building upon the legacy of the Chicano/...
“The Bad Kids”
Located in an impoverished Mojave Desert community, Black Rock Continuation High School...
“Tower”
Explore the deadly August 1, 1966, mass shooting at the University of Texas that left 16...
“Accidental Courtesy”
Meet African-American musician Daryl Davis, who has a peculiar passion - meeting and...
“Birth of a Movement”
Learn how D.W. Griffith's 1915 The Birth of a Nation unleashed a battle still waging...
“The Witness”
In 1964, Kitty Genovese was repeatedly stabbed on a street in Queens, New York. Soon...
“What Was Ours”
A tribal elder and Vietnam vet, who hasn't left the Wind River Indian Reservation in over...
“Containment/Excerpt from Uranium Drive-In”
Explore our attempts to plan for our radioactive future and the startling failure to...
“Best and Most Beautiful Things”
Best and Most Beautiful Things is a celebration of outcasts everywhere, following a...
“Meet The Patels”
Ravi Patel is almost 30 and still single, and his tradition-minded Hindu family is not...
“Best of Enemies”
In 1968, Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr. changed TV news forever with their...
“T-Rex: Her Fight for Gold”
Meet Claressa "T-Rex" Shields, who rose from the streets of Flint, Michigan, and at 17...
“TRAPPED”
Go inside the contentious issue of abortion rights through the story of health care...
“Knocking”
Following two families who stand firm for their controversial and misunderstood Christian...
“Dogtown Redemption”
Meet street recyclers who fight to survive in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Oakland...
“The Armor of Light”
Meet two Christians - an Evangelical anti-abortion activist and an African-American...
“Peace Officer”
Meet Dub Lawrence, a crusading former sheriff whose investigations highlight the...
“My Nazi Legacy: What Our Fathers Did”
Meet the sons of two Nazi war criminals who jointly were responsible for thousands of...
“Democrats/Soft Vengeance”
Watch history being made as Zimbabwe attempts to draft its first-ever democratic...
“Welcome to Leith”
Explore how residents of a North Dakota town struggle against a notorious white...
“An Honest Liar”
Meet James "The Amazing" Randi, the famed magician and self-proclaimed "honest liar" who...
“Wilhemina's War”
A Southern grandmother struggles to help her family through the scourge of HIV, but may...
“(T)ERROR”
Watch a covert terrorism sting unfold as a longtime counterterrorism informant takes on...
“A Ballerina's Tale”
Explore the rise of Misty Copeland, who made history as the first African-American female...
“No Mas Bebes (No More Babies)”
Explore the case of Mexican-American women who claim they were coercively sterilized at a...
“In Football We Trust”
Explore the story behind the Polynesian pipeline to the NFL through the lives of high...
“Autism In Love”
Follow four adults on the autism spectrum as they open up their personal lives and...
“Chuck Norris vs Communism”
See how the power of cinema ignited a revolution in 1980s Romania, as an intrepid VHS...
“East of Salinas”
East of Salinas is a story about immigration, childhood, and circumstance. With little...
“Mimi and Dona”
Meet an unforgettable mother-daughter duo facing tough choices as they age. For 92-year-...
“India's Daughter”
Learn how the harrowing rape and murder of a promising 23-year-old female medical student...
“Stray Dog”
From the director of the Oscar-nominated Winter's Bone comes this portrait of a...
“Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey”
In a real-life fairy tale, a Filipino singer is plucked from YouTube to front the iconic...
“Little White Lie”
Filmmaker Lacey Schwartz grew up in a typical upper middle class Jewish household in...
“Happiness”
A 9-year-old monk has never before left his Bhutanese village perched high in the...
“Evolution of a Criminal”
How does a 16-year-old go from honors student to bank robber? Filmmaker Darius Clark...
“Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream”
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest...
“Limited Partnership”
In 1975, when American Richard married Australian native Tony in one of the first same...
“1971”
In 1971, long before Edward Snowden's revelations of NSA surveillance, a group of...
“Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity”
Not just a choreographer, Elizabeth Streb is a wildly extreme action architect. Born to...
