Screening
Preview Screening: Syria – Across the Lines
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Olly Lambert. As the Syrian conflict enters its third year, this documentary offers a shocking window on its increasingly sectarian nature. For five weeks, award winning documentary filmmaker Olly Lambert lived on both sides of this frontline: living with Alawite loyalists and government supporters on one side, as well as the FSA and Sunni refugees on the other.
‘Prisoner of conscience’: preview screening of British drama Complicit
By Nishat Ahmed The moral dilemma of being compliant in the ill-treatment of terror suspects was tackled at the Frontline Club with a preview screening of the feature-length TV drama, Complicit, on Monday 11 February. The audience watched a compelling account of the complexities faced by British intelligence services in their attempt to foil terror plots. […]
Screening: The Gatekeepers + Q&A
For the first time ever, six former heads of the Shin Bet, Israel’s secret service agency, agree to share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions. The screening of the Academy Award nominated film will be followed by a Q&A with director Dror Moreh.
Screening: Opium Brides + Q&A
Afghanistan produces around 90 percent of the world’s opium, fueling the global heroin trade, funding fundamentalist groups like the Taliban and bringing billions of dollars a year into the country’s economy. Award-winning Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi travels deep into the Afghan countryside to reveal the deadly bargain local farmers are being forced to make in order to save their own lives. The screening is followed by a Q&A with reporter Najibullah Quraishi and producer Jamie Doran.
Screening: Winter, Go Away + Q&A
While the streets of Moscow are in winter’s cold grip, its living rooms, offices and polling stations are ablaze with debate. Loaded with conflict and turbulent emotions, this street-level account of last winter’s demonstrations against Vladimir Putin’s presidential run, chronicles the political process and those dissatisfied with it. Followed by a Q&A with director Anton Seregin via Skype.
Al Qaeda in Yemen – Part I: Divisions, distrust and mutual hatred
By Tom Meade Kalashnikovs, dilapidated cities and drone destruction gripped the audience at an overflowing screening of In the Hands of Al Qaeda on Monday 4 February at the Frontline Club. Award-winning journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad and producer Jamie Doran were on hand after the screening to answer questions on Yemen, al Qaeda and the making of their latest film.
Alma’s violent confessions
By Nicky Armstrong On Friday 25 January, the Frontline Club hosted it’s first live film screening – interactive web-documentary, Alma, a Tale of Violence by Isabelle Fougère and Miquel Dewever-Plana. Joined by award-winning e-producer Alexandre Brachet and moderated by Himesh Kar from WorldView, the audience took part in a unique viewing, following the ‘route’ of the […]
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.
Screening: Reportero + Q&A
In Mexico, more than 40 journalists have been killed or have vanished since December 2006. Reportero illustrates the ruthless practices of the drug cartels, and the corruption that makes it so dangerous for journalists to do their jobs. Followed by a Q&A over Skype with director Bernardo Ruiz.
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 […]
Screening: Shorts at the Frontline Club
An evening of short documentaries from different parts of the world covering a wide range of topics, Shorts at the Frontline Club will showcase moving, striking and funny stories using different techniques.
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.
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. […]
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.
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 […]
Club Classics: Khodorkovsky
Opt for our £15 special offer for both the screening and a classic from our clubroom menu, 6pm onwards.
Khodorkovsky takes an explosive look into the life of former titan of the Russian oil industry, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, during his trial in Russia for an oligarchical rule of the market. After returning to his homeland from exile, Khodorkovsky is immediately arrested for challenging then President Putin, and a journey into the mind of one of Russia’s most powerful people begins.
Club Classics: Out of the Ashes
Opt for our £15 special offer for both the screening and a classic from our clubroom menu, 6pm onwards.
An inspirational documentary following the extraordinary quest of the Afghan cricket team to qualify for the 2011 World Cup. Against a backdrop of war and poverty, Out of the Ashes, traces the remarkable journey of a team of young Afghans as they chase a seemingly impossible dream – shedding new light on a nation beyond burqas, bombs, drugs and devastation.
POSTPONED Jordan’s Secret Shame
ORGANISED BY BBC ARABIC
Followed by a Q&A with undercover reporter Hanan Khandagji
BBC Arabic investigation has uncovered cases where children had been seriously injured in Jordan’s private care homes for the mentally disabled. The film also uncovers allegations of sexual abuse at one private care home. Hanan Khandagji is the undercover reporter who produced BBC Arabic’s investigative documentary Jordan’s Secret Shame. The film explores care homes abuse of disable children in Jordan, which received massive media coverage as well as a reaction from the public and the Jordanian government alike.
