Tag Archives: longoria affair

2011 Independent Lens Audience Award Winner!

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Your votes have been counted! Find out who won the Independent Lens Audience Award.

At film festivals, the award that often matters most to filmmakers and their subjects alike is the Audience Award. They know they’ve struck a chord when the audience applauds their efforts.

The race for the most coveted award of the year for Independent Lens came down to the last 30 minutes of voting. Our top three highest-rated films with the largest number of votes pulled in nearly 5,000 votes between them. It was like the documentary version of American Idol.

Find out the winner of the Independent Lens Audience Award after the jump >>
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In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

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Visit our pressroom to find additional coverage of ITVS programs.


 Deep Down Film Brings Kentucky’s Mountaintop Removal Battle to PBS Viewers
Deep Down is an exceptional film, and a profoundly informative one, and should be required viewing for every American in our 48 states that burns coal–especially the new junior senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul.
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Tell Me More: Investigating Indian Brothers’ Fate In Lost Sparrow
Two Crow Indian brothers had run away from the white Baptist family that adopted them out of a troubled home on the Crow reservation in Montana. Over seven years in their adoptive home, they had discovered a dark secret and were headed back to the reservation when they were killed. Host Michel Martin talks with filmmaker Chris Billing about his documentary Lost Sparrow, which details his quest to find out what happened to his adoptive brothers and to confront a painful family history.
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The Longoria Affair: For English, Press 1; For Spanish, Press 2

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John J. Valadez directed The Longoria Affair

The Longoria Affair airs Tuesday night on Independent Lens at 10 PM (check local listings). The documentary will also be streamed in its entirety online from November 10 until November 16. Plus, we are excited to offer the program in Spanish from November 10 until January 10, 2011. (There are two Independent Lens websites, too: one in English and one in Spanish.)

Director John J. Valadez’s film examines the story of Private Felix Longoria, an American citizen of Mexican descent who was killed fighting in the Pacific Theater for the United States during WWII. After Longoria’s body was sent home to Three Rivers, Texas, the town’s only funeral parlor refused to provide him a wake because “the whites wouldn’t like it.”


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Native Kids React to Hollywood’s Portrayal of Indians

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We hope you enjoyed Neil Diamond’s documentary Reel Injun: On the Trail with the Hollywood Indian last night on Independent Lens.

With the film still fresh in your head, check out how a classroom of Native children react to a Hollywood version of an Indian massacre in the film Little Big Man (starring Dustin Hoffman).

Let us know what you think on our Facebook page.
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