Past Events and Screenings

This screening is part of our New Scottish Documentary season and will be followed by a Q&A with director Lou McLoughlan.

Uisdean wants forgiveness. After 16 years in prison, he has returned home to nurse his ageing father in a small village in the Scottish Highlands. But Uisdean also needs to rebuild his life. With the isolation of the Highland landscape both a blessing and curse, he begins the hard graft of reinventing himself. What follows is as much a struggle with tradition and Highland identity as it is with the weight of his own past.

We are delighted to welcome Anglo-Italian author and reporter Michela Wrong to present her debut novel, Borderlines. Wrong has been writing non-fiction about African politics for two decades. In this novel, she probes the motives underlying Western engagement with the continent, questioning the value of universal justice and exploring how history itself is forged.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with series producer Norma Percy and producer/director Paul Mitchell, moderated by journalist and author Jonathan Freedland.

In this landmark series by Norma Percy, Brian Lapping and Paul Mitchell, four one-hour programmes capture key moments when policy was made, including contribution from Obama’s Chief of Staff and insiders within the administration.

The Balkan Wars of the nineties resulted in the worst war crimes seen in Europe since the Nazi era. When the fighting ended, a fourteen-year manhunt began in order to bring those responsible to justice. For his new book The Butcher’s Trail, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor Julian Borger spoke to those involved – and will be joining us to reveal what he discovered and how this process could set a precedent for bringing future war criminals to justice.

We will be joined by a panel of some of the UK’s most celebrated composers and filmmakers to discuss the process of constructing a score for documentary, exploring the collaborative relationship between composers and directors, creative approaches to composition and how music can ascribe meaning to images.

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.

While the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, seems to have captured the attention of Hollywood – meeting with actor Sean Penn before his recent recapture – there is a brutal reality to the war on drugs that we don’t see in the Hollywood interpretation. Ioan Grillo, author of the critically acclaimed El Narco who has covered Latin America since 2001, will be joining us to share what he has discovered – a disturbing new understanding of a war that has spiralled out of control and urgently needs to be confronted.

The Frontline Club is delighted to partner with the London School of Economics in programming an evening of short films during the 2016 Literary Festival on the theme Utopias. This is an external screening taking place at the Sheikh Zayed Theatre (New Academic Building, 54 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LJ). The event is free and open to all.

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

Last year we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, but the legacy of war and communism lives on in eastern Europe. To mark the launch of the new issue of Granta – No Man’s Land – contributors Peter Pomerantsev and Philip Ó Ceallaigh will be taking us from the front line of the propaganda war in Ukraine’s Donbass region to the devastating story of the Communist destruction of Old Bucharest.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with reporters Juliana Ruhfus, Seamus Mirodan and others.
Cuba was the first communist state to be created in the western hemisphere – it’s also the last one standing. The President insists that these measures are designed to preserve, rather than dismantle, Cuban socialism. But can he successfully open up the economy without betraying the promise of a classless society upon which the Cuban state was built? Juliana Ruhfus and Seamus Mirodan investigate.

For February’s BookNight we are delighted to welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and Frontline Club member Rod Nordland to present his latest book, The Lovers. Afghanistan’s Romeo and Juliet, the true story of how they defied their families and escaped an honour killing. This is a riveting, real-life equivalent of The Kite Runner and an astonishingly powerful and moving portrayal that puts a human face to the ongoing debate about women’s rights in the Muslim world.

Ready your teams once more for the Club Quiz. Use this great excuse to get your friends together and explore the members’ clubroom with its fascinating history and displays of memorabilia.

In May 2012, Janine di Giovanni travelled to Syria, the trip would mark the beginning of a relationship with the country that would continue to draw her back, as the situation rapidly became one of the most brutal conflicts in recent history. She will be joining us, in conversation with BBC HARDtalk presenter Stephen Sackur, to share the stories of the people she has encountered in Syria and her experience of covering the country.

A panel of industry professionals will come together to discuss methods for short documentary production – focusing on cinematography, editing and storytelling to capture the essence of big stories in short format.

This February, our monthly short film night will showcase a selection of documentary shorts exploring the themes of love, romance and longing. Featuring unforgettable stories from across the world and capturing love in extraordinary circumstances, this line-up will have something for everyone.

It is half a decade since Egypt’s revolution first erupted, promising something more than a binary choice between Islamism and military authoritarianism. Yet since the unrest began we have seen the Muslim Brotherhood rise to power, only to be overthrown by an army strongman – but is this just the start?

A presentation and panel discussion with film editors, producers and sound designers organised by Screen.

Multimedia producers, film editors and sound designers will show excerpts from their work and talk about collaborations and interactions with photographers, directors and artists. The projects presented explore political and personal storytelling in an installation format.

The panel will feature: Adrian Kelterborn, multimedia producer and film editor; Monica Alcazar-Duarte, visual artist and producer; Philippe Ciompi, sound designer, film editor, sound artist; and Tim Harrison, sound designer. Moderated by Ivan Sigal, co-founder of Screen and the executive director of Global Voices.

The Frontline Club is delighted to host a screening of Dennis Villeneuve’s Sicario to coincide with the BluRay and DVD release of the film this February. This screening will be followed by a discussion with journalist Ed Vulliamy.

After rising through the ranks of her male-dominated profession, idealistic FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) receives a top assignment. Recruited by mysterious government official Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), Kate joins a task force for the escalating war against drugs.