Documentary
Screening: Shorts at the Frontline Club
Join us for an evening of short documentaries, from different parts of the world, covering a wide range of topics. Shorts at the Frontline Club showcases moving, striking and funny films, exploring the different faces of documentary.
Panorama Preview Screening: Mission Accomplished? The secrets of Helmand
Soon, Afghan security forces will be in control of all of Afghanistan, as ISAF forces accelerate their withdrawal. This lastest film for BBC Panorama raises questions about the British legacy in Sangin and the transition to Afghan control. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with director Ben Anderson; Dawood Azami, former BBC World Service Bureau Chief and Editor in Kabul, Afghanistan; and Will Pike who served as a British Army Major in Afghanistan.
Preview Screening: Complicit + Q&A
Confronting the key moral dilemma of our time, Complicit explores the moral compromises surrounding the use of torture in fighting the ‘War on Terror’. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Niall MacCormick, writer Guy Hibbert and producers Kevin Toolis and Jolyon Symonds moderated by Allan Little
Between the Lines launch event
Between the Lines is a three day festival of screenings and discussions, held at RichMix from 1st to 3rd March. This launch event at the Frontline Club will provide a taster of what the festival holds in store. Drinks will be provided.
Screening: The Queen of Versailles + Q&A
With the epic dimensions of a Shakespearean tragedy, The Queen of Versailles began as a documentary chronicling the excesses of America’s super-rich, but when in 2008 the global recession hit it became a disastrous riches to rags story. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Lauren Greenfield.
Between the Lines: breaking boundaries in documenting the world
Between The Lines is a three-day external event taking place at the Rich Mix, exploring the challenges facing documentary makers, investigative journalists and citizen reporters in the new media landscape.
FULLY BOOKED Screening: Girlfriend in a Coma + Q&A
Followed by a Q&A with director Annalisa Piras and Bill Emmott, former editor-in-chief of the Economist and author of Good Italy, Bad Italy: Why Italy Must Conquer Its Demons to Face the Future.
Exploring the past 20 years of Italy’s history Girlfriend in a Coma argues that the current economic predicament is part of a wider political, social and moral failure.
Live Cinema: Alma, a Tale of Violence + Q&A
For five years, Alma was a member of the Maras, one of the most violent gangs in Guatemala. In a country undermined by violence, Alma is typical of her generation, growing up in a world where laws and justice were flouted with impunity. Award winning e-producer Alexandre Brachet will give a live presentation of his new multiplatform production Alma a Tale of Violence.
Screening: Shorts at the Frontline Club
Join us for an evening of short documentaries from different parts of the world covering a wide range of topics. Shorts at the Frontline Club showcases moving, striking and funny films exploring the different faces of documentary.
Screening: McCullin + Q&A
Widely recognised as one of the world’s greatest war photographers, Don McCullin’s iconic images have come to shape our understanding of modern conflict and its consequences. This film not only explores his life and work, but also the way the ethos of journalism has changed throughout his career.
Screening: Land Rush + debate
In Land Rush directors Hugo Berkeley and Osvalde Lewat look at the situation in Mali where 75% of the population are farmers, but rich, land-hungry nations like China and Saudi Arabia are leasing land for agribusiness farms.
CANCELLED Screening: Education, Education + debate
Just over fifteen years ago a major change in China’s society took place, the commercialisation of higher education.
Preview Screening: In the Shadow of the Sun + Q&A
Over 130 people with albinism have been brutally murdered or left mutilated in Tanzania since 2008, fuelled by a belief that albino body parts used in witchcraft will bring about prosperity and good fortune.
Screening: The Mexican Suitcase + Q&A
In the chaos caused by the beginning of World War II in Europe, three small boxes disappeared to be found again in a closet in Mexico City in 2007.
Screening: Park Avenue – Money, Power and the American Dream + Q&A
The American Dream poses an image of America that offers individual freedom and equal opportunity, but in recent years this has been tarnished.
Preview Screening: Call Me Kuchu + Q&A
Documents the courageous efforts of Uganda’s first openly gay man David Kato and his fellow LGBT activists.
