Past Events and Screenings

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Alessandra Zeka.
At a public hospital in Nicaragua, OBGYN Dr Carla Cerrato must choose between following a law that bans all abortions and endangers her patients or taking a risk and providing the care that she knows can save a woman’s life. In A Quiet Inquisition, the emotional core of the story – the experiences of the young women and girls who are seeking care — illustrates the ethical implications of one doctor’s response.

After many years of receiving a considerable amount of foreign aid, Haiti remains an impoverished and politically fragile state. AIDependence tells the story of the controversial relationship between the people of Haiti and international aid organisations, and exposes the negative side effects of the aid industry, including dependency, corruption, and the corrosion of solidarity and the economy. Using the example of Haiti, the country with the most NGOs per capita, Alice Smeets presents a well-informed analysis of how development projects can give rise to cycles of dependence rather than long-term solutions. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Alice Smeets.

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 diverse faces of documentary filmmaking.

The Club Quiz returns in March with quizmasters Caroline Johns and Dr Keith Surridge. They have prepared questions that will test your knowledge and live up to the reputation of being billed as one of ‘the hardest quizzes in London’.

From Egypt to Mexico, Russia to Syria, journalists are increasingly coming under attack. They are murdered, imprisoned and intimidated for doing their job. As executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Joel Simon is on the front line of the global battle for media freedom. He will be joining us to offer an insight into the problems we face and to examine what needs to be done to ensure future generations are not deprived of a free press.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director George Carey. In April 1953, George Blake returned to Britain as a national hero, one of a small group of British diplomats who returned alive from three hard years as prisoner of the North Koreans. When the new Queen was crowned a couple of months later, he was among the select few invited to celebrate the day in No. 2 Carlton Gardens, a discreet building overlooking the Mall from where the men who ran Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service were watching the royal procession go by. Little did they know that during his time as a prisoner he had become a Communist and decided to work for the KGB. In The Making of a Traitor, director George Carey speaks to Blake’s close acquaintances, historians and other former spies to chronicle his curious history.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Misja Pekel. Its critics call it a bullhorn for Russian propaganda, Russia Today (RT) claims only to show a different perspective on world events, and presents itself as an alternative to the mainstream media. In Misja Pekel’s The World According to Russia Today, current and former employees, journalists and media analysts dissect RT’s modus operandi. What is it like to work for the channel? How much influence does the Kremlin really have? And is it possible to discern between fact and opinion when Russian interests are at stake?

For March’s members’ BookNight, we are delighted to welcome an award-winning author and foreign correspondent specialising in the countries of the Mediterranean, John Hooper, who will present his new book The Italians, over an intimate dinner with Frontline Club members.

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

What happened to the man who exposed the CIA’s use of waterboarding? And what are the consequences of making public illegal intelligence gathering techniques by the US government? In this revealing documentary, three prominent whistleblowers explain how everything radically changed after 9/11. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director James Spione.

From Afghanistan to Iraq, Darfur to Libya, Lynsey Addario has spent the past decade and a half capturing life on the frontline. In her new book, It’s What I Do, she details the journey. She will be joining us in conversation with editor-in-charge of Reuters Wider Image, Alexia Singh, to share her story of how a relentless pursuit of truth, in virtually every major theatre of war in the twenty-first century, has shaped her life.

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, is resurrecting the tradition of regular drinks, on the back of popular demand.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with directors Sandrine Feydel and Denis Delestrac.
Protecting our planet has become big business, with companies like Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase promoting new environmental markets. Investors buy up vast swathes of land, full of endangered species, to enable them to sell ‘nature credits’. Companies whose actions destroy the environment are now obliged to buy these credits and new financial centres have sprung up, specialising in this trade. In Banking Nature, directors Sardine Feydel and Denis Delestrac investigate the commercialisation of the natural world.

The Frontline Club is delighted to partner with the London School of Economics in programming an evening of short films during the 2015 Literary Festival.

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.

In late October, Camp Bastion – Britain’s biggest overseas base since World War Two – was handed over to Afghan control, marking the end of 13 years of British combat operations in Afghanistan. We will be joined by those who served in Afghanistan and the journalists who covered the country, to take a comprehensive view of the conflict from its inception after 9/11 to the withdrawal. Looking at the decisions that were made and the consequences of those actions, we will be examining the lessons that should be learned by British and Coalition forces.

Special guests, members and others are invited to the launch of World Stories, a global documentary initiative by The Why Foundation – an independent editorial organisation based in Copenhagen, Denmark headed by filmmaker and journalist Christoffer Guldbrandsen, and founded by BBC Storyville editor Nick Fraser and Mette Hoffmann Meyer, head of documentary at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.

This film will be followed by a Q&A with directors Adam Weber and Jimmy Goldblum via Skype.
Described as India’s “tinsel slum,” the Kathputli artist colony in New Delhi is home to over 1,500 families of puppeteers, acrobats, painters and magicians. That’s all about to change. When the government sells the land to private developers, traditional life is set to be razed for the city’s first skyscraper. Gorgeous and inspiring, Tomorrow We Disappear is a splendid tribute to fading artistry and the tenacity of tradition.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Hernan Zin.

Filmed during the 2014 siege of Gaza, which left 507 children dead and 3,598 wounded, Born in Gaza follows a group of young children growing up in a war zone. The film examines the widespread psychological trauma experienced by adolescents coping with injury, fear, and the loss of loved ones. It is estimated that 400,000 children in Gaza are in desperate need of psychological support.

In his first trip to London after 400 days in jail, Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste will discuss his relief at being released as well as calling for the unconditional dismissal of the case against colleagues Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy. Peter will also talk about how he managed to get through the ordeal and the wider press freedom campaign.

Four years ago, Libya dominated the headlines as the country struggled to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi. Now, despite the fact that a country of vital importance in the region is sliding into civil war, it has all but disappeared from the news.

In a new book, The Libyan Revolution and its Aftermath, leading journalists, academics and specialists trace the journey from the outbreak of protests in Benghazi in February 2011 to the subsequent conflict. Some of its contributors and other experts will be joining us to offer an insight into what led to the current crisis and how Libya might be able to rebuild itself.