News

September 22, 2015

The Look of Silence – Truth and Reconciliation in Indonesia

By Francis Churchill   It is estimated that over 500,000 people were slaughtered in Indonesia between October 1965 and the early months of 1966. Paramilitary militias and vigilante groups, coordinated by the Indonesian army and aided by British and American intelligence agencies, were responsible for mass killings in the country’s anti-communist purge. Nearly 50 years […]


September 19, 2015

Waiters part time and full-time at The Frontline Club & Restaurant!

We are looking for part-time and full time staff for our restaurant as well as helping in our events room and members bar until Christmas and possibly beyond; preferably with barista experience and drinks knowledge. You will have an impeccable customer-service background, an adaptable skill-set and the ability to multi task with diligence. The role […]


September 17, 2015

Rugby World Cup in the Club Bar

Looking for a more low key place to watch the Rugby World Cup games without having to pay to book a standing spot in a pub and fork out £8 for a pint of schlock in a plastic cup that’s sponsored by your mobile supplier? We have salvation for Club Members. We’ll be playing certain […]


September 15, 2015

How To Change the World: Lessons from Greenpeace

By Antonia Roupell The screening on Monday 14 September at the Frontline Club lived up to its bold name. How to Change The World, directed by Jerry Rothwell, journeys to the beginnings of the environmental movement and organisation, Greenpeace. As heartwarming as it is harrowing, the film is an homage to non-violent activism. From the bomb tests […]


September 10, 2015

From Our Own Correspondent: The Future of Foreign Reporting

By Olivia Acland On Tuesday 8 September, the Frontline Club opened its doors to some of Britain’s most esteemed journalists for a celebration of sixty years of BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent. A panel, chaired by Owen Bennet-Jones, discussed the changing landscape of international news reporting, and reflected on the highlights of FOOC since its beginnings in […]


September 7, 2015

Cartel Land: Violence and Vigilantism in Mexico

By Ratha Lehall On Friday 4 September, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of Cartel Land, a fearless and revealing documentary that portrays the violent influence of Mexican drug cartels and the vigilante groups fighting to end their reign of terror. The screening was followed by a Q&A with the film’s director Matthew Heineman.


September 3, 2015

After the Iran Deal

By Dimple Vijaykumar On Wednesday 2 September 2015, the Frontline Club hosted a debate on what the recent Iran nuclear agreement could mean for the country, the region and relations with the West. Just a few hours before the event, it was announced that President Obama had secured enough support in the Senate to ensure […]


September 2, 2015

We’re hiring!

Position: Assistant Club Receptionist Salary: DOA Hours: Part Time, according to weekly shift rota, evening work will be necessary. Will need to comply with a fairly strict rota. Job details: We are looking for an enthusiastic and sociable individual to join the Frontline Club team. The candidate will primarily work on the reception desk, welcoming […]


July 21, 2015

Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning

By Helena Kardova Dorothea Lange introduced a tenderness to documentary photography, which has since elevated her images to an iconic status and pushed US citizens to come to terms with darker aspects of their collective history. On Monday 20 July 2015, the Frontline Club hosted a preview screening of the PBS documentary Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning. The […]


July 21, 2015

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 […]


July 17, 2015

Marikana: Politics, Power and Platinum

By Amy McConaghy On 16 August 2012, South African police shot and killed 34 striking miners from the Marikana platinum mine owned by Lonmin. They were on strike for a living wage, trapped in a life of desperate poverty. With the Marikana Commission having recently released their report into what happened, the Frontline Club hosted a two-part event […]


July 9, 2015

Shades of True: Female Perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide

By Mica Kelmachter On Friday 3 July 2015, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of documentary Shades of True, followed by a discussion with director Alexandre Westphal via Skype. Westphal’s documentary looks at the aftermath of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, when a million people were murdered over a period of three months.


July 8, 2015

Under Surveillance: Protecting Journalistic Sources

By Francis Churchill On Tuesday 7 July 2015, the Frontline Club hosted a discussion on the problem of protecting journalistic sources in the age of digital surveillance. Hosting the panel of experts was journalist and president of the Foreign Press Association Paola Totaro. The discussion touched upon issues of the law, journalist’s ethics, state transgression […]


July 7, 2015

Insight with North Korean Defector Hyeonseo Lee

By Olivia Acland On Thursday 2 July, Hyeonseo Lee joined an audience at the Frontline Club for a discussion on her experiences as a North Korean defector. Lee, an international campaigner for North Korean human rights and refugee issues, was joined in conversation by author Paul French. One day after dinner, seventeen-year-old Lee told her parents that she was going to […]


July 2, 2015

Insight with Samar Yazbek: Return to Syria

By Amy McConaghy In the summer of 2012, writer and journalist Samar Yazbek squeezed through a gap in the fence of the Turkish border and made her way back into the Syrian homeland from which she had been exiled the previous year. On Wednesday 1 July, she joined an audience at the Frontline Club to […]


June 30, 2015

Mariusz Szczygiel on Gottland and Czech Identity

By Helena Kardova On Monday 29 June 2015, acclaimed Polish writer Mariusz Szczygiel joined an audience at the Frontline Club to introduce the film Gottland and to discuss his book of the same name. Bloomberg News writer Doug Lytle joined the panel for a discussion on Szczygiel‘s ongoing interest in Czech culture.


June 25, 2015

The True Cost of Corruption

By Alexandra Sarabia On Wednesday 24 May, an audience gathered at the Frontline Club for a discussion on corruption and its far-reaching implications. Sarah Chayes and Tom Burgis joined freelance journalist and host of Newshour on the BBC World Service, Owen Bennett-Jones, to talk about their experiences in Africa, Afghanistan and beyond. Chayes is an expert on kleptocracy, anti-corruption […]


June 24, 2015

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.


June 24, 2015

They are Us: Mark Aitken’s Dead When I Got Here

By Francis Churchill On Monday 22 June 2015, the Frontline Club screened Mark Aitken’s new film Dead When I Got Here. The film is centred on Josué, a former psychiatric patient who oversees the day to day running of a mental asylum in the Mexican border town of Juárez. Through Josué, Aitken tells the story […]


June 22, 2015

Those Who Feel the Fire Burning: A Refugee’s Perspective

By George Symonds On Friday 19 June 2015, the Frontline Club held a screening of the genre-defying Those Who Feel the Fire Burning, an experimental film focusing on the experiences of those who risk their lives in order to reach the shores of Europe. The audience was joined by co-producer Katja Draaijer for a discussion following the screening.


June 16, 2015

12 O’Clock Boys: An Insight into Baltimore

By Francis Churchill On Monday 15 June, Lofty Nathan’s documentary film 12 O’clock Boys was screened to an audience at the Frontline Club. The film first premiered in 2013 at the South by South West Film Festival in Texas. However, in light of recent civil unrest in Baltimore, the film remains highly topical in its exploration […]


June 15, 2015

Chechnya: A ‘Schizophrenic Land’

By Sara Monetta Twenty years have passed since the beginning of the first Chechen war. How has the country changed in this period and what happened to the many men and women who fought for independence? With this starting point, journalist and filmmaker Manon Loizeau revisited Chechnya, a country where she had previously lived and reported from during the […]


June 12, 2015

Embedded with the People: Photographs of Afghanistan with Zalmaï

By Francis Churchill  On Wednesday 10 June, Afghan-born photographer Zalmaï presented his latest book, Dread and Dreams, to an audience at the Frontline Club. When he returned, after a long hiatus, to Afghanistan as part of the army of press following the US-British invasion, Zalmaï quickly realised that the Western media was not showing the human elements of the conflict. Dread […]


June 10, 2015

The Future of Arctic Exploration

By Isabel Prendergast As part of an ongoing collaboration between the Frontline Club and The Scientific Exploration Society, on Tuesday 9 June BBC Science editor and author David Shukman chaired a discussion examining the past, present and future of the Arctic. Joining Shukman was a panel of experts and an engaged audience of Arctic explorers and enthusiasts.


June 10, 2015

William Dalrymple: The Battle for Afghanistan

By Olivia Acland On Tuesday 2 June, acclaimed writer and historian William Dalrymple joined an audience at the Frontline Club for a fascinating talk on his latest book, Return of a King – The Battle for Afghanistan, in partnership with the London Press Club. The work is the third volume in a series examining the history of […]


June 10, 2015

Road to Mosul: The Battle for Iraq and Syria

By Georgia Luscombe As the situation in Iraq and Syria evolves into a deadly stalemate between the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra and the Assad regime, battle lines in the region can often appear blurry to a distant observer. In the latest VICE News documentary The Road to Mosul, screened at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 3 June, filmmaker Freddie Paxton follows […]


June 3, 2015

Food Chains: The Struggle of Farm Workers in the US

By Ratha Lehall On Wednesday 27 May, the Frontline Club hosted a preview screening of Food Chains, a documentary which gives a revealing insight into the working conditions of farm labourers in the US. The film also follows a campaign against a powerful supermarket chain led by a workers’ movement in Immokalee, Florida. The screening was followed by a Q&A […]


June 3, 2015

Everyday Rebellion: Inspiring Non-Violent Dissent

By Antonia Roupell The Frontline Club began its June documentary programme on Monday 1 with a retrospective look at various forms of non-violent protests in the cross-media documentary, Everyday Rebellion. The film was directed by the Riahi brothers and Arman Riahi was present for a lively Q&A after the screening.


May 28, 2015

The Life of an Icon: Regarding Susan Sontag

By Georgia Luscombe Susan Sontag has been regarded by many as an intellectual and literary genius, a feminist hero and a queer icon. She went to college at 15, was married by 17, had a child at 19, gained a Master’s degree from Harvard and a fellowship from Oxford. In her film Regarding Susan Sontag, screened […]


May 27, 2015

Åsne Seierstad: One of Us

By Amy McConaghy