women
Women, Whistleblowing, WikiLeaks
Most of the media attention around WikiLeaks has focused upon founder Julian Assange, and his ongoing confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The broader dimensions of WikiLeaks are rarely aired. Especially critical in these omissions is the role of women, both in the organisation and the more general struggle for information freedom.
Preview Screening: India’s Ladycops + Q&A
For the first time, cameras go inside a police station run by and for women, revealing a unique perspective on what’s really going on in Indian society. This surprising documentary follows Parmila and her special team of scooter-mounted female officers who are focused on preventing the harassment of women.
The Changing Nature of Women in Extremism
Although women have been among the leaders and followers of terrorist organisations throughout modern history, the mass media typically depict female terrorists as interlopers in a male domain. There is currently a blind spot in our understanding of, and reporting on, the role of women in extremism: how and why women are being recruited and what tools will best work to prevent radicalisation. What role does the media play in influencing the decisions female extremists make and how can journalists better cover the issue?
Investigating and Reporting on Sexual Violence in Conflict
The Frontline Club is collaborating with the annual Trust Women Conference to present a discussion focused on investigating and reporting on sexual violence in conflict. With a focus on Syria our panel will be mapping out what is being done to help individuals and societies affected by sexual violence, and discuss ethical practices for journalists reporting on the topic and engaging with survivors.
Screening: A Revolution in Four Seasons + Q&A
In A Revolution in Four Seasons, two politically-opposed young women fight to shape their lives along with the political future of Tunisia, the sole country to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings as a functional democracy. Director/Producer Jessie Deeter and Co-Producer Sara Maamouri began filming in 2011.
In the Picture with Paula Bronstein: Afghanistan – Between Hope and Fear
Since her first assignment to Afghanistan in Autumn 2001 to document the US-led ‘Occupation Enduring Freedom’ in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, award-winning photojournalist Paula Bronstein has made the country her mission. Returning frequently to intimately document the daily lives of the Afghan people against the backdrop of a brutal and protracted war, Bronstein has captured ongoing challenges in Afghanistan – including human rights abuses against women and increased violence and instability – as well as the stirrings of new hope, including women participating in elections for the first time.
On the publication of her new book Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear, Paula Bronstein will join us in conversation with Christina Lamb to discuss her expansive work that intimately captures everyday life in Afghanistan against the backdrop of the 14-year US-led invasion and its enduring legacy.
U.S. Under the Lens: TRAPPED + Q&A
At this very moment, a woman’s reproductive rights in the United States are not clear. Since 2010, state legislatures have passed more than 250 laws restricting abortion clinics and their doctors. From mandating the width of hallways to requiring physicians to have active admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, these measures are forcing clinics across the country to shut down in epidemic numbers. Lawyer-turned-acclaimed-filmmaker Dawn Porter picks up the plight of the doctors and clinic operators along with the countless women relying on these facilities to uphold their legal right to safe abortion.
Screening: Boxing for Freedom + Q&A
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with directors Juan Antonio Moreno Amador and Silvia Venegas.
Sadaf Rahimi is the most accomplished female boxer in Afghanistan and well known within her community in Kabul, though her talent for the sport attracts social ridicule as well as fame. Sadaf’s boxing and academic achievements have led her into public visibility and turned her into a role model for many Afghan young women – although her athletic career has been jeopardised by death threats and interference from the Afghan Boxing Association, which barred her from travelling to compete in the 2012 London Olympics.
Green Caravan Film Festival Screening: Babushkas of Chernobyl
Some 200 women defiantly cling to their ancestral homeland in Chernobyl’s radioactive “Exclusion Zone.” While most of their neighbours have long since fled and their husbands have gradually died off, this stubborn sisterhood is hanging on — even, oddly, thriving — while trying to cultivate an existence on toxic earth.
Screening: Code – Debugging the Gender Gap + Q&A
At a time when the US tech sector outpaces the overall growth of the employment market, CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap asks the important question: where are all the women? This revealing and uplifting documentary examines the reasons why more girls are not seeking opportunities in computer science and explores how cultural mindsets, stereotypes, educational hurdles and sexism all play a role in widening this employment gap.
Exploitation and Liberation: Chloe Ruthven’s Jungle Sisters
By Francis Churchill The garment manufacturing industry has garnered a reputation for being an exploitative industry. Nonetheless, the Indian government is planning to train 500 million of the country’s rural poor to fill factory jobs in the country’s ever increasing manufacturing sector. Most of this work has been contracted out to private companies who profit from training […]
News Reporting: Is Gender a Factor?
By Josie Le Blond There’s no getting round it. Female journalists face exceptional risks when reporting events across the world. Especially as freelancers undertaking assignments alone, women must factor the dangers of gender and sexual violence into their assessments of hostile environments.
PBS Preview Screening – Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Dyanna Taylor.
Explore, through her granddaughter’s eyes, the life story of Dorothea Lange, the photographer who captured the iconic image “Migrant Mother.” Never-seen-before photos, film footage, interviews, family memories, and journals reveal the artist who challenged America to know itself.
Screening: Shades of True + Q&A
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Alexandre Westphal.
Hutu women as well as men took up arms and went amok killing their neighbours during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In Shades of True eight female perpetrators, who have been imprisoned for taking part in the genocide, recount their experiences with clarity and a shocking lack of sentimentality.
News Reporting and Navigating Risk: Is Gender a Factor?
This event is organised by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) and the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).
