As of July 2026, Independent Lens Season 11 aired in 2009 with 27 episodes — streaming now on YouTube TV. Full episode guide and where to watch below.

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Independent Lens Season 11

2009 27 Episodes Documentary ⭐ 7/10

Independent Lens Season 11 is currently streaming on and , and it treats its subject with more rigour than the format usually demands. Across 1 season, the show has had time to find its rhythm and keep it. 16 viewers have already rated it on TMDB — the kind of consensus that does not happen by accident. Rigorous in a way documentary storytelling does not always commit to. Available now — press play and find out why people keep recommending it.

There is a reason Independent Lens Season 11 keeps coming up in conversation. What makes Independent Lens Season 11 work is a willingness to sit with complexity instead of resolving it neatly. Season 11 of Independent Lens includes 27 episodes. It aired from September 2009 to May 2010. This season stars Susan Sarandon, Peter Coyote and America Ferrera. Susan Sarandon and Peter Coyote lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. It was aired in 2009. Documentary work at this level requires access that is hard to get and storytelling that does justice to it — Independent Lens Season 11 has both. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

Documentary fans who value serious storytelling will find Independent Lens Season 11 essential viewing. If you have run out of similar titles to watch, this is a strong next pick. It is a manageable watch, easy to fit into a single week. The access the production gets is remarkable, and the storytelling does full justice to it. Worth watching in order, from the beginning.

📡 Where to Watch Independent Lens Season 11

🇺🇸 United States

🎬 Independent Lens Season 11 — Episode Guide

Our Disappeared

During the 1976-1983 military dictatorships in Argentina, thousands of citizens were kidnapped and never heard from again. Director Juan Mandelbaum returns to his native Argentina to discover what happened to friends and loved ones who were among the "desaparecidos." His journey reveals the depths o...

Five generations of mining families illustrate the story of Butte, Mont., once the world's largest producer of copper. / Irish actor Gabriel Byrne narrates the tale of Butte, Montana, once the world's largest producer of copper -- the "Richest Hill on Earth," the town that "plumbed and electrified A...

Journals of a Wily School

Pickpocketing is common practice in Kolkata, India. In an attempt to crack down on more serious crime, the police offer Azad, a young pickpocket, a full pardon if he helps track down more notorious criminals. Azad must choose whether he'll collaborate with the police or risk it all for life on the s...

This program follows the efforts of American Indian tribes to bring renewable energy projects into their communities. From the Sioux tribes of Great Plains in the Midwest to the Navajo and Hopi of the Southwest, tribes are fighting to protect their land, air and water from the harmful impacts of min...

When indie rock drummer Pat Spurgeon finally gets his big break, his body breaks down. Refusing to make his failing kidney a deterrent, Pat goes on tour with his band Rogue Wave: making music, searching for a donor and administering his own dialysis along the way.

No Subtitles Necessary: László and Vilmos

They took Hollywood by storm -- escaping the brutal Soviet oppression of the Hungarian Revolution and rising to fame with classic films like Easy Rider, Deliverance, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Deer Hunter. Cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond pioneered the "American New...

Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-i...

Between the Folds

A documentary exploring the art and science of origami. / Think origami is just paper planes and cranes? Meet a determined group of theoretical scientists and fine artists who have abandoned careers and scoffed at graduate degrees to forge new lives as modern-day paper folders. Together they reinter...

Scenes From a Parish

A young, irreverent priest arrives at Saint Patrick Parish in Lawrence, Massachusetts, only to confront boiling ethnic tensions in a changing working-class community. Filmed over four years, the program follows the wildly diverse personal stories of Father Paul O'Brien and his unruly flock, as they ...

A documentary following an New England senior citizens chorus preparing a one-night-only concert of rock, punk and R&B for the town of Northampton, Massachusetts.

Copyright Criminals

This program examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law and, of course, money. For more than 30 years, innovative hip-hop performers and producers have been re-using portions of previously recorded music. When...

Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness

Who has the authority to define your identity? Considered one of the most controversial scholars of our time, Melville Herskovits — a Jewish anthropologist — challenged the norm in the 1940s when he wrote that black culture wasn’t pathological, it was African. Leading a seismic shift in the way Afri...

This is the story of a single father who is determined that his nine-year-old daughter become a rap star and thus redeem his deferred dream. This program follows the father-daughter duo through the grit and glamour of the music industry, the struggles of being a single dad with no means and the sacr...

Mine tells the poignant and powerful story of animals left behind during Katrina, and of the struggles of hurricane victims to reunite with their beloved pets. This meditation on the essential bond between humans and animals expresses the power of compassion in contemporary America. In "Home," dire...

Behind the Rainbow

With engrossing interviews and archival footage, filmmaker Jihan El-Tahri exposes the power struggles inside South Africa's African National Congress and charts its shift from liberation organization to the country's post-apartheid ruling party. Ousted president Thabo Mbeki, new leader Jacob Zuma an...

This is an up-close look at four teens who have lost their sight. The film follows their struggles to fit in, prepare for college and live independently. Theirs is a world where crossing an intersection, cooking a meal or navigating an unfamiliar area can be a challenge that sighted viewers never co...

Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas)

In 1999, filmmaker Monika Navarro's uncles were deported from the United States to Mexico, forced to leave the only country they knew and, as servicemen, had pledged to protect. Set against the backdrop of increased attention to the U.S.-Mexican border, "Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas)" explores nation...

Whatever It Takes

What's a child's education worth? For one visionary rookie principal, it's priceless. At the Bronx Center for Science & Mathematics, an innovative public high school in New York City's South Bronx, Principal Edward Tom leads a dedicated group of teachers, students and parents in their biggest gamble...

Unmistaken Child

After world-renowned Tibetan master Geshe Lama Konchog passed away in 2001 at age 84, the Dalai Lama charged the deceased monk’s devoted disciple, Tenzin Zopa, with the task of finding the reincarnation of this spiritual leader. Plagued by doubt, Tenzin knows his discovery is awaited by thousands of...

Blessed Is the Match

Joan Allen narrates this film about Hannah Senesh, the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc. Safe in Palestine in 1944, Hannah joined a mission to rescue Jews in her native Hungary. Hannah parachuted behind enemy lines, was capture...

🎭 Cast of Independent Lens Season 11

Susan Sarandon

Peter Coyote

America Ferrera

America Ferrera

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Stanley Tucci

📋 All Seasons of Independent Lens

Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7 Season 8

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