PBS

Executive Producer for Independent Lens, Lois Vossen, returns for her second visit. The PBS documentary series began its new season this week. Also, director Margarethe von Trotta discusses her film Searching for Ingmar Bergman which premieres at the Quad Cinema on November 2nd, in addition to a retrospective of her work.

[6 mins. 40 secs.] Lois Vossen, the Executive Producer of Independent Lens, is the first guest. A new season of the PBS documentary series begins tonight with a 10:00 ET broadcast of Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary. We discuss the history if the series and what’s coming up in the new season.

[55 mins.] Then I’m joined by Satya de la Manitou who, along with his old friend & confidante, Dennis Hopper are the subjects of Nick Ebeling’s new documentary Along for the Ride. Director Nick Ebeling also joins us. Method actor, filmmaker, art collector, and all-American madman—the many sides of Dennis Hopper are explored in Nick Ebeling’s remarkable documentary, which draws heavily from the testimony of Hopper’s burly biker buddy and right-hand man Satya De La Manitou. Moving through the triumph of Easy Rider, the magnificent self-immolation of The Last Movie, and a midlife comeback after plenty of booze and brawling, Along for the Ride is a vivacious work of film biography with a freewheeling style that’s only appropriate to its anarchic subject. The film is currently screening in NYC at the Metrograph and will be screening theatrically in LA and elsewhere as of December.

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Guests on this episode include the co-directors of the new documentary Welcome to Leith; Stanley Nelson director of the new documentary The Blank Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution; and director Oren Moverman discusses his new film starring Richard Gere, Time Out of Mind.

Watch Medora’s television premiere tonight on PBS’ Independent Lens.

As if you needed another reason to get excited about summer, POV has announced the documentary lineup for their 25th anniversary season on PBS. This year they’ll be showing another excellent selection of films, including a number of Rooftop Alums.

Rooftop alums Cambria Matlow and Morgan Robinson’s Burning in the Sun will make its national TV debut on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 9pm EST & PST, as part of PBS’ AfroPop series.

Rooftop loves home movies. Now, PBS’ acclaimed documentary series POV is running, essentially, a home movie contest — This Is My Family.

Rooftop alumni Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler’s film Disturbing the Universe is a gripping documentary portrait of their radical defense attorney father, William Kunstler. See it Tuesday, June 22nd on PBS.