Blessed is the Match Premieres Tonight on Independent Lens on PBS

“An absorbing story…[filmmaker Roberta] Grossman fashions the narration, interviews, and a wealth of archival footage into a coherent movie…” -Boston Globe

Get to know this modern-day Joan of Arc. At age 22, Hannah Senesh parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe in an effort to save the Jews of Hungary. As a poet and diarist, she left behind a body of work that has inspired generations. Retrace her perilous mission and take a glimpse into the life of this talented and complex woman.

Blessed is the Match premieres tonight, Tuesday, April 13 at 10:00 on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Check out a preview of tonight’s broadcast:

Tags: Jewish, Joan of Arc, World War II

Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness Premiering Tonight on Independent Lens on PBS

“Herskovits ‘was one of the most important people you’ve never heard of… But when it comes to the topic of African-American cultural history, he’s at the center of the debate.’”
- The Jewish Week

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 African American culture is understood, Herskovits’s work raises ideas that still challenge us today.

Herskovits premieres tonight, February 2, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

This month, Independent Lens concludes its Music Month celebration with a powerful new documentary P-Star Rising.

Watch a preview and listen to musical hits featured in or inspired by the music month films >>

Tags: African American, anthropology, Jewish

ITVS Celebrates Black History Month

Nine-year-old Pricilla from P-Star Rising, airing Feb. 9 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS.

Mine, premiering Feb. 16 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS.

ITVS and PBS offers viewers the opportunity to explore the rich and vibrant history and cultural contributions of African Americans throughout the year, but this month offers a special slate of new and encore programs in honor of Black History Month.

Independent Lens brings race to the forefront with four new films in February. Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, debuting Feb. 2, explores the often-overlooked legacy of Jewish anthropologist Melville Herskovits, whose ideas in the 40s and 50s challenged the accepted assumptions about race and culture. Then, tune in on Feb. 9 for P-Star Rising, which looks at nine-year-old Pricilla who wants to be the youngest female rap star ever and her single father who is determined to help her make it big. This film also closes out the special line-up of compelling films as part of Independent Lens’s Music Month.

A third film, Mine, premiering Feb. 16, 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. Finally, Behind the Rainbow, airing Feb. 23, unearths once-hidden realities of South Africa’s political obstacles on the path to democracy.

Other ITVS films airing this month on PBS include: February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, which looks at the pivotal event in the Civil Rights Movement when four college students staged a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960, and Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968, which investigates the continued cover-up of the tragedy of 1968 on the campus of South Carolina State University and follows ongoing efforts to seek justice.

Get local broadcast information >>

Thousands of hours of PBS programming are available on the PBS Video Portal, including a special collection for Black History Month.

Visit PBS Video >>

Watch these video clips of upcoming new Independent Lens programs (check local listings):

Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, Feb. 2 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS

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Tags: Africa, African American, Black History Month, civil rights, Hurricane Katrina, Jewish, music, rap

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

Correspondent Jeffrey Brown interviews Megum Sasaki, the director and producer of HERB & DOROTHY. [TRT: 7 minutes].
Listen now >>


“Independent Lens begins its eighth season with Megumi Sasaki’s HERB & DOROTHY, about the unlikely art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel of New York, which Nathan Lee called a ‘modest, touching documentary’ in The New York Times.”
Read more >>

Director Bo Boudart discusses his film POWER PATHS on New American Media.
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“…Roberta Grossman’s beautifully made BLESSED IS THE MATCH… Won audience awards at numerous Jewish film festivals and a spot on the shortlist for the Academy Award for best documentary feature (though it ultimately didn’t receive a nomination). It also is slated to air next April on PBS.”
Read more >>

Tags: art, environmental, Jewish, New York Times, The NewsHour

Watch AT HOME IN UTOPIA Tonight on Independent Lens

A home of your own: that’s the American dream. But what happens when the dreamers are immigrants, factory workers and Communists? Director Michal Goldman traces the history of “The Coops,” a cooperative apartment complex built in the Bronx by Jewish garment workers. The film tracks the rise and fall of the community from the 1920s into the 1950s, bearing witness to lives lived across barriers of race, convention and sometimes even common sense.

“[Michal Goldman] has recaptured a daring social experiment, limning its idealism on race relations and social justice and its ultimately fatal embrace of Communist doctrine,” The New York Times.

Check out the trailer below:

AT HOME IN UTOPIA airs tonight at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings)

Tags: Bronx, immigrants, Jewish

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

“[Michal Goldman] has recaptured a daring social experiment, limning its idealism on race relations and social justice and its ultimately fatal embrace of Communist doctrine.”
Read full review >>

“The titular figure in Klaartje Quirijns’ fascinating THE DICTATOR HUNTER, Brody remains committed to the case, despite serial setbacks.”
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“…A splendid, subtle documentary…”
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“Among the swaying giant arms of the saguaro cactus and clouds of dust that drift along isolated roads in southern Arizona is a soothing rhythm, a sound so distinct and stimulating that it arouses both the heart and soul.”
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“Through rare interviews with surviving kamikaze pilots, viewers learn that the military demanded pilots volunteer to give up their lives. Retracing their journeys from teenagers to doomed pilots reveals a complex history of brutal training and ambivalent sacrifice.”
Read full review >>

Tags: Arizona, Jewish, kamikaze