News
Remembering Tim Hetherington
By Allendria Brunjes There were more laughs than tears as family, friends and colleagues gathered to remember photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 23 April. The open discussion, Still Kicking – Tim Hetherington, Three Years On, included stories from Hetherington’s life and the influence he continues to have.
Vested Interest: In Hock to Oligarchs?
By Elliott Goat Opening the debate organised by Standpoint magazine, which took place at the Frontline Club on May 1, Standpoint Editor Daniel Johnson began by restating the motion: This house believes that Britain is more interested in doing business with Russian Oligarchs than standing up to Vladimir Putin.
Frontline Showcase: An evening with the new media game changers
By Alex Glynn The disruptive and unconventional news model of VICE News was a fitting topic for the night that the Frontline Club unveiled their slightly longer, disruptive and exciting ‘Showcase’ evening on Wednesday 30 April. In a mixture of debate, film and discussion, the audience were treated to two different segments on the ‘changing news landscape’ and […]
A Thousand Times Good Night: A life in conflict
By Ratha Lehall On Monday 28 April, the Frontline Club hosted a fully booked preview screening of the feature film A Thousand Times Good Night, which was followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, Erik Poppe, moderated by Gavin Rees from the Dart Centre Europe. The film, which stars French actress Juliette Binoche, tells […]
Aleppo. Notes from the Dark: “Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times”
By Phoebe Hall On Thursday 24 April, the Frontline Club welcomed a full house to a screening of Aleppo. Notes from the Dark. It was followed by an insightful Q&A with directors Michal Przedlacki and Wojciech Szumowski, which touched on the misrepresentation of the conflict in Western media and the possibility of a foreign peacekeeping intervention. […]
Can illustration offer another layer to war reportage?
By Sally Ashley-Cound At the Frontline Club on Wednesday 16 April illustrator George Butler and features editor for The Guardian and editor of the G2 supplement Malik Meer discussed whether there is room for supposedly more subjective and abstract illustration in hard-news when photography dominates.
Capturing the Story with Jon Lee Anderson
Frontline Club trustee Jon Lee Anderson will be running a four-day journalism masterclass, Capturing the Story, at La Porte Peinte this summer. La Porte Peinte is an arts centre based in Noyers sur Serein, Burgundy.
Letters to Myself – thoughts on war 20 years on
by Sally Ashley-Cound Letters to Myself, which screened at the Frontline Club on Monday 14 April, follows Russian photographer Oleg Klimov as he returns to the places he documented during the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and into the 2000s. The film combines Klimov‘s memories with the stories of the people he […]
No Exposure: Conflict illustration in a photographic world
By Elliott Goat The theorist Susan Sontag wrote: “For a long time some people believed that if the horror could be made vivid enough, most people would finally take in the outrageousness, the insanity of war.” While our perception and understanding of the 20th century is intrinsically linked to the images of its conflicts, photography’s […]
Lessons and Legacies: Rwanda 20 Years On
By Elliott Goat Opening the debate that took place at the Frontline Club on 9th April to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, Mukesh Kapila, former humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, claimed that the legacy of this experience is to to make us all Rwandans, “because a crime against humanity in one place becomes […]
The Lost Signal of Democracy
By Tom Adams On Monday 7 April, the Frontline Club welcomed Yorgos Avgeropoulos for the screening of his latest documentary, The Lost Signal of Democracy. The film followed the closure of ERT, Greece’s public broadcasting service, in June 2013, and tracked the progress of its staff and critics right up until the end of March 2014. […]
Into Darkness: Pulling the plug on Greek Democracy
By Elliott Goat Introducing his film The Lost Signal of Democracy, screened at the Frontline Club on Monday 7 April, director Yorgos Avgeropoulos began by describing the film as more than merely a document of the closure of Greece’s public broadcaster, ERT, by the government: “I would just like to say that this film is […]
Sergii Leshchenko on open access information in Ukraine
By Sally Ashley-Cound On Friday 4 April, Open Access was screened at the Frontline Club. Bringing together the work of five directors – Volodymyr Tykhyy, Serhiy Andrushko, Jeanne Dovhych, Dmytro Konovalov and Dmytro Tiazhlov – Open Access follows the stories of five different people as they attempt to invoke the 2011 Ukraine law on access […]
Who will lead Afghanistan?
By Alex Glynn ‘What next for Afghanistan?’ asked a panel of experts at the Frontline Club on 2 April, in an event in partnership with BBC World Service, that looked at the possible outcomes of the upcoming election. There was a certain measured optimism in the response to this question from the panel and a […]
First to Fall – Losing Innocence
By Ratha Lehall On Monday 31 March, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of First to Fall, followed by a Q&A with the director of the film, Rachel Beth Anderson, and its co-director, Tim Grucza. First to Fall follows two Libyan young men, Hamid and Tarek, who return to Libya from Canada during the conflict […]
Art and Politics: The aesthetics of protest and the fight for human rights
by Sally Ashley-Cound On Wednesday 26 March 2014, Lacuna magazine hosted a night of discussion and performance at the Frontline Club chaired by Maureen Freely, English Pen president.
