The Forum Blog
There will be blood
By Nigel Wilson Photograph: Mahvish RazzaqWith foreign troops preparing to leave Afghanistan, a panel of experts gathered at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 23 January to assess the prospects for the country. With the Western media narrative focused on troop withdrawal, chair David Loyn urged the panel to gaze into their crystal balls and predict […]
How to gain commercial success – Third party: PhotoTALK with WPO
By Sally Ashley-Cound For the second PhotoTALK event with the World Photography Organisation the subject was how to gain commercial success. Discussing this topic at the Frontline Club on Tuesday 22 January, chaired by designer Stuart Smith, were the managing director of Balcony Jump Management Tim Paton, Magnum Photos photographer Chien-Chi Chang, director of Panos […]
“Why did anybody go along with totalitarianism?” – Insight with Anne Applebaum
By Jim Treadway Free societies crumbled in the decade after World War II, when Stalin took much of Eastern and Central Europe, and in a single-minded fashion, dismantled the existing institutions to build totalitarianism. This period provides the subject for Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum’s latest book Iron Curtain, which she discussed with journalists and columnist for The Times, Oliver Kamm […]
McCullin: the still image that really does haunt you
By Lizzie Kendal On Friday 18 January the sound of spontaneous applause rang out from the upper room at the Frontline Club as the Bafta nominated documentary ‘McCullin’ came to an end. The room was packed despite the snow, and there was eager anticipation in the air for the Q&A with director Jacqui Morris and producer […]
Obama 2: The reluctant bully
By Nigel Wilson With the speechwriters putting the final touches to Barack Obama’s second inauguration address, a panel of experts assembled at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 16 January to assess the challenges and expectations facing the president.
Reflections with John Simpson: An escape from sub-editing
By Merryn Johnson As Vin Ray introduced BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson to an audience at the Frontline Club on Tuesday 15 January, he joked that the evening would be a cross between ‘This Is Your Life’ and ‘Desert Island Discs’.
The City’s Secrets
By Sally Ashley-Cound There was great interest in the screening of the film Secret City and the Q&A with Michael Chanan – professor of film and video at the University of Roehampton and The New Statesman’s first video blogger – which followed on Monday 14th January at the Frontline Club. Chanan’s film, along with fellow filmmaker and […]
Waking Italy Up: “Girlfriend in a Coma”
By Jim Treadway “This is a country that has grown less than Haiti over the last nine years,” Italian Director Analisa Piras lamented. Her documentary Girlfriend in a Coma, made with Bill Emmott, the former Editor-In-Chief of The Economist and author of the recently-published Good Italy, Bad Italy, screened to a sold-out audience at the […]
A pattern of bloodshed
By Nishat Ahmed Syria’s continually deteriorating situation set the tone for January’s First Wednesday – the first panel debate of the year. The group, chaired by Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House, included Melissa Fleming, spokesperson of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); Ausama Monajed, the executive director the the London-based Strategic Research […]
Magnum Revolution: 65 Years of Fighting for Freedom
By Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi How does a photographer work with a dozen iPhones obscuring her view? This was just one of many questions debated on Thursday 13th December at the Frontline Club’s sold-out event on Magnum’s latest publication: Magnum Revolution: 65 Years of Fighting for Freedom.
#FCBBCA Israel and Iran: Countdown to war? – The report
By Jim Treadway Will 2013 see an escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran? The Frontline Club in association with BBC Arabic brought together an expert panel to decipher the drumbeat of war and predict what 2013 may hold. Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow began by telling an audience at LSE’s Sheikh Zayed Theatre on 12 December, that the […]
Leveson’s legacy and the future for British press
By Emily Wight Following the publication of Lord Justice Leveson’s 2,000-page report last week, the Frontline Club hosted a panel of media experts on 3 December. The talk was chaired by BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas, he was joined by: Martin Moore, director of the Media Standards Trust and one of the founders of the Hacked […]
Around the world through Shorts at the Frontline Club
By Jonathan Couturier On November 28th, an evening of Shorts at the Frontline Club tackled two questions: how much time do you need to tell a story? and how can you tell non-fictional stories? That night, Frontline screened seven short but poignant documentaries, portraying past and present struggles from around the world. Radically different and […]
Albino killings in Tanzania: Harry Freeland’s ‘In the Shadow of the Sun’
By Jim Treadway We don’t choose the colour of our skin, or the place where we are born. But for people with albinism in Tanzania, their appearance has made them a hunted, sub-human species. “We are killed. We are dismembered,” says Josephat Torner, one of the albino subjects in Harry Freeland’s documentary, In the Shadow […]
Covering poverty in an indifferent world
