As though I needed another reason to wonk out on documentaries, Maggie Gyllenhaal assuming hosting duties on the PBS series Independent Lens is enough to make the months between Sundance and South By Southwest likable. Twenty-seven independent films being broadcast this season include dramas, comic shorts, and experimental pieces shot in locations as diverse as a cramped Manhattan apartment filled with modern art and the world’s largest garbage village outside Cairo.
A feature film that local pal Alley Pezanoski-Browne associate produced about custody battles over pets rescued post-Katrina, Mine, will be part of the programming along with two films I’m especially looking forward to: Unmistaken Child about the Tibetan boys who could assume the identity of an important reincarnated monk and The Eyes of Me about the teenage challenges of students at the Texas School for the Blind. Thankfully for television-less moi, the series is available on Hulu and Netflix.