{"id":765407,"date":"2026-07-16T02:08:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/765407\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T02:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:08:26","slug":"independent-lens-acquires-four-docs-seeds-my-omaha-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/765407\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Independent Lens’ Acquires Four Docs: ‘Seeds’, ‘My Omaha,’ & More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Independent Lens<\/a> is going on something of an acquisition binge \u2013 welcome news for the documentary field.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe award-winning PBS series announced it has picked up four films: Jane Elliott Against the World<\/a>, Seeds<\/a>, My Omaha<\/a>, and The Other Side of Memory<\/a>. The documentaries, which will air as part of the 28th season of Independent Lens this fall, \u201creveal the personal stakes behind the issues shaping communities across the country,\u201d according to a release.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIndependent Lens continues to champion filmmakers whose work challenges, inspires, and expands our understanding of contemporary America,\u201d commented Lois Vossen, a founding executive producer of the series. \u201cWe are thrilled to welcome these films into the Independent Lens family. Whether telling deeply personal stories or examining issues that shape our national conversation, each of these films exemplifies the kind of storytelling at the core of our series.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jane<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJane Elliott on the mic<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIndependent Lens<\/p>\n

\n\tJane Elliott Against the World, directed by Judd Ehrlich, has emerged as one of the most honored documentaries of 2026. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win Best Documentary at the Bentonville Film Festival<\/a> in Arkansas and audience awards at the Boulder International Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, and Sonoma International Film Festival in Northern California. The film examines the impact of the titular Jane Elliott, a white schoolteacher in Iowa who developed a method to open the eyes of her young students to the reality of racism in America and the damage it inflicts. She later conducted the Blue Eyes\/Brown Eyes exercise with adults, often triggering extremely defensive reactions.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"'Seeds'<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIndependent Lens<\/p>\n

\n\tSeeds, directed by Brittany Shyne, earned a place on the Oscar shortlist for the 98th Academy Awards, and won numerous prizes including the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. It examines Black farmers in the South who till land held in their families for generations.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn The Other Side of Memory, directed by Nick Capezzera, \u201ca Korean adoptee travels to Seoul to seek answers about his past and find his biological parents, leading to personal discoveries that reshape his understanding of family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDirector Nick Beaulieu with his father in \u2018My Omaha\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIndependent Lens<\/p>\n

\n\tMy Omaha, the documentary directed by Nick Beaulieu, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at Slamdance. Set in the Nebraska city, My Omaha centers on the filmmaker\u2019s relationship with his terminally ill father, a Trump supporter, against the backdrop of Omaha\u2019s response to the racial justice movement.<\/p>\n

\n\tIndependent Lens films have been nominated for 10 Academy Awards and have earned dozens of Emmys and Emmy nominations. Recent IL acquisitions include Ghost in the Machine<\/a>, directed by Valerie Veatch.<\/p>\n

\n\tThese are the four acquisitions announced Wednesday:<\/p>\n

\n\tJANE ELLIOTT AGAINST THE WORLD<\/p>\n

\n\tFilmmakers: Judd Ehrlich, Max Powers, Elena Gaby\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEducator Jane Elliott faced decades of backlash and national debate over her 1968 classroom experiment. At age 90, she refuses to back down from the fight for racial justice.<\/p>\n

\n\tMY OMAHA<\/p>\n

\n\tFilmmakers: Nick Beaulieu, Doug Block<\/p>\n

\n\tAgainst the backdrop of Omaha\u2019s racial justice movement, a filmmaker navigates the deep political and emotional divide separating him from his dying, conservative father.<\/p>\n

\n\tSEEDS<\/p>\n

\n\tFilmmakers: Brittany Shyne, Danielle Varga<\/p>\n

\n\tSEEDS documents the everyday joys and financial precarities of Black generational farmers protecting a disappearing legacy.<\/p>\n

\n\tTHE OTHER SIDE OF MEMORY<\/p>\n

\n\tFilmmakers: Nick Capezzera, Faye Yuan <\/p>\n

\n\tSpanning from New England to Seoul, a Korean adoptee\u2019s decade-long hunt for the truth behind his abandonment redefines what it means to belong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Independent Lens is going on something of an acquisition binge \u2013 welcome news for the documentary field.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,211092,327201,206,327202,143263,327203],"class_list":["post-765407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-independent-lens","tag-jane-elliott-against-the-world","tag-movies","tag-my-omaha","tag-seeds","tag-the-other-side-of-memory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}