The Forum Blog
Still the enemy within after 30 years
By Graham Lanktree When Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced on 6 March 1984 that she would close 20 coal mines, there was little clue it would spark the country’s longest strike and leave Britain’s trade unions sorely diminished decades later. For a year roughly 160,000 coal miners from across the UK walked off the job as […]
Ebola: Tearing a hole in West Africa
By Mackenzie Weinger On Wednesday 1 October, several experts told a crowd at the Frontline Club about the unprecedented and horrific impact that the Ebola epidemic is having in West Africa. The panel — moderated by Ade Daramy, chair and spokesperson for the UK Sierra Leone Ebola Task Force — tackled the international community’s response to […]
1971: The year they took the truth
By George Symonds “J. Edgar Hoover was apoplectic.” On Monday 29 September 2014, the Frontline Club screened 1971, the incredible story of eight US citizens whose courage – both moral and physical – led them to break into an FBI office to confiscate evidence of the bureau’s grave abuses of power. The self-incriminating documents revealed the existence of […]
ISIS is here for a generation
By Richard Nield The threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the international network of militants it has spawned will be with us for a “generation”, according to experts speaking at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 24 September 2014.
Libya: “A country which seems to be falling apart by accident.”
By Caroline Rogers On Wednesday 17 September, a panel chaired by Channel 4 News’ international editor Lindsey Hilsum, came together to discuss the current plight of Libya; what has gone wrong since the 2011 revolution, whether it really is on the brink of becoming a failed state, and what role the international community should play in pulling Libya […]
In The Shadow Of War: The long-term reality
By Antonia Roupell On Monday 22 September the Frontline Club screened In The Shadow Of War. The film explores the impact the Bosnian war still has on today’s youth. It focuses on four characters whose lives, a generation after the war ended, are still shaped by the events of the 1990’s. The documentary was followed by […]
The Process: “A view from the ground, of life inside the process.”
By Ratha Lehall On Friday 19 September, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of The Process, followed by a lively Q&A with the director, Joshua Baker, moderated by Jonathan Miller, foreign correspondent for Channel 4 News. The film follows three main characters in Israel and Palestine: a young Israeli woman who has moved from her settlement to […]
Night Will Fall: “Bearing witness to atrocity”
By Phoebe Hall On Tuesday 16 September, the Frontline Club hosted a preview screening of Night Will Fall, followed by an insightful Q&A with director André Singer and producer Sally Angel. The powerful film interweaves eyewitness testimony and original archive footage in order to chronicle the process of the filming, by American and British and Soviet […]
Part of the Club? Journalism Today
By Elliott Goat With journalism as a profession undergoing an intense period of upheaval and self-reflection, Grapevine Events, in conjunction with the Frontline Club, brought together some of the industry’s most prominent editors on Thursday 11 September to discuss the major issues affecting journalism today. Bringing out the big guns @amolrajan @AlexGAMiller @emmatimes2 #ftf Ian […]
Has the truth caught up with Rupert Murdoch? Insight with Nick Davies
By Alex Glynn Investigative journalist Nick Davies treated the Frontline Club to a detailed insight into his new book, and into the saga that dominated seven years of his life – uncovering the hacking scandal at News of the World. One thing that he makes clear in the book, Hack Attack, is that the investigation […]
Digital boy in an analogue world
By Elliott Goat Following the screening of The Internet’s Own Boy – The Story of Aaron Swartz at the Frontline Club, director Brian Knappenberger, speaking via Skype, began by charting the genesis of the film. Engaging with hackers and hactivism through his previous project, We Are Legion, which screened at the Frontline Club in 2012, […]
Architectural Violence: A closer look at the West Bank
By Lizzie Kendal As part of this year’s Summer Season exploring walls, barriers and borders today, the Frontline Club hosted a preview screening of The Architecture of Violence on Wednesday 13 August. It was followed by a Q&A with director Ana Naomi de Sousa and protagonist, architect and activist Eyal Weizman, moderated by filmmaker Olly Lambert. The film […]
Animals caught in a stalemate
By Lisa Dupuy Rabbit a La Berlin, a film by Bartek Konopka and Piotr Rosołowski which will be screened on Wednesday 20 August, examines the plights of a colony of rabbits which lived between the two barriers of the Berlin Wall. Enclosed in this space, the animals lived undisturbed lives – until the Wall was […]
Tiananmen revisited: A collective amnesia
By Alex Glynn Although they took place 25 years ago, the horrific events that occurred in Tiananmen Square still remain a contentious subject in China and a point of obsession around the world. On Tuesday 29 July, a panel of experts at the Frontline Club revisited one of China’s most contested historical events, and considered questions of legacy, impact […]
“Zero Accountability and Massive Power”
By Ratha Lehall On Monday 28 July, the Frontline Club hosted the preview screening of One Rogue Reporter, which was followed by a Q&A with director Rich Peppiatt, chaired by professor of television journalism at City University, Stewart Purvis. Peppiatt was a tabloid journalist with the Daily Star, who publicly resigned in 2011. His resignation […]
Erdogan lined up for victory in presidential polls
By Richard Nield Turkey’s prime minister Racep Tayyip Erdogan will win next month’s presidential elections and become the country’s first directly elected president, according to a panel of experts assembled at the Frontline Club on 22 July 2014. The Frontline Club event was chaired by Murat Nisancioglu, the head of Turkish Service at BBC Global […]
Seeds of Hope: Sanctuary and recovery in the DRC
By Ratha Lehall On Monday 14 July, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of Seeds of Hope, a documentary which focuses on the effect of rape in Eastern Congo, where it has become a widely used weapon of war. The film centres around one woman, Masika, who is herself a victim of rape, and her determination to provide a […]
Cruel Journeys: Shorts on Migration
By George Symonds “Where can I go to have a decent life?” On Friday 11 June, Shorts at the Frontline Club took viewers on a cinematic journey that showcased the different ways used to document the world we live in. The theme: migration and the phases of migration. Two at the Border by Tuna Kaptan and Felicitas […]
The Heroic Tragedy: Who is Dayani Cristal?
