Home to a diverse collection of award-winning documentaries, Independent Lens delves into some of the most pressing issues facing our nation today. The following films air throughout the month of May on WSBE Rhode Island PBS:
Independent Lens: My Country No More- May 3 at 9:00 p.m., May 4 at 1:00 p.m., and May 8 at 11:00 p.m.
Between 2011 and 2016, an oil boom swept across North Dakota, setting off a modern-day gold rush in the quiet town of Trenton – a farming community with less than 1,000 members. With billions of dollars to be made in an industry-friendly state, the town was subjected to an overwhelming influx of workers and the crushing toll of land development as countless acres were repurposed for oil drilling.
Through the voices of Trenton’s residents, My Country No More challenges the notion of “progress” and raises questions about the long-term consequences of short-term land use – decisions that ultimately affect all Americans, both rural and urban alike. The film meets with a rural community in crisis, exploring the oil boom through one family's fight to keep their agricultural way of life.
Independent Lens: The First Rainbow Coalition - May 17 at 9:00 p.m., May 18 at 1:00 p.m., and May 22 at 11:00 p.m.
In 1969, the Chicago Black Panther Party and their notable, charismatic leader Fred Hampton took to collective action, forming alliances across lines of race and ethnicity. These alliances consisted of community-based movements in the city, including the Latino Young Lords Organization and the working-class young southern whites of the Young Patriots. Finding common ground, these groups banded together as a "Rainbow Coalition" and collectively confronted issues such as police brutality and substandard housing in the most segregated cities in postwar America.
The First Rainbow Coalition tells the movement’s little-known story through archival footage and interviews with former coalition members in the present day, amplifying the coalition’s long-term impact and the model it has set for future activists and diverse politicians across America.
Independent Lens: Coded Bias - May 25 at 1:00 p.m.
As the world of data-driven, automated technology rapidly increases, many have begun to ask the looming question of how to protect individuals’ civil liberties in the face of artificial intelligence. Through the insights of M.I.T. Media Lab Computer Scientist Joy Buolamwini, along with data scientists, mathematicians, and watchdog groups from all over the world, Coded Bias follows the fight to expose discrimination within algorithms used across all spheres of daily life.
While researching facial recognition technologies at the M.I.T. Media Lab, Buolamwini makes the startling discovery that some algorithms could not detect dark-skinned faces or classify women with accuracy. Coded Bias tracks her discovery as she goes public with her findings, undertakes an effort to create movement towards accuracy and transparency, and testifies before Congress to push for the first-ever legislation governing facial recognition in the United States.
WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits over the air in high definition on digital 36.1; Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD in MA; DirecTV 36, Dish Network 36.