MENA Film Festival: Beyond the Walls
Entwining beautiful animation and interviews, Beyond the Walls tells the story of former Arab and Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails.
London Premiere: The Invisible War
Today, a female soldier serving in the US army is more likely to be raped than killed or injured by enemy fire. The Invisible War, by Oscar and Emmy-nominated director Kirby Dick and Emmy-nominated producer Amy Ziering, reveals the extent of sexual assault in the armed forces and investigates the institutions that cover it up.
Screening: The Choice 2012
At a time when the candidates are spending millions on TV advertising, director Michael Kirk puts President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney under the spotlight. In The Choice 2012 Kirk goes beyond the stories told by Obama and Romney themselves to discover what shaped them.
Screening: Gilad & All That Jazz + Q&A
Gilad Atzmon is a world renowned saxophonist, a well respected musician and a controversial public critic of Israel. In Giland and All that Jazz director Golriz Kolahi explores his music, ideas and motivations.
900 Days: myth and reality of the Leningrad blockade
By Lizzie Kendal On Friday October 12, the Frontline Club hosted the UK Premiere of 900 Days, followed by a Q&A with director Jessica Gorter, and Anna Reid, author of Leningrad: Tragedy of a City Under Siege 1941-44
Oscar Arias: Leader of Strength and Peace
By Jim Treadway "There’s a definite lack of leaders [today]," documentary producer Richard Symons commented to a Frontline Club audience on 8 October. "Where are they?" Symons had just screened the third film in his and Joanna Natasegara’s series The Price of Kings, which explores the weight of leadership. Previous films have focused on Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres. […]
Sneak Preview Screening: The Price of Kings – Oscar Arias
Following the portraits of Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres, directors Richard Symons and Joanna Natasegara now explore the notion of leadership through twice serving president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winner Laureate Oscar Arias Sanchez. They examine what it takes to be a leader as well as the difficult choices that come with leadership.
Graham Greene: A Finger on the Pulse of the 20th Century
By Jim Treadway "He was there!" Director Thomas O’Connor said of English author and journalist Graham Greene (1904-1991), the subject of his documentary Dangerous Edge: A Life of Graham Greene, which was viewed by a full house at the Frontline Club on 1 October. "There, you know, for 70 years, from one place to another, […]
Deadline Every Second: On the road with photojournalists
“I wanted to show the range that photojournalists do, and I wanted to somehow grasp the idea that they could be doing a basketball game in the afternoon and going to Haiti that night. I think it’s one of the most remarkable things that these people are able to do so many things and do […]
We Went To War: A Healing Portrait of Veteran Loneliness
By Jim Treadway In 1970, English documentarian Michael Grigsby released I Was a Soldier, which explored life after war for three young men returning from Vietnam to their homes in the heartland of Texas. Grigsby went back to Texas last year, rekindling his friendships with these men and their families, and telling their updated story in We […]
Screening: Addicted in Afghanistan + Q&A
This award-winning documentary tells the story of two addicted teenage boys living in Afghanistan and how their lives and those of their families have been ravaged by drugs. Director Jawed Taiman not only shows the vicious cycle of addiction, the devastating effect of drugs on everyday family life, and the distressing lack of life prospects, but also captures the remarkable friendship between the boys.
Screening: Shorts at the Frontline Club
Shorts at the Frontline Club will showcase moving, striking and also funny stories in an evening filled with short documentaries from different parts of the world covering a wide range of topics.
Screening: The Suffering Grasses – Iara Lee
Director and activist Iara Lee’s new film The Suffering Grasses caused more than a stir at the Frontline Club on the 7th September. Returning to the very start of this protracted and continuing struggle – graffiti scrawled by children on a wall in Deraa – the 52 minute piece documented the conflict through the eyes […]
Screening: The Suffering Grasses + Q&A
“When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers”. Director Iara Lee explores the Syrian conflict through the eyes of ordinary people caught in the crossfire and examines the motives of “the elephants” – Bashar al-Assad’s Ba’athist regime, the Free Syrian Army and other key players including the United States, Israel, Russia, China and Iran.