2014 Afghan Presidential Candidates
By Elliott Goat As Afghanistan gears up for a pivotal presidential election, on Wednesday 2 April we will be bringing together a panel of experts to take an in-depth look at the candidates and the challenges that await them. For further details see HERE. Ahead of this First Wednesday debate, here is a run down […]
Lawrence of Arabia: The making of a romantic hero and a troubled Middle East
By Alex Glynn With the Middle East currently seeming to reject the artificial lines drawn by Europeans after WWI, veteran correspondent Scott Anderson was joined by journalist and author Christopher de Bellaigue at the Frontline Club on 25 March to discuss how much the romantic historical figure of T. E. Lawrence shaped the region. This is the basis for […]
Nuclear Power: A New Perspective
By Lizzie Kendal At the Frontline Club on Friday 21 March, a screening of Pandora’s Promise was followed by a Q&A with director Robert Stone and environmental activist Mark Lynas who features in the film, which was moderated by Tom Clarke, Science Editor for Channel 4 News. The film asks the question whether nuclear energy is actually […]
Shooting Bigfoot with Morgan Matthews
by Sally Ashley-Cound “I hope you enjoy the film half as much as I enjoyed making it. Apart from the crazy bit,” director Morgan Matthews said on Monday 17 March at the Frontline Club as he introduced his new documentary Shooting Bigfoot in association with BBC Storyville. Warning: Contains spoilers.
The Longest Kiss: Independence, separation and conflict in the world’s newest country
By Max Hallam and Elliott Goat On Monday 10 March, the Frontline Club hosted Alexandra Sicotte-Lévesque for a preview screening of her latest documentary, The Longest Kiss. She was joined by James Copnall, author of A Poisonous Thorn in Our Hearts: Sudan and South Sudan’s Bitter and Incomplete Divorce, to discuss their experiences of the […]
First Wednesday: Crisis in Ukraine
By Phoebe Hall As news of the build-up of Russian forces in Crimea dominated the headlines, a distinguished panel convened at the Frontline Club on 5 March for a First Wednesday event examining the current crisis in Ukraine. The insightful discussion, chaired by Paddy O’Connell of BBC 4’s Broadcasting House, largely focused on Russian motivation […]
The Fog of Peace and its Murky Wars
By Antonia Roupell Few could have shed light on conflict resolution and analysis better than director of the Middle East programme at Oxford Research Group, Gabrielle Rifkind, and Giandomenico Picco, who served as under-secretary general of the United Nations and led the task force negotiations to end the Iran–Iraq War. They are the co-authors of The Fog […]
ISIS and damage limitation in the battle for Syria
by Sally Ashley-Cound On February 19 at the Frontline Club, a panel chaired by international editor at Channel 4 News Lindsey Hilsum, discussed the current state of rebel fractions and the rise of ISIS in Syria. Hilsum started of by asking what happened to the FSA, which was so prominent during the first months of […]
Tales from the City of Gold: Documenting a legacy
On Wednesday 12 February the Frontline Club welcomed Jason Larkin and Francis Hodgson for an in the picture photography discussion. They were talking about Tales from the City of Gold – a project that Larkin has been working on for over two years, documenting the legacy of gold mining in Johannesburg.
A Life Less Ordinary: The First Female War Correspondents
By Alex Glynn The changing face of war reporting for female journalists was the topic of conversation at the Frontline Club on Tuesday 11 February, with a special insight into two women who pioneered the trade – Clare Hollingworth and Gerda Taro.
South Sudan: nation building through football
By Richard Nield On Monday 10 February, the Frontline Club hosted a BBC Storyville Preview screening of Coach Zoran and His African Tigers, an at once inspiring and saddening tale of the exploits and frustrations of the national football team of the world’s youngest nation, South Sudan. The film tells the story of Zoran Djordjevic, the […]
Blurred Borders: The Consequences of Over-Spill from Conflict in Syria
by Sally Ashley-Cound On Thursday 6 February at the Frontline Club, Dan Smith, secretary general of International Alert, chaired a panel which discussed the impact of the war in Syria on the surrounding states.
‘A World Not Ours’ – And A Story That Now Is
By Lizzie Kendal On Friday 7 February, the Frontline Club was fully booked and the audience buzzed with anticipation for the screening of A World Not Ours followed by a Q&A with director Mahdi Fleifel, editor Michael Aaglund and a last-minute addition of producer Patrick Campbell. The film is set in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain […]
More Alive Than The Living: Putin’s Olympic Dream
By George Symonds “We used to say health to the people. Now we say health to the rich only.” On Monday 3 February 2014, the Frontline Club screened the UK premier of Putin’s Olympic Dream. Director Hans Pool shone light onto the crooked nature of Putin’s very own “fake smile.” Behind the facade of the […]