Storyville Sneak Preview Screening: Hitler, Stalin & Mr Jones
In the 1930’s Welsh journalist and foreign correspondent Gareth Jones’ greatest scoop was to reveal the starvation to death of millions in Ukraine, caused by Stalin’s policies. In the political reality of those days of competing ideologies there was a fine line between journalism and spying. Hitler, Stalin & Mr. Jones explores to what extent Jones’ own dual role may have contributed to his early death.
Storyville Screening: Hitler, Stalin & Mr Jones
In the 1930’s Welsh journalist and foreign correspondent Gareth Jones’ greatest scoop was to reveal the starvation to death of millions in Ukraine, caused by Stalin’s policies. In the political reality of those days of competing ideologies there was a fine line between journalism and spying. Hitler, Stalin & Mr. Jones explores to what extent Jones’ own dual role may have contributed to his early death.
External Screening at Curzon Soho: Big Boys Gone Bananas!*
Tickets: Book online on the Curzon’s website.
What will a big corporation do in order to protect its brand? Swedish filmmaker Fredik Gertten personally experienced how far one was prepared to go in the aftermath of releasing his previous film Bananas!*. That first documentary follows the lawsuit that 12 Nicaraguan plantation workers successfully brought against the fruit giant Dole Food Company. Just before Gertten left Sweden to attend the world premier of his film at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival, the film is mysteriously removed from competition.
Screening: Future Shorts – Spring Season
For the first time the Frontline Club will host Future Shorts, the world’s biggest pop-up film festival. Showing a selection of the best classic, cult and award-winning short films from around the world.
Screening: Surviving Progress
Directors Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks explore whether the world can survive the “progress trap”. Making connections between economics, the environment, history and science to argue that the rules the world currently lives by are unsustainable.
THIRD PARTY SCREENING: Facing the Music – Eurovision in Azerbaijan
It’s one of the most corrupt countries in the world and widely criticised for its human rights record but this year Azerbaijan is hosting Eurovision – one of the most glitzy TV music competitions in the world.
Screening: Uspomene 677
A documentary that looks at the 677 concentration camps, rape houses and prisons set up during the Bosnian war and their legacy today in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Director Mirko Pincelli addresses the complexity of post conflict society, where everyday life exists somewhere between past and present.
FULLY BOOKED Exclusive Preview Screening: Rupture – A Matter of Life or Death
Rupture is a documentary that tackles the personal tragedies and triumphs of people that have suffered brain hemorrhages and strokes. Academy Award winning director Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire) bears witness to actress Maryam d’Abo in her journey to understanding how her subarachnoid haemorrhage affected her life and how similar brain vascular diseases have affected the lives of friends and other creative figures in the UK and the US.
FULLY BOOKED Screening: Afghan Army Girls
For the first time in post-Taliban Afghanistan the national army is recruiting women, but only very few have stepped forward for training. In Afghan Army Girls, photojournalist and first-time director Lalage Snow reveals the difficulties, threats and personal changes these women go through as well as the complicated status they have in Afghan society. Followed by Q&A with director Lalage Snow.
THIRD PARTY SCREENING: From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad
From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad is a groundbreaking documentary about one of the most explosive conflicts in the world. For the first time on the record, an Israeli official, vice Prime Minister Moshe Yalon, implicitly, accepts the responsibility for the assassination of Iranian scientists, damaging Iranian nuclear centrifuges with a computer virus and destroying Iran’s military and nuclear facilities in the past few years.
THIRD PARTY SCREENING: The Trouble with Girls
There’s a long tradition in Afghanistan of families with no sons choosing to bring up one of their daughters as a boy. For the girls this means growing up dressed in boy’s clothes, answering to a boy’s name and being allowed the freedoms and privileges Afghan boys enjoy both within the family and outside.
Tahir Qadiry’s film looks at the issue from a number of different perspectives. He spends time with a girl currently growing up as a boy, talks to a young woman who’s still coming to terms with her experience being raised as a boy, seeks the opinion of a mullah and hears from a human rights activist.
THIRD PARTY SCREENING: An Arab Spring in Saudi?
A year after the Arab Spring Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen are still coming to terms with the realities that the fall of their respective dictators created. Some other countries are still struggling and revolts are ongoing in Syria and Bahrain. But what about countries in the Middle East that have born witness to the Arab Spring but haven’t been noticeably been touched by it?
In this documentary Shaimaa Khalil speaks to young Saudis, opposition leaders and tribe elders and asks whether the Arab Spring could ever find it’s way to The Kingdom.