The Forum Blog
Secrets of the Vatican: Screening and Director Q&A
By Ratha Lehall On Monday 2 June, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of Secrets of the Vatican, which was followed by a Q&A session with the film’s director and producer, Anthony Thomas. The film focuses on the sexual abuse scandals that emerged from within the Vatican during the time when Pope Benedict led the Roman Catholic […]
Syrian Snapshots: We started with hope and ended with despair
By Greta Hofmann At the screening of Syria – Snapshots of History in the Making on Thursday 29 May at the Frontline Club, host Vaughan Smith was joined by Abounaddara Films producer Charif Kiwan, former Le Monde editor and founder of the WARM Foundation Remy Ourdan, and photographers Patrick Chauvel and Paul Lowe, for a pre-screening discussion as well as a […]
Lying to Survive: Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth In Tehran
By Elliott Goat “To live in Tehran you have to lie. Morals don’t come into it. Lying in Tehran is about survival.” Speaking at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 21 May about her new book City of Lies, Ramita Navai was joined in conversation by the BBC’s Middle East Correspondent Jeremy Bowen. She began by elaborating on the […]
News and information security in the digital age
By Allendria Brunjes SecDev Group CEO and information security expert Rafal Rohozinski brought digital news issues and security to the forefront on Tuesday 20 May. In partnership with BBC World Service, the night’s focus ranged from regional social media and “robo-lobbies” to data journalism and the internet’s role in warfare. Rohozinski, who also co-founded Psiphon and […]
Hearts of Oil: Virunga Sneak Preview + Q&A
By George Symonds “They are like my family.” “They’re just fucking monkeys.” On Thursday 15 May 2014, the Frontline Club screened Virunga, a masterful documentary that portrays both the highest of human empathy, and lowest of murderous greed in eastern DR Congo. Present for the Q&A were director Orlando von Einsiedel, producer Joanna Natasegara and investigative […]
Balochistan at a Crossroads: Beauty and brutality
By Anna Reitman Balochistan is one of the least known stories about Pakistan yet its geo-political strategic importance and abundant natural resources means control of this province is a high-stakes battle, said Declan Walsh, The New York Times bureau chief for Pakistan. Walsh was on hand on Wednesday 14 May to launch Balochistan at a Crossroads – the […]
On the frontline of defending women’s rights: A conversation with Human Rights Watch
By Anna Reitman The Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch joined The Guardian’s Liz Ford on Tuesday 13 May to discuss the highs and lows of the challenges faced in improving the lives of women and girls around the world. The event took place as the world’s attention focuses on Nigeria’s kidnapped schoolgirls and subsequent failure to […]
Dear Leader: From inside the North Korean elite
By Alex Glynn North Korea’s former poet laureate gave the Frontline Club a rare opportunity to hear about life inside one of the world’s most secretive and intriguing nations, in a discussion about the reality of its present and possibility of its future. Defector Jang Jin-sung was joined by Asia expert and commentator, Peter French, […]
Documentary Shorts Screening: Sound and Vision
By Antonia Roupell On Friday 2 May, a crowd gathered for a now-familiar Friday set-up of documentary short screenings at the Frontline Club. Wotienke Vermeer, the documentary programmer, introduced the evening’s line up. She explained that this time there was no subject theme for the films but noted instead on the films particular use of sound. […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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.