By Lizzie Kendal On Tuesday 27 November, a group of experts gathered at the Frontline Club to discuss the issues and nuances that surround the task of: Covering poverty in an indifferent world. This subject was recently explored by the BBC’s Why Poverty? series in an episode covering the campaigning efforts of Bob Geldof and Bono, and […]
Voice of Afghanistan: Screening and Q&A with Jawed Taiman
By Jim Treadway “The life we had. The flowers, the trees,” an elder Afghan recalls about the village in which he has lived, and where director Jawed Taiman grew up before his family fled the Soviet invasion in 1979. “Just look at it now,” the man gestures. “It’s completely dry.” This conversation opens Taiman’s latest […]
PhotoTALK with WPO: The funding game
By Sally Ashley-Cound Wednesday 21st November saw the World Photography Organisation hold the first PhotoTALK event at the Frontline Club; a new series of talks which will take place around the world. Chaired by Stuart Smith of SMITH design, the panel for PhotoTALK with WPO: The Funding Game consisted of Canadian photographer Donald Weber who recently […]
Cruel Britannia: A secret history of torture
By Emily Wight Less than two months after the Mau Maus won a legal victory over the British government for torture they suffered during the 1950s, Ian Cobain has published Cruel Britannia: A Secret History of Torture, a book which explores the narrative of Britain’s complicity in torture around the world from the Second World […]
Insight with Jeremy Bowen: The Arab uprisings
By Anna Reitman Coming straight from a day of reporting on the latest unrest between Israel and Gaza, the BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen was at the Frontline Club on 14 November to discuss the historic events that have reshaped the Middle East. He reflected on their political context, history and the evolving landscape as documented in […]
Fixers: Explaining countries, cultures and revolutions
By Merryn Johnson Last night’s talk looked at the future of fixers in foreign reporting and at the relationships that develop when the ‘mad circus of the international press’ arrives to cover a news story, desperately needing to hide their ignorance of the country, culture and language. The discussion was chaired by Charles Glass, broadcaster, […]
Screening: Land Rush + Q&A
By Joëlle Pouliot On November 12, Land Rush was screened at The Frontline Club as part of a cross-media event entitled Why Poverty?, which uses films, online and TV, to get people talking about poverty. Land Rush explores the land appropriation debate in Mali. 75% of the population are small-scale traditional farmers who compete with […]
Call Me Kuchu – screening and directors Q&A session
Call Me Kuchu, a powerful and evocative documentary film about the human rights of Uganda’s gay and lesbian population, screened – with a following Q&A session – on 1 November at the Frontline Club.
David Kato, the most prominent leader for sexual equality rights in Uganda, is the focus of this extraordinary documentary filmed during the last year of his life – until his murder in January 2011.
Chaos and cannibalism – First Wednesday exposes disconnection at the BBC
By Nigel Wilson The Frontline Club’s monthly showpiece night, First Wednesday, is a reliably feisty evening as expert panelists dissect the biggest news story of the day. On 7 November, in an explosive debate, the panel and an audience that included Newsnight producer Meirion Jones and reporter Liz MacKean revealed more about the editorial and management […]
Screening: The Mexican Suitcase + Q&A
By Sally Ashley-Cound On the 5th of November filmmaker Trisha Ziff brought her widely acclaimed film The Mexican Suitcase to the Frontline Club. Thought lost since 1939, the group of three boxes full of negatives by Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David ‘Chim’ Seymour, known as The Mexican Suitcase, was uncovered in Mexico by Ziff […]
New Series Launch: Unreported World – Reporting Social Change
Channel 4 presented its new series of Unreported World to a packed audience at the Frontline Club on October 31, followed by a panel discussion entitled “Reporting Social Change”.
Images of the Frontline Club Awards 2012
The Frontline Club Awards were presented by Jon Snow on 25th October 2012 at the Frontline Club. A keynote speech from judge Jon Lee Anderson was followed by the presentation of the Awards.
#FCBBCA Cyber snooping: In whose hands should internet governance be entrusted?
By Doug Brown A packed audience filled the Frontline Club forum on 23rd October to hear a panel tackle the question: In whose hands should internet governance be entrusted? Chaired by the Chief Executive of Index on Censorship Kirsty Hughes the event, in association with BBC Arabic, featured: Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir; developer for The Tor Project, Jacob Appelbaum; independent media technology […]
Not Invisible: London Premiere of The Invisible War
By Lizzie Kendal On October 22 the Frontline Club hosted the London Premiere of The Invisible War, followed by a Q&A with Emmy-nominated producer Amy Ziering. The Invisible War explores the devastating emotional and physical effects of sexual assault within the US military. In the Q&A producer Amy Ziering, explained how the emotional side of […]
And all that Jazz
By Merryn Johnson “I’m very happy to face serious opposition: If I would say what I say and talk about Jewish political power without facing serious, relentless opposition, it would mean that I am talking nonsense… and apparently I’m not.” — Gilad Atzmon Gilad Atzmon certainly does face serious opposition, but he also revels in it. […]