Vaughan Smith
Members meeting with Vaughan Smith on WikiLeaks
Members of the Frontline Club got together on Thursday 20 January for what chair John Owen described as an “unprecedented meeting of the clan”. Called to discuss Club founder Vaughan Smith’s support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his decision to give him a bail address, the meeting was an opportunity for members to express […]
Shooting Robert King now available on DVD
The Frontline Club is proud to announce the release of “Shooting Robert King” on DVD. Filmed over 15 years by director Richard Parry and Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith, “Shooting Robert King” has been referred to as “the best war doc I have ever seen,” by Nick Broomfield. After an incredible festival run that took […]
Afghanistan: the brittle compact between military and media
Vaughan Smith argues that news management by the military is a risky business. Smith founded the Frontline Club in London in 2003 and during the 1990s he ran Frontline Television News. He filmed the only uncontrolled footage of the Gulf War in 1991 after bluffing his way into an active-duty unit while disguised as a […]
Hunting Men
Here is my director’s cut. 22 minutes from Operation Moshtarak, exciting stuff. Shows the war as it really is. First shown on Channel 4 News in February 2010. Vaughan
Embedded journalism in Afghanistan
Yesterday, I travelled up to Coventry for a conversation about embedded journalism in Afghanistan. It was hosted by Coventry University and the BBC’s College of Journalism. I’m not sure I ever really understood the question that was supposed to frame this debate: "Afghanistan: Are we embedding the truth?" (Answers on a postcard etc…) But as […]
Ambush in Helmand
Here’s my second piece on Channel 4 News, which was broadcast on Thursday night. This piece also went out on PBS Newshour. They ran it with few changes but here is the link to that version as well…I think the subtiles look nicer. I will be working on longer director’s cut this weekend and will […]
Tracking the Taliban: Vaughan Smith’s video report from Helmand Province
I have just returned from a second trip with the Grenadier Guards, who I visited in Helmand in 2007. They are now in Nadi Ali, in Helmand province, Afghanistan. I was there for a month, but my computer got waterlogged and so I haven’t posted anything to my blog from there so far. However, I am […]
Frontline Club at Sheffield Doc/Fest
At this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest the Frontline Club put on a panel covering an area of filmmaking the festival hadn’t previously examined, how you film in a dangerous situation. Putting the panel together was extremely difficult as, due to the nature of the job, many of our panellists were either stuck in difficult places filming […]
Blood Trail at True/False film festival
Blood Trail, the documentary film produced by club member Richard Parry along with club founder Vaughan Smith, is showing at the True/False film festival in Columbia, Missouri until March 1. The film documents 15 years in the life of war photographer Robert King – from naive beginner to accomplished professional. Robert and Richard are in […]
Newsnight – report from Sangin valley, Helmand, Afghanistan
This is the full 16 minute documentary that originally aired on BBC Newsnight on 26 September, 2007. It’s available for download on Google Video. My original text from the evening that I returned from Sangin: I have been out on operations with Colour Sergeant Jim Bastin of the Inkerman Company and a platoon of the […]
Owning up to war
Since leaving them 20 years ago I have always wanted to film my old army regiment, the Grenadier Guards, on operations and I have just returned from staying with them in Helmand, in southern Afghanistan, where they have been involved in intense fighting. It was not my first attempt at filming the Grenadiers in action. […]