By George Symonds “The Journey towards you Lord, is life. To set off is to die a little.” (The Migrants’ Prayer) On Monday 7 July 2014, the Frontline Club screened Who is Dayani Cristal? The film follows actor Gael García Bernal as he retraced the footsteps of a Honduran man found dead in the Arizonan […]
Tracing Migration
By Lisa Dupuy Where there are borders, attempts will likely be made to cross them in the hope of reaching greener pastures. But the individuals who try are not necessarily welcomed by those who live on the other side. Fences, walls and legislation are thrown up to at least regulate the influx of migrants. And in some cases, borders are […]
Fifty Years of The New York Review of Books and its Arguments
By Antonia Roupell On Thursday 26 June an audience collected at the Frontline Club to watch Martin Scorsese and his longtime documentary collaborator David Tedeschi’s latest film: The 50 Year Argument. This multi-layered documentary offered a unique historical retrospective over the last 50 years through the eyes of the iconic New York Review of Books. […]
Ground Zero at the Frontline Club
By Richard Nield A compelling Frontline Club event on Wednesday 25 June showcased film and photographic work from across the globe that revealed both the depth of suffering and the strength of human spirit in some of the world’s most devastating internal conflicts. Featured at the event was a series of photographs from Tim Freccia in […]
Iraq on the Brink
By Elliott Goat “This started before Maliki and will go on long after Maliki.” – Hayder al-Khoei
Ukraine: a new challenge
By Sally Ashley-Cound On Wednesday 18 June at the Frontline Club, Bridget Kendall, diplomatic correspondent for BBC News, chaired a heated panel discussion on the current situation in Ukraine and the role of local and Russian media in the region.
Protecting whistleblowers: “The people always have a right to know”
By Allendria Brunjes A six-person panel, experienced with an array of whistleblowing cases, came together at the Frontline Club on Tuesday 17 June for the Amnesty International event, Protecting Whistleblowers. Speaking to a sold out room, the panel – which included lawyers, a journalist and a whistleblower – discussed issues of truth, access to information […]
“If I didn’t get an agreement, I failed.”
By Tom Adams On Monday 16 June, the Frontline club hosted director Karen Stokkendal Poulsen and veteran European diplomat Robert Cooper for the screening of Poulsen’s new film, The Agreement.
Return to Homs and the journey of two friends from pacifist protestors to rebel insurgents
By Sally Ashley-Cound Return to Homs follows two close friends and young revolutionaries as their beloved city is taken over by the army. Basset is a local football star, the goalkeeper for the Syrian national team who also became an iconic singer in the revolution, and Ossama is a media activist and pacifist. The intimate portrait shows how […]
Tough road ahead for Egypt
By Richard Nield In the aftermath of victory for Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in recent presidential elections, Egypt’s government faces a huge challenge to unite a fragmented society behind difficult economic reforms, agreed a panel of experts speaking at the Frontline Club on 10 June 2014, chaired by Rasha Qandeel, presenter and journalist at BBC Arabic.
Fault Lines in Unknowable Spaces: Boko Haram and the hunt for Nigeria’s missing schoolgirls
By Elliott Goat The Frontline Club’s First Wednesdays kicked off a discussion on the news story that has dominated all others over the past month: Boko Haram and the hunt for Nigeria’s missing schoolgirls. Channel 4 News’ foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller, chairing the evening’s discussion, began by asking who are Boko Haram? What are their ultimate objectives? How […]
Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence in Conflict
By Tom Adams On Tuesday 3 June, with just a week to go until the start of the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Frontline Club hosted a fully booked event on preventing and responding to sexual violence in conflict, with specialist reference to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).