The PBS documentary series “Independent Lens” returns for a new season on Sept. 16. The fall slate spans from September to November and includes two feature length docs and three nonfiction shorts.
The films cover a host of hot-button topics including race, veterans suffering from PTSD and the Electoral College. With major streamers shying away from political fare in favor of celebrity or true-crime nonfiction offerings, ITVS is one of the few platforms left for political docus that tackle current events. “ITVS has a mandate, which is to look for bold, creative, underrepresented storytelling that’s going to serve the American public,” says Carrie Lozano, ITVS president and CEO.
“We think of our work as serving the filmmaking community, the public media system and serving audiences and in particular underserved audiences. We have the luxury of not being driven by revenue, but instead being driven by a mission and a mandate and that is an enormous luxury, but it’s also a huge responsibility.” The first docu in the fall 2024 lineup is Andy Sarjahani’s short “Wild Hogs and Saffron.
” The film focuses on a wild hog hunt in the Ozarks that leads to an unexpectedly vulnerable dialogue between Sarjahani, an Iranian American filmmaker, and his childhood friend Bubba, whose paths diverged in the increasingly anti-Middle Eastern years after 9/11. On Sept. 30, Maximina Juson’s “One Person, One Vote?” will debut.
A nonpartisan look at the inner workings of the E.