“Kumu Hina”
Over the course of a momentous year, Kumu Hina, a native Hawaiian mahu (transgender)...
“The Great Invisible”
On April 20, 2010, the Gulf Coast was devastated by the largest offshore oil spill in U.S...
“The Homestretch”
The Homestretch follows three homeless teens as they fight to stay in school and...
“Little Hope Was Arson”
January 2010: In the “buckle of the Bible Belt,” 10 churches burn to the ground in just...
“Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines”
Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines traces the fascinating evolution...
“Seeking Asian Female”
Two strangers — an elderly American man and a young Chinese woman — pursue a marriage...
“The Revolutionary Optimists”
Children in the slums of Calcutta are starting a revolution. Called to action by...
“American Denial”
In the wake of recent events that have sparked a national dialogue, American Denial...
“Through a Lens Darkly”
For the last 170 years, pioneering African American photographers — men and women,...
“A Path Appears - Episode Three”
Episode 3: “Violence and Solutions” Episode 3 follows Nicholas Kristof and Regina Hall...
“A Path Appears - Episode Two”
Episode 2: “Breaking the Cycle of Poverty” Episode 2 visits West Virginia, Haiti, and...
“A Path Appears - Episode One”
Episode 1: "Sex Trafficking in the USA" Episode 1 focuses on survivors trafficked into a...
“Rich Hill”
Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winner Rich Hill follows three teenage boys, Andrew,...
“Powerless”
A literal power struggle exists in Kanpur, India, which suffers from day-long electricity...
“Brakeless”
The Independent Lens documentary Brakeless investigates what led the driver...
“Twin Sisters”
In the Independent Lens documentary Twin Sisters, twin girls in China are...
“Bully”
The Independent Lens documentary Bully is an intimate, unflinching look at...
“Strong!”
A formidable figure standing at 5'8" and weighing more than 300 pounds, Cheryl Haworth...
“Summer Pasture”
Locho and Yama are nomadic herders in Tibet's high grasslands, who carve their existence...
“The New Black”
See how the African-American community is grappling with gay rights in light of the gay...
“Let the Fire Burn”
On May 13, 1985, a longtime feud between the city of Philadelphia and controversial...
“A Fragile Trust”
This film reveals the shocking story of Jayson Blair, the most infamous serial plagiarist...
“The Trials of Muhammad Ali”
This is the story of Ali's toughest bout: his battle to overturn the five-year prison...
“Brothers Hypnotic”
The brotherhood of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is literal. Through an unorthodox...
“Wham! Bam! Islam!”
When a Kuwaiti psychologist launches a comic series based on the 99 virtues of Allah, he...
“Medora”
A once-booming rural community with a thriving middle class has seen its factories and...
“All of Me”
The “Girls” have been friends — and morbidly obese — for years. They met via the Austin...
“Bhutto”
An intimate look at Benazir Bhutto, the first Muslim woman elected in history to lead an...
“Las Marthas”
In the lingering aftermath of the U.S.-Mexican War, the border town of Laredo, Texas...
“Spies of Mississippi”
The story of a secret spy agency formed by the state of Mississippi to preserve...
“More Than a Month”
Filmmaker Shukree Hassan Tilghman sets off on a cross-country campaign to end Black...
“Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes”
Take an in-depth look at masculinity in rap music and hip-hop culture — where creative...
“Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock”
Daisy Bates was a complex, unconventional, and largely forgotten heroine of the civil...
“The State of Arizona”
This topical documentary captures the explosive emotions and complex realities behind...
“Blood Brother”
An intimate portrait of Rocky Braat, who traveled to India as a disillusioned tourist....
“Jiro Dreams of Sushi”
Jiro Dreams of Sushi is the story of 85-year-old Jiro Ono, owner and meticulous chef of a...
“Indian Relay”
The hope and determination of American Indian life is revealed in this story about what...
“Los Graduados - Los Jóvenes”
This film explores pressing issues in education today through the eyes of six Latino and...
“The Graduates - The Girls”
Este programa explora los problemas mas urgentes de la educación de hoy a través de los...