News Reporting and Navigating Risk will be a moderated discussion with accomplished journalists who have reported from hostile environments around the world about their experiences with a focus on best practices for security, emotional self care, and access to medical, mental health, and emergency resources.
Screening: Burden of Peace + Q&A
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Joey Boink.
Burden of Peace tells the impressive story of Claudia Paz y Paz, the first woman to lead the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Guatemala. Ravaged for years by a devastating civil war, in which nearly 200,000 Mayan Indians were systematically massacred, the country today is one of the most crime-ridden in the world. Paz y Paz starts a frontal attack against corruption, drug gangs and impunity and does what everyone had hitherto held to be impossible: she arrests former dictator Efraín Rios Montt on charges of genocide against the Mayan Indians.
First Wednesday Screening: India’s Daughter + Panel Discussion
In 2012, the brutal gang rape on a Delhi bus of a 23-year-old medical student, who later died from her injuries, made international headlines and ignited protests. India’s Daughter is an impassioned plea for change, paying tribute to a remarkable and inspiring young woman. The film explores the compelling human stories behind the incident and the political ramifications in India.
Following the screening we will be joined by director Leslee Udwin and others to discuss the international reactions to the film, the aftermath of the Indian broadcast ban, and the greater issue of gender based violence.
Morchidats in Morocco: Advice and Guidance for Young Women
By Ratha Lehall On Friday 30 January, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of Casablanca Calling, which was followed by a Q&A session with director Rosa Rogers and producer Hilary Durman. The documentary focuses on three Morchidat: women who work in schools, prisons, mosques and communities across Morocco to educate the population about the true meaning of […]
Screening: Nowhere to Call Home + Q&A
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Jocelyn Ford.
Nowhere To Call Home tells the powerful story of Zanta, a Tibetan woman who moves to Beijing against the wishes of her in-laws so that her young son can receive an education. Widowed at 28, Tibetan farmer Zanta defies her tyrannical father-in-law and after her husband’s death refuses to marry the family’s only surviving son. When Zanta’s in-laws won’t let her seven-year-old child go to school, she flees her village and heads to Beijing where she becomes a street vendor.
Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence in Conflict
On 10 June, world leaders and NGOs will gather in London for a global summit with the aim to create “irreversible momentum against sexual violence in conflict and practical action that impacts those on the ground”. Ahead of the summit, we will be joined by a panel of speakers who have been working towards this aim for many years. They will be discussing what needs to be done to make it a reality.
The First Female War Correspondents
Clare Hollingworth and Gerda Taro were two of the first female war correspondents, and their pioneering courage and conviction paved the way for many who have followed. We will be joined by Patrick Garrett, Hollingworth’s great nephew who is writing a book about her life, and Jane Rogoyska, author of Gerda Taro: Inventing Robert Capa. They will be exploring the lives and work of these two extraordinary women, united by a passion for journalism.
Screening: In the Shadow of a Man + Q&A
In the wake of the Egyptian revolution, four women speak of their fight for the future and what it means to be a woman in Egypt. Although Wafaa, Suzanne, Shahinda and Badreya are each from vastly different backgrounds and generations, they are deeply connected by the current changes in Egypt. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Hanan Abdalla, moderated by Yasmin El Derby.
Contesting identities – exploring the role of women in India
By Nishat Ahmed The preview screening of The World Before Her held the audience captive at the Frontline Club on Tuesday 2 April. It was not just the trials and tribulations of two opposites – a beauty contest and a fundamentalist Hindu training camp – but a means by which to focus on the contesting roles of […]
Preview Screening: The World Before Her + Q&A
In The World Before Her filmmaker Nisha Pahuja illustrates the tension between traditional and modern perspectives toward women in today’s India, through the Miss India contest and unprecedented access to the fundamentalist Hindu women’s training camps. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Nisha Pahuja.
Insight with Shereen El Feki: Sex and the Citadel
Shereen El Feki has spent the past five years travelling across the Arab region asking people about sex. Blending interviews, statistics, opinion polls, journalism and personal reminiscence, in her new book Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World, she explores this intimate and often highly sensitive facet of life in a changing Arab world. She will be joining us in conversation with columnist and broadcaster, Jenni Russell.
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.
Taliban take questions using online forum
Reuters is reporting that the Taliban have started answering queries submitted to an online forum on their website. Questions have been asked on topics ranging from the Taliban’s negotiations with the United States to their position on educating girls. The Taliban banned girls from schools while they were in power, although there were reports in […]
UK Premiere Screening: Tears of an Afghan warlord
Tears of an Afghan Warlord is the product of an intimate 10 year journey into the life of Mamour Hasan and his desire to maintain peace in his region. After years of hardship and war it becomes increasingly difficult for him to convince others of his ideas, including his eldest son. The film portrays the desperate attempts of man to uphold democratic ideals where democracy has failed and the pressures and arguments Afghani’s have to join the Taliban.
#FCBBCA Part 1: Women of the Revolution
By Helena Williams The uprisings that shook the Middle East this year have been a focus of relentless debate. ‘Revolutionary Arab women’ – activists, bloggers and academics – took to the streets and fought both for their country and their rights, capturing the western media’s attention and begging the question ‘what does the future hold […]
Announcing November events at the Frontline Club
From a series of films focusing on Africa to a discussion with Sky News’ Alex Crawford about her career and recent reporting in Libya, we have a wide range of talks lined up to keep you entertained and your mind stimulated this November, as winter approaches and the nights draw in. We will be discussing Kashmir’s future, the changing role […]