The HoustonPBS Community Cinema Series offers free special sneak preview screenings of thought-provoking and ground-breaking independent films scheduled for upcoming broadcast on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens. HoustonPBS Community Cinema screenings feature lively panel discussions with leading community-based organizations, special guest speakers, information and resources, and other programming designed to help people learn about and get involved in some of today's key social issues. The screenings, which are offered free of charge, take place at the Houston Public Library's Concourse Level, University of Houston-Clear Lake and University of Houston-Sugar Land.

Community Cinema is presented locally by HoustonPBS/Channel 8, Documentary Alliance and CultureMap, in collaboration with Independent Lens and ITVS.

All screenings are FREE and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served.

Revolutionary Optimists - Children are saving lives in the slums of Kolkata. Amlan Ganguly doesn't rescue slum children; he empowers them to become change agents, battling poverty and transforming their neighborhoods with dramatic results. Filmed over the course of several years, The Revolutionary Optimists follows Amlan and three of the children he works with on an intimate journey through adolescence, as they fight for the better future he encourages them to imagine is deservedly theirs.

Love Free or Die is about a man whose two defining passions are in direct conflict: his love for God and for his partner Mark. Gene Robinson is the first openly gay person to become a bishop in the historic traditions of Christendom. His consecration in 2003, to which he wore a bullet-proof vest, caused an international stir, and he has lived with death threats every day since.

The film follows Robinson's personal story as American churches debate whether or not lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are equal to heterosexuals in the eyes of God while our nation debates whether LGBT people are equal to heterosexuals in the eyes of the law.