“Donor Unknown”
JoEllen Marsh is 20 years old, and has never met her father. As she goes in search of her...
“The Parking Lot Movie”
Delve into the rarefied world of one small parking lot in a college town, and the asphalt...
“Men Who Swim”
In the midst of a mid-life crisis, filmmaker Dylan Williams tries to cheer himself up by...
“Two Spirits”
Fred Martinez was one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was...
“The Undocumented”
Border Patrol agents, Native Americans, smugglers, ranchers, retirees and Samaritans form...
“The House I Live In”
In "The House I Live In," director Eugene Jarecki ("Why We Fight") gives a historical...
“The Powerbroker: Whitney Young's Fight for Civil Rights”
Whitney M. Young Jr. was one of the most celebrated -- and controversial -- leaders of...
“The Revisionaries”
Once every decade, the highly politicized Texas State Board of Education rewrites the...
“Beauty Is Embarrassing”
Take a ride through the life and current times of one of America’s most important artists...
“Soul Food Junkies”
Baffled by his dad's reluctance to change his traditional soul food diet in the face of a...
“Solar Mamas”
Welcome to India's Barefoot College, founded by Bunker Roy to provide rural women living...
“Love Free or Die”
Gene Robinson is a man whose two primary passions are in direct conflict: his love for...
“As Goes Janesville”
From the day the GM factory closes through a showdown with national resonance at the...
“Girl Wrestler”
Texas teenager Tara Neal insists that girls and boys should be able to wrestle on the...
“The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution - Independent Lens Episode 0”
Revisit the turbulent 1960s, when a new revolutionary culture emerged with the Black...
“Left by the Ship”
For nearly a century, American servicemen were stationed at Subic Bay in the Philippines...
“Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison”
From the first Americans who relied on bison for food, shelter and clothing, to modern...
“Pushing the Elephant - A Women and Girls Lead Online...”
March is Women's History Month and to celebrate we're bringing you 10 films as part of...
“Sentencing the Victim - A Women and Girls Lead Online...”
March is Women's History Month and to celebrate we're bringing you 10 films as part of...
“Episode 5: Have You Heard From Johannesburg”
The apartheid regime in Pretoria crumbles under pressure from a united popular uprising...
“Bonus Episode: Have You Heard From Johannesburg”
Faced with governments reluctant to take meaningful action against the apartheid regime,...
“Episode 4: Have You Heard From Johannesburg”
The most effective tactic in globalizing the fight against apartheid was the grassroots...
“Episode 3: Have You Heard From Johannesburg”
Only a decade removed from the height of its own civil rights movement, the United States...
“Have You Heard From Johannesburg: Episode 2”
When South Africa's ruling whites brutally suppress a youth uprising in Soweto and murder...
“Have You Heard From Johannesburg: Episode 1”
Just as the United Nations adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, South Africa...
“Children of Haiti”
In the midst of Haiti's lush mountains and historical relics is an epidemic of over 500,...
“Troop 1500 - A Women and Girls Lead Online Festival...”
March is Women's History Month and to celebrate we're bringing you 10 films as part of...
“S12 Ep20: Marwencol”
After a vicious attack leaves him brain damaged and broke, Mark Hogancamp seeks recovery...
“Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story”
Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story follows the sad and startling story of Cyntoia Brown, who...
“When I Rise”
In 1957, Barbara Smith Conrad, a gifted University of Texas music student found herself...
“Whatever It Takes”
What’s a child’s education worth? For one visionary rookie principal, it’s priceless. At...
“The Eyes of Me”
How do you see yourself, when you can't see at all? Follow four visually impaired...
“Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene”
The unlikely story of America's original shock jock who battled the system and his own...
“The Atom Smashers”
Physics, politics and international competition collide as scientists race to find one of...
“King Corn”
Two recent college graduates plant a single acre of the nation's most powerful crop--corn...

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Independent Lens
Mondays 10p

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. INDEPENDENT LENS features unforgettable stories about a unique individual, community or moment in history.

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