Documentary
WARM Presents: Syria – Snapshots of History in the Making + debate
Founded in 2010 by a group of Syrian filmmakers, Abounaddara anonymously releases weekly films on the web in order to avoid censorship. These short films are a testimony of the fight for freedom in Syria. The film Syria: Snapshots of History in the Making is constructed from these short films and forms an intimate journey into a society on the brink. The screening will be preceded by a discussion with journalist and head of WARM Remy Ourdan , producer of Abounaddara Films Charif Kiwan , photographers Patrick Chauvel and Paul Lowe.
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. This month’s six films will take you from the futuristic city of Ordos in inner Mongolia to a slum in Kenya; from Romania under communism to the inner world of war veterans; and from Tibet to Myanmar.
Preview Screening: Aleppo. Notes from the Dark + Q&A
In the summer of 2013, Michal Przedlacki and Wojciech Szumowski spent 44 days in Aleppo, documenting the lives of ordinary citizens in extraordinary circumstances. Aleppo. Notes From the Dark offers a unique and poignant account of life in Aleppo from the perspective of seven of its residents. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with co-directors Michal Przedlacki and Wojciech Szumowski.
Screening: Open Access + Q&A
In 2011 the law ‘On Access to Public Information’ was adopted in Ukraine. Open Access brings together five stories of people in different parts of the country trying to invoke the law to access information. Told by five directors, these stories all illustrate the lack of transparency, indifference, dominance of private motifs and lack of responsibility by the country’s leaders. The screening will be followed by a Q&A via Skype with Ukrainian journalist and protagonist Sergii Leshchenko.
Screening: The Lost Signal of Democracy + Q&A
On the evening of 11 June 2013, the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras pulled the plug on ERT, Greece’s public broadcaster, after 75 years of continuous operation. The silencing of public television resulted in a political conflict and provoked protests in a country already divided. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Yorgos Avgeropoulos.
Screening: Oleg Klimov – Letters to Myself + Q&A
For 12 years, Oleg Klimov documented the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Throughout the 1990s he witnessed almost all the conflicts and ethnic tensions of the region. Personally affected by his experiences as a war photographer and longing for inner peace, Klimov returns to some of the areas he photographed during wartime: Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and Chechnya. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Masha Novikova in person and photographer Oleg Klimov via Skype.
Preview Screening: The Longest Kiss + Q&A
The meeting of the Blue and White Nile in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, is referred to as ‘the longest kiss in history’. Focusing on the stories of six people searching for a place to call ‘home’ ahead of the south’s secession, The Longest Kiss paints an intimate portrait of the country’s complex fragmentation. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque and James Copnall.
BBC Preview Screening: Shooting Bigfoot + Q&A
When director Morgan Matthews decided to join three groups of men from the highly competitive and bitterly divided world of Bigfoot hunting, he got more than he bargained for. Shooting Bigfoot is a raucous road trip featuring a larger than life cast of monster-hunting men who devote their lives to the search for Bigfoot. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Morgan Matthews.
Screening: First to Fall + Q&A
In 2011, director Rachel Beth Anderson followed two friends who abandoned their peaceful lives in Canada and returned to their home country of Libya to fight in the revolution. Hamid (26) and Tarek (21) had never fired a gun, but in 2011 they ran recklessly towards war, fuelled by their hatred of Muammar Gaddafi and their desire to be part of history. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with co-directors Rachel Beth Anderson and Tim Grucza.
Screening: Pandora’s Promise + Q&A
The atomic bomb and meltdowns like Fukushima have made nuclear power synonymous with global disaster, but what if we’ve got nuclear power wrong? Pandora’s Promise tells the intensely personal stories of environmentalists and energy experts, who have undergone a radical conversion from being fiercely anti- to strongly pro-nuclear energy, risking their careers and reputations in the process. It is a thoughtful film that changes the conversation about the myths and science behind this deeply emotional and polarising issue.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Robert Stone and environmental activist Mark Lynas who features in the film. Moderated by Tom Clarke, Science Editor for Channel 4 News.
Screening: 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.
BBC Storyville Preview: Coach Zoran and His African Tigers + Q&A
Following almost 50 years of civil war, South Sudan became an independent state in July 2011. The young nation formed a national soccer team with the aim to make it on the international stage. The man recruited to get them there is a dynamic and hugely ambitious veteran Serbian coach, Zoran Djordjevic. Director Sam Benstead follows the team over its first year, from the hunt for new players to the first international games. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Sam Benstead and editor James Gold, and moderated by Nick Fraser.
UK Premiere: Putin’s Olympic Dream + Q&A
Ahead of the 2014 Olympic Games, the city of Sochi underwent drastic transformations. This nostalgic Soviet holiday resort, filled with gorgeous sanatoriums, had to become a modern Russian city. With no time to lose, everything and everyone had to give way in order to turn President Putin’s status project into a success. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Hans Pool.
Preview Screening: The Square + Q&A
For more than two years, Egyptians have turned out in massive numbers to occupy Cairo’s Tahrir Square and demand change. Director Jehane Noujaim captured what has happened in the square through the eyes of several young revolutionaries. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Khalid Abdalla, an accomplished actor who put his career on hold to document the revolution.
Screening: Here Be Dragons + Q&A
In the past, the term ‘Here Be Dragons’ was used by cartographers to indicate an unexplored area on a map, in fear of what could lurk there. In his new essay film, Mark Cousins goes on an explorative journey through Albania, interweaving views of the capital Tirana and its inhabitants with old film clips, painting a picture of the political and cultural landscape. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Mark Cousins and producer Don Boyd.
Screening: Tales from the Organ Trade + Q&A
Every year thousands of organs are bought and sold on a black market that flourishes in dozens of countries, where the rule of law is a hostage to the dollar sign. With unprecedented access to all the players, the film explores the legal, moral and ethical issues involved in this complex life and death business. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Ric Esther Bienstock.
Screening: Fire in the Blood + Q&A
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Dylan Mohan Gray. Chaired by Polly Markandya, head of communications at Médecins sans Frontières (MSF).
This Sundance-nominated tale of ‘medicine, monopoly and malice’ by first-time director Dylan Mohan Gray, tells the story of an unlikely group of people who took on giant pharmaceutical companies and Western governments to stop ‘the crime of the century’ and save millions of lives.
Screening: 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.
Preview Screening: A World Not Ours + Q&A
Filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel spent his formative years in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in Lebanon. Each time he went back to the camp for his summer holidays he kept video diaries. As an adult he returns, challenging his teenage belief that ‘going to Ain el-Helweh is better than going to Disney Land’. A World Not Ours is an intimate, and often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile, based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Mahdi Fleifel and editor Michael Aaglund.
Preview Screening: After Tiller + Q&A
While nine American states allow late-term abortions, only four doctors in the country are willing to perform them. In the wake of the 2009 assassination of practitioner Dr George Tiller in Kansas, After Tiller intimately explores the highly controversial subject of third-trimester abortions. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with co-director Lana Wilson.
The Sochi Project: Documenting the run up to the 2014 Winter Olympics in a city with no snow
by Sally Ashley-Cound In 2007, what would become the most expensive Olympic Games in history was announced. Sochi, on the banks of the Black Sea and known as the Florida of Russia – complete with palm trees and sandy beaches – would host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The story caught the attention of filmmaker […]
Screening: The Do Gooders + Q&A
Filmmaker Chloe Ruthven’s grandparents were aid workers in Palestine. Growing up, she avoided getting too involved in the subject, recalling how mention of it made all the adults in her life angry. Inspired by a book written by her grandmother about the aid projects in Palestine, Ruthven explores the effects of foreign aid and the potential damage the continued reliance may have for the future. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Chloe Ruthven and protagonist Lubna Masarwa.
Preview Screening: North Korea – Life Inside the Secret State
North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un is the world’s youngest dictator, ruling the world’s most repressive state. Through unique undercover material, director and producer James Jones reveals cracks in the regime and investigates the impact the information revolution has had in North Korea. This Channel 4 Dispatches preview screening will be followed by a panel debate with director James Jones. Other speakers to be confirmed.
The Engineer: “Cases worse than horror films”
By Caroline Schmitt On Monday 28 October, the Frontline Club screened The Engineer, a documentary uncovering the extent of gang violence in El Salvador directed by Mathew Charles and Juan Passarelli. The Q&A that followed was chaired by Stephen Jukes, Dean of the Media School at Bournemouth University. The Engineer portrays the work of Israel Ticas, […]
Screening: Gore Vidal – The United States of Amnesia + Q&A
Director Nicholas Wrathall chronicles Gore Vidal’s rich and multifaceted life through archival footage from his legendary on-air career as well as candid interviews and observational footage captured in his final years. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Nicholas Wrathall.
Preview Screening: The Carbon Crooks + Q&A
Carbon Crooks documents the failure of carbon trading, a system set up to cut down carbon emissions and curb global warming. Through interviews and case studies the film investigates the mechanisms of fraud in the carbon markets. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Tom Heinemann.
Between the Lines Follow-Up Event: No Fire Zone + Q&A
This is an external event taking place at Riverside Studios. No Fire Zone – The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, chronicles the final 138 days of the 26-year Sri Lankan civil war, told by the people who lived through it. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Callum Macrae.
Between the Lines Follow-Up Event: The Bombing of al-Bara + Q&A
This is an external event taking place at Ritzy Cinema. On 28 October 2012, a government jet dropped a bomb on the village of al-Bara. Only 300 meters away, Olly Lambert was filming a meeting of rebel soldiers. While keeping his camera rolling, Lambert documented the shocking impact of the regime air strike on a civilian population. Taking this intimate personally narrated footage as starting point, Lambert will discuss in depth the experience of filmmaking on the front line.
Screening: The Central Park Five + Q&A
In April 1989, five black and Hispanic teenagers from Harlem were arrested for the brutal assault and rape of a white woman in Central Park. The Central Park Five gives a detailed reconstruction of the crime and the punishments meted out. Set against the backdrop of a city where incidents of violence are high and divides in class and race are deepening, the film tells a grim story of how law enforcement agencies, social institutions and the media undermined the very rights of the individuals they were designed to safeguard and protect. The screening will be followed by a Q&A via Skype with directors Sarah Burns and David McMahon.
Between the Lines Follow-Up Events Across London
Between the Lines was a three-day festival that took place at Rich Mix from 1-3 March. In a series of follow up events we continue to explore the challenges facing documentary makers, investigative journalists and citizen reporters in the new media landscape. Salma Thursday 26 September 2013, 8:00 PM Rich Mix London Growing up in […]