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Madeleine Gavin’s Sundance award-winning documentary “Beyond Utopia” will kick off the winter season of PBS documentary series “Independent Lens” on Jan. 9.
Using hidden camera footage, the 115-minute doc follows the high-stakes journey that a handful of desperate families make in order to defect from North Korea — a country with the most brutal regime on earth, led by a dictator, Kim Jong-un. The doc, which was acquired by Roadside Attractions in August, is vying for Academy Award attention.
“Beyond Utopia” is one of six feature docus that make up the program’s winter slate, which begins in January and concludes on Mach 25. Notably, all six films were directed by women and filmmakers of color.
The selected titles cover a wide range of timely issues including racial tensions, gentrification, mental health, representation, and humanity through the lens of individuals, families, and tight-knit communities,
“At a time of tremendous upheaval around the world, Independent Lens offers stories about individuals struggling to be free,” says “Independent Lens” executive producer Lois Vossen. “Starting with the gripping account of families who risk everything to escape North Korea, to Floridians fighting to keep their homes, rural Americans struggling with addiction, and women rewriting how and who reports the news, at the core of these documentaries are authentic people telling their own stories.”
Following the television debut of “Beyond Utopia” on Jan. 9, two docus chronicling the fights of two distinct Black American neighborhoods — “Racist Trees” and “Razing Liberty Square” — will air on “Independent Lens” on Jan. 22 Jan. 29, respectively.
Co-directed and produced by Sara Newens and Mina T. Son, “Racist Trees” follows a historically Black neighborhood in Palm Springs that is fighting to remove a towering wall of tamarisk trees that form a barrier, believed by some to segregate the community. Frustrated residents regard them as an enduring symbol of racism. The film is executive produced by John Legend and his Get Lifted Film banner. The doc premiered at the Intl. Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2022.
Academy Award-nominated director Katja Esson’s “Razing Liberty Square” follows the residents of Liberty City, Miami, fighting to save their community from climate gentrification. With rising sea levels, one of the oldest segregated public housing projects in the U.S. sits upon higher ground that has become real estate gold. The film premiered at Canada’s Hot Doc Film Festival in May 2023.
On February 5, Par Parekh’s end-of-life doc “Sister Úna Lived a Good Death” will make its world premiere on “Independent Lens.” That will be followed by the Feb. 19 television debut of “Breaking the News,” a film about a group of women and LGBTQ+ journalists as they launch “The 19th*,” a news startup that bucks the white, male-dominated status quo and asks who’s been omitted from mainstream coverage, and how to include them. Heather Courtney, Princess A. Hairston, and Chelsea Hernandez directed the doc, which made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023.
Closing out the season on March 25 is Samuel-Ali Mirpoorian and Ian Robertson Kibbe’s “Greener Pastures,” which captures the day-to-day lives of four Midwestern families dealing with mental health issues affecting American farmers.
Each film will be available to stream on the PBS app immediately following the broadcast. “Independent Lens” is presented by ITVS, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization.
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