Past Events and Screenings

Join us for a special edition of Shorts at the Frontline Club, bringing together moving, striking and compelling stories, with a special focus on Syria. All films have been made in or around Syria since the uprising began in early 2011. This selection not only illustrates the complexity on the ground, but also shows the challenges reporters, journalists and filmmakers face when trying to grasp the situation.

Anabel Hernández is one of Mexico’s leading investigative journalists. It was the kidnap and murder of her father and the subsequent refusal by the police to investigate unless her family paid a bribe that led her to journalism. She will be joining us in conversation with Ed Vulliamy, a writer for The Guardian and Observer, and author of Amexica: War Along the Borderline, to talk about the work she does recording and investigating the shocking brutality of narco violence and the complexity of the cartels, their rivalries and their links to government and business.

The show that sold out and brought the house down at the Sydney Opera House comes to the Frontline Club. A lighthearted look at foreign aid and who it helps, from the South Park/Brass Eye comedy writer Jane Bussmann.

Members, new and old, join us for our September meetup, with drinks kindly supplied by Chivas Regal. Please RSVP to Club Secretary Silje Rise.

As the rhetoric about intervention in Syria escalates, we will be bringing together a panel of experts to examine the arguments for and against, and the implications of action or inaction.

Home video changed the way the world consumed films. For the first time, small independent production companies could operate on an even playing field with the major film studios. Through the rise and fall of VHS, Rewind This! discusses media consumption, zero budget filmmaking, unchecked global piracy and an exploding film industry where everything was possible – developments that laid the foundation for today’s digital culture. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Josh Johnson via Skype.

The show that sold out and brought the house down at the Sydney Opera House comes to the Frontline Club. A lighthearted look at foreign aid and who it helps, from the South Park/Brass Eye comedy writer Jane Bussmann.

In Google and the World Brain, director Ben Lewis connects the central story of Google Books with fundamental issues related to the Internet – privacy, copyright, data-mining, downloading and surveillance. Through interviews with experts from across the world we learn about the implications of one of the most ambitious and simultaneously controversial projects ever conceived on the Internet. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Ben Lewis.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Andreas M. Dalsgaard.
The Human Scale: it’s a ticking time bomb. In the next 40 years the number of people living in cities will nearly double. There is not enough time to build the necessary infrastructure to accomodate all of us. According to revolutionary Danish city planner Jan Gehl, even the largest of megacities must be re-thought, re-designed and re-sized to the human scale.

Organised by The Media Diversity Institute (MDI).
The Media Diversity Institute cordially invites you to an evening discussion on the unfolding crisis in Egypt and the role of the media.

With: Ayman Al Sayyad, Editor in Chief of Weghat Nazar; Hisham Kassem, founder of Al-Masry Al-Youm; Ahmed Zain, Misr Al Arabi; Dina Abdel Rahman, CBC; Tarek Al-Fatatry, Al Mehwar; Hafez Al Mirazi, AUC and Dream TV; and Amr Ellissy, Radio Masr and Dream TