Past Events and Screenings

A panel of explorers, scientists, journalists and experts explore the dark links between illegal wildlife trafficking and terrorism in the latest in the series of events in partnership with the Scientific Exploration Society (SES).

For April’s members’ BookNight, we are delighted to welcome Marina Litvinenko and Luke Harding on the release of his new book, A Very Expensive Poison.

1 November 2006. Alexander Litvinenko is brazenly poisoned in central London. His crime? He had made some powerful enemies in Russia. Based on the best part of a decade’s reporting, as well as extensive interviews with those closest to the events, Luke Harding‘s A Very Expensive Poison is the definitive inside story of the life and death of Alexander Litvinenko.

To Light A Candle is a film by journalist Maziar Bahari, focusing on the Baha’is of Iran and their peaceful response to decades of state-sponsored persecution. The Baha’is are Iran’s largest religious minority. Persecuted because of their faith, they are barred from teaching and studying at University. #NotACrime is an international campaign working to stop the human rights abuse of Iranian Baha’is and encourage universities around the world to admit Iranian Baha’i students.

With his provocative question, “why is the killing of a million a lesser crime than the killing of an individual?”, Raphael Lemkin changed the course of history. Inspired by Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book A Problem From Hell, this multi-faceted documentary interweaves Raphael Lemkin’s struggle with the courageous efforts of four individuals keeping his legacy alive. Alternating live interviews with rare archival footage and striking animation, Watchers of the Sky illuminates the compassion and bravery of these humanitarians and powerfully demonstrates the ability of global activism to give a voice to the silent victims of genocide.

The Hetherington family and the Tim Hetherington Trust invite friends, colleagues and everyone interested in Tim’s extraordinary life to spend an evening at The Frontline Club exploring his dynamic legacy through the work of artists and journalists who continue to expand his innovative approach to visual media. The evening will introduce new work by some familiar friends, as well as some hitherto unknown voices who are bringing fresh energy to today’s media.

After a decade long man hunt, in 2011 an elite group of US Navy SEALS stormed an enclosure in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden. The story of what transpired was soon released and the news did much to boost President Obama’s re-election campaign. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh questions the official version of events and will be joining us to argue the case for what he believes happened that night.

For the second in a series of talks by leading picture editors, presented by the Frontline Club in partnership with Photo London, we welcome The Guardian’s Roger Tooth. He will be talking about picture editing in a digital age.

Join us for a discussion with IWPR’s Syria coordinator and award-winning Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim. This event will feature a screening of Zaina’s short films from the series Syria’s Rebellious Women, offering a rare insight into the challenges facing women living and working in rebel-held parts of Syria. 

This April our monthly short film night is dedicated to profiling artists from around the world, who work with an array of mediums and represent eccentric, inspiring and pioneering personalities.

Acclaimed journalist and artist Molly Crabapple has drawn and reported on stories from Guantanamo Bay, Syria, the West Bank, Iraqi Kurdistan and across the United States. With her powerful illustrations she has pushed the boundaries of visual reportage – and established an important place for art in hard news. On the release of her memoir Drawing Blood, she will be joining us to reflect on recent work and to share her personal insight into the use of art as a tool for better understanding and documenting current events.

A monthly social evening for journalists and others in the London media world. The London Press Club, which has been bringing the industry together since 1882, has resurrected the tradition of regular drinks, on the back of popular demand.

Join us for the first in a series of discussions with leading picture editors, organised in partnership with Photo London, and chaired by Francis Hodgson, professor in the Culture of Photography at the University of Brighton.

David Ofield, the renowned picture editor of the Evening Standard, brings to life the paper’s extraordinary photo archive, which contains some 7 million images. Ofield will be joining us to discuss how some of the Evening Standard‘s most iconic front pages have been constructed – from the story of the moon landing in 1969 to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Mani Benchelah.

Over the course of a year, Emmy Award-winning director Mani Benchelah made this intimate portrait of Syrian refugee children forced to flee from the violence of civil war to neighbouring Lebanon. It tells the stories of the children’s lives in their own words and captures the moving truth of how they deal with loss, hardship and dashed hopes.

We welcome our members, both recently joined and ongoing, for an evening of conversation and drinks kindly sponsored by Chivas Brothers.

Less than a year after the excitement surrounding the historic 2015 election which peacefully transferred power from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Africa’s largest economy and the continent’s biggest oil producer is on the brink of an economic crisis.

In an event held in partnership with the Royal African Society, join us to discuss whether Nigeria can turn back the clock on deindustrialisation and its over-dependence on oil – and to explore the deeper structural problems that its currency crisis reveals.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with reporter Abi Austen, director Will West and producer Shoaib Sharifi.

Abi Austen served for over four years in Kandahar, Afghanistan, as both a British army officer and as a senior advisor to the US army. In February 2015, she returned to Kandahar with Unreported World to discover just what is going wrong with President Obama’s plan. In this remarkable and eye-opening film, Austen discovers on the frontline that the war in Afghanistan is now at a tipping-point. Her film poses a question for the world: will the West’s legacy in Afghanistan survive, and is that struggle still worth fighting for?

In light of the recent terror attacks in Brussels, and ahead of the 23 June referendum, we will be joined by journalists who cover the continent to discuss the crisis it faces on all sides – and what the prospect of Brexit spells for the future of Europe.

When war is over, how do we remember, commemorate and represent suffering, courage and loss? As events around the world mark the centenary of the First World War, we look at the work of two photographers who are exploring different forms of commemoration.

Scotland on Screen, part of our New Scottish Documentary season, is an evening of short films produced with assistance from the Scottish Documentary Institute and showcasing the diverse beauty of the Scottish landscape, immersing viewers in breathtaking scenes and remarkable stories from communities across the country.