Past Events and Screenings

Magnum photographer Abbas will be joining us to show and discuss his extraordinary body of work on Iran. Spanning from the 1970s to his return in 1997 after 17 years of exile, his photographs capture every level of Iranian politics and society – from the Shah and his men to the streets of Tehran.

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.

In the last year alone over 400 young Belgians have traveled to Syria. In My Jihad, reporter Rudi Vranckx visits the region of Vilvoorde to investigate why a number of young Belgians from the area are becoming radicalised, and how leaders of the Muslim community are working to combat this trend.

The exhibition will be open 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM – no booking is required.
Talks on both evenings beginning at 7:00 PM – booking is required.

The War Zone Freelance Exhibition gives an exclusive look into the work and world of freelance journalists covering wars and conflicts in the Middle East. The project is motivated by the desire to pay tribute and provoke debate on the important and consequential role freelance journalists play in bringing news out of conflict areas to the international public, often with little support, on their own expense and at extremely high risk.

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

A panel of filmmakers and industry professionals will come together to discuss how they’ve carried their messages beyond the screen to incite engagement from viewers and response to social issues and injustices. Subjects to be discussed include storytelling methods for inspiring action, building campaigns through multimedia platforms, and engaging with the journalistic community.

More than 20 global leaders – including former presidents, prime ministers and Nobel Prize winners – will meet in London on 23 January to champion the world’s young people by bidding to reverse a dangerous decline in financing for education, particularly in conflict zones.

Following this meeting, the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Rt Hon Gordon Brown; the chair of the Global Partnership for Education and former Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard; and the the head of the Overseas Development Institute, Kevin Watkins, will be in conversation at the Frontline Club. They will discuss how the international community must fund 1 million school places for Syrian refugee children. The event takes place just 10 days ahead of a major United Nations-sponsored Syria relief funding conference, also being held in London.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Michelle Shepard and others.

Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was captured by American forces in Afghanistan in 2002 and spent a decade imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, tells his own story in this documentary portrait from directors Patrick Reed and Michelle Shepard.

The infamous Club Quiz returns in 2016. Use this great excuse to get your friends together and explore the members’ clubroom with its fascinating history and displays of memorabilia.

It is election year in the US and one man has dominated the headlines. Six months ago, the prospect of Donald Trump as presidential candidate might have been something to joke about but it is now looking increasingly like a reality. With primaries about to begin, we will be looking at the battles going on in both parties and who we might see come out on top.

Everyday there are even more places and stories that foreign correspondents cannot access. While the outside perspective they bring is critical, local insights are equally valuable. This discussion will bring together a few key players working on new models of foreign reporting to address the issues of verification and bias, and of which technology is working and which isn’t. They will discuss the challenges faced and delve into what the future of this new reporting holds.

This BookNight with illustrator and writer Chris Riddell will be dedicated to political satirical cartoon. Riddell will talk about the cartoonist’s craft and tradition, as well as the tragic events in the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo a year ago.

The Frontline Club is delighted to partner with Cinema for Peace to bring you a night of short films illuminating the experiences of refugees and displaced persons from across the world.

The War Hasn’t Yet Started is a poignant play that depicts the dehumanising effects of living in a society on the brink of all-out war. The staged reading will be followed by a Q&A with artistic director of Sputnik theatre, Noah Birksted-Breen, and the artistic director of Theatre Royal Plymouth, Simon Stokes in conversation with Lucy Ash, an award winning presenter of foreign affairs documentaries at the BBC.

How do the grandchildren of prominent Stalinists feel when they find out who their beloved grandparents really were? Interviewed by the playwrights over the last couple of years, the protagonists’ grandparents were from Stalin’s inner circle – or members of the Soviet Communist Party or NKVD – and their testimonies bear witness to the very human desire to forgive those we love, even when we know their worst crimes. The staged reading with be followed by a panel discussion.

Zhanna is a self-made business woman who has made it to the top for all the wrong reasons. She is living happily and in love until she is jilted, which sets her on the course for revenge. This play is not only about love but also the ruthless business practices borne of 1990s opportunistic Russia and its gangster capitalism. Following the staged reading, the members’ clubroom will open its doors to all attendees in celebration of theatre week.

The Frontline Club and Theatre Royal Plymouth in association with Sputnik Theatre present four nights of new Russian drama. Featuring exciting and topical plays by British theatre directors and cast – each evening will touch upon various aspects of life in Russia covering an array of issues, from the clampdown on theatre and freedom of speech to growing social tensions and immigration.

The play Doctor is one of the longest running productions of Teatr.doc, the famous studio theatre in Moscow which was supported by Tom Stoppard amongst other prominent British voices when facing closure in 2014. The staged reading will be followed by a discussion with artistic director of Teatr.doc, Elena Gremina, in conversation with senior international correspondent for The Guardian, Luke Harding.

For our first BookNight of the year, we are delighted to welcome American non-fiction writer and policy analyst David Rieff to present his new book The Reproach of Hunger over an evening with Frontline Club members.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Andreas Koefoed.
This remarkably intimate and touching documentary focuses on one Danish Red Cross school for refugees, where classrooms are filled with children from more than twelve countries. The students have had to learn Danish while adjusting to new surroundings and, in some cases, dealing with the traumas of conflict.

Since the Paris attacks on 13 November, world leaders have seemingly put grievances aside to unite in a newly energised fight against Daesh – but what can be achieved by bombing the already bombed-out cities of Syria? For the first First Wednesday of 2016 we will be bringing together a panel to discuss the diplomatic, logistical and ideological challenges of the fight against Daesh.