Documentary
George Blake: Masterspy of Moscow
By Helena Kardova On Monday 16 March, the Frontline Club hosted a preview screening of Masterspy of Moscow – George Blake, directed by George Carey. The film, which will be broadcast on Monday 23 March by BBC 4 Storyville, traces the life story of the legendary George Blake, a British diplomat who became a longterm double agent […]
World Stories: bringing documentaries to “the poorest people”
By Javier Pérez de la Cruz “What World Stories and the Why Foundation are doing is bringing very important, powerful documentaries to greater attention and to international audiences,” said Richard Porter, controller of BBC World Service English, on Tuesday 24 February at the Frontline Club. The event marked the launch of the World Stories series, an […]
Delhi’s Endangered Artist Colony
By Georgia Luscombe On Monday 23 February, a screening of Tomorrow We Disappear transported an audience at the Frontline Club in rainy central London to the vibrant Kathputli slum in Delhi. The film follows the families of acrobats, magicians, painters and puppeteers resident in the artist colony of Kathputli as they battle the authorities who have […]
A Dangerous Game: “Democracy has been Corrupted by Individuals with Power”
By Javier Pérez de la Cruz “Wherever you go in the world, democracy has been corrupted by individuals with a lot of power”, said Anthony Baxter by way of an introduction to a screening of his latest film, A Dangerous Game, at the Frontline Club on Monday 12 January. The documentary, which follows on from Baxter’s first international success You’ve Been […]
Memory in Motion
Founded by a group of award-winning photographers committed to covering the stories affecting the world around them and in partnership with Libre, a group of web-passionate developers, Me-Mo is a documentary photography magazine that strives to push the limits of visual storytelling. Following the release of issue #1, out on digital newsstands from 19 January, Me-Mo co-founders Manu Brabo and Fabio Bucciarelli and Libre president Matteo Dispenza, will be joining us at the Frontline Club to present the project and the inspiration behind it, and to talk about how technology is influencing new medias. Brabo and Bucciarelli will also present their work, featured in issue #1, from the Libyan revolution.
Screening: Days of Hope + Q&A
Every year thousands of Africans leave their families behind in search of a better life in Europe. Ditte Haarløv Johnsen‘s intimate portrayal of everyday life after emigration explores the lives of three very different African immigrants, from three different places, who have embarked on a perilous journey to reach a common destination: Europe. With rawness and dignity, Days of Hope presents personal experiences of migration and the individual struggles faced by African immigrants in Europe. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Ditte Haarløv Johnsen.
Screening: Casablanca Calling + Q&A
In Morocco, the world’s first female Muslim leaders are setting out to change their country: empowering women through the teachings of Islam and challenging the attitudes which breed extremism. Through personal stories, family dramas and everyday lives, Casablanca Calling takes us into the heart of this quiet social revolution through the lives of the women at its forefront. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Rosa Rogers and producer Hilary Durman.
Screening: A Dangerous Game + Q&A
Following the success of You’ve Been Trumped, director Anthony Baxter goes on a journey to other global golfing hot spots where rapacious developers are building massive luxury resorts with little thought for the local environment or population. Through in-depth interviews with different players involved and footage showing the damage caused, Baxter reveals just how devastating these golf courses can be to the surrounding countryside and water tables. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Anthony Baxter.
Screening: Mubarak’s Egypt + Q&A
In Mubarak’s Egypt, director Charlie Smith investigates America’s role during the final years of Hosni Mubarak’s regime. By then Egypt, once the Arab world’s most important power, had become a regional bit-player stagnating in corruption and cronyism. With contributions from many of the leading players in Cairo and Washington, the film shows how revolution became the only option left to the millions betrayed by the rule of a modern-day pharaoh. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Charlie Smith and executive producer Christopher Mitchell.
Shorts at the Frontline Club
Join us for an evening of short documentaries, from different parts of the world, covering a wide range of topics. Shorts at the Frontline Club showcases moving, striking and funny films, exploring the many different faces of documentary filmmaking. The evening will include short stories capturing the essence of big issues, films showing life in other parts of the world under difficult or extraordinary circumstances, and stories focusing on one particular remarkable event or person.
Preview Screening: The Billion Pound Base – Dismantling Camp Bastion + Q&A
For eight years Camp Bastion was the power-house of the British Army’s military operations in Afghanistan. Britain’s biggest overseas base since World War Two has now closed down for good. A town the size of Reading with a massive infrastructure – airport, hospital, fast food restaurants – is dismantled bolt by bolt and sent back to the UK. Channel 4 was given exclusive access to the men and women whose job it was to pack up this giant jigsaw puzzle. This Channel 4 preview screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Richard Parry, producer Leslie Knott and executive producer Mike Lerner. Chaired by Siobhan Sinnerton, commissioning editor at Channel 4.
The End of the Wall: 25 Years After the Fall
By Graham Lanktree The young Harvard-educated economist Miklós Németh didn’t dream he would play a decisive role in the fall of the Berlin Wall when he was appointed Prime Minister by Hungary’s Communist Party to fix the nation’s finances in late 1988. Only a year later he was at the centre of it all. On […]
Africa Investigates Al Jazeera Preview: Liberia – Living with Ebola + Q&A
Bringing an African perspective to the devastating spread of the virus, award-winning reporter Sorious Samura tells the inside story of the Ebola outbreak from the worst hit country – Liberia. He also reveals the heroic effort being made by teams on the front line and the deep anger and mistrust held by Liberians towards their government in this time of crisis. This timely and challenging film offers an inside view of a country living with Ebola. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Clive Patterson & Emmy- and BAFTA-winning reporter Sorious Samura. Moderated by Tom Clarke, science editor for Channel 4 News.
Screening: Manhunt + Q&A
For 20 years, a small team of female agents known as “The Sisterhood” tracked the activities of al-Qaeda. Piecing together intelligence, they uncovered this secret terrorist organisation, and warned Washington of this new impending threat. Their warnings were repeatedly ignored, until the 9/11 attacks, when all the rules changed. Manhunt gives a peek into the hidden world of the US intelligence community. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Greg Barker.
Preview Screening: CITIZENFOUR
In January 2013, filmmaker Laura Poitras was several years into the making of a film about abuses of national security in post-9/11 America when she started receiving encrypted emails from someone identifying himself as “citizen four”, who was ready to blow the whistle on the massive covert surveillance programmes run by the NSA and other intelligence agencies. He turned out to be Edward Snowden. The film that resulted from this series of tense encounters is absolutely unique in the history of cinema: a 100% real-life thriller unfolding minute-by-minute before our eyes.
Preview Screening: Concerning Violence + Q&A
Based on Frantz Fanon’s landmark 1961 book, The Wretched of the Earth, Concerning Violence explores the mechanisms of decolonisation. It is a bold and fresh visual narrative on Africa, told through newly discovered archive material of the struggle for liberation from colonial rule in the late ‘60s and ‘70s. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Göran Hugo Olsson.
The NFB’s hunt for the holy grail of interactive storytelling
By Graham Lanktree Interactive reports that hold short-attention spans online are the holy grail for web editors. Loc Dao, an executive producer and creative technologist at the National Film Board of Canada’s digital studio, has come up with a few recipes for success. At the Frontline Club on Wednesday 8 October, Dao shared the lessons learned […]
Dirty Truths: Exploring “messy cinema” with the True/False Film Fest
Every year, the True/False Film Festival explores films that cross borders, break the existing rules and push the form forward. This so-called “messy cinema” experiments with re-enactments, highlights complicated filmmaker/protagonist relationships and challenges assumptions about ‘truth’. Join festival co-founder David Wilson, and past True/False filmmakers Sarah Gavron, Kevin Macdonald and Beadie Finzi, as we will thrust our hands in the muck and get a little dirty as we debate the complexities of nonfiction and imagine a messier future.
First Wednesday Screening: 1989
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Frontline Club is pleased to be part of a pan-European simultaneous screening of the new documentary 1989 by award-winning director Anders Østergaard. The creative documentary 1989 is a high-politics drama about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Østergaard recreates the events of 1989 and invites the audience into the secret meeting rooms through a mixture of testimonials, archive material, recreation and reconstructed dialogues of the key political players.
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 […]
Interactive Storytelling – The Medium and the Message
Technological developments have influenced the way stories are crafted. Today, with opportunities offered by new media, stories can be told in a non-linear fashion through different platforms, or made interactive. Do these new technologies truly revolutionise the way we document the world, or merely change the relationship between the maker and the viewer? Award-winning executive producer and creative technologist of the NFB Digital Studio Loc Dao, will explore the possibilities these developments offer through some of NFB’s most innovative projects.
Screening: The Term + Q&A
The Term tells the unique inside story of the Russian opposition movement as Vladimir Putin settles into the Kremlin for his third term, through exclusive access to anti-corruption blogger Aleksei Navalny and other key opposition figures, including Putin’s god-daughter, Ksenia Sobchak, and Solidarnost leader, Ilya Yashin. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with with producer Max Tuula via Skype.
Preview Screening: Attacking the Devil + Q&A
For 14 years, Sir Harold Evans was editor of The Sunday Times. Attacking the Devil focuses on his investigation into the drug thalidomide and how he defied the Attorney General and the political establishment to expose the story. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with co-directors Jacqui Morris and David Morris.
Shorts at the Frontline Club
Join us for an evening of short documentaries, from different parts of the world, covering a wide range of topics. Shorts at the Frontline Club showcases moving, striking and funny films, exploring the many different faces of documentary filmmaking.
Screening: Mass E Bhat + Q&A
Among the world’s poorest countries, Bangladesh is also rapidly developing. Across the country, 7.9 million children work every day to support themselves and their families, forced to grow up at an incredibly early age. Mass E Bhat is a portrait of a developing nation through the eyes of its children. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with directors Hannan Majid and Richard York.
Preview Screening: Still the Enemy Within + Q&A
In 1984, a Conservative government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared war on Britain’s unions, including the National Union of Mineworkers. Still the Enemy Within is a unique insight into the 1984–85 British Miners’ Strike, told through unique archive footage and the raw first-hand experiences of those who lived through Britain’s longest strike. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Owen Gower and producer Mark Lacey.
Preview Screening: I am Chut Wutty + Q&A
In one of the last remaining wildernesses in South East Asia, Cambodian communities struggle to defend their forests. Rubber companies illegally cut down resin trees that the local population depends on, arguing the rubber industry is good for the area, providing jobs and development. In April 2012, environmentalist Chut Wutty was stopped and shot dead at an illegal, military-controlled site in the Cardamom mountains. I am Chut Wutty exposes the fierce battle against illegal logging. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Fran Lambrick, Josie Cohen from Global Witness and Cambodian campaigner Kim Sen.
Preview Screening: Night Will Fall + Q&A
In 1945, a team of top filmmakers came together to make a documentary about the horrific findings in the concentration camps. This film would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. Despite initial support from the British and US governments, the film was never finished. Night Will Fall chronicles the untold story of the film’s history. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director André Singer and producer Sally Angel.
Preview Screening: 1971 + Q&A
On 8 March 1971, eight ordinary citizens broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania. The members of the self-proclaimed Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI picked the lock on the door, took every file in the office, loaded them into suitcases and walked out the front door. Mailed anonymously, these documents started to show up in newsrooms, unleashing fierce debates on whether or not to publish them. Despite demands by the Nixon administration to suppress the story, The Washington Post went to press, uncovering the FBI’s vast and illegal regime of spying and intimidation of Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. This screening will be followed by a Q&A via Skype with director Johanna Hamilton.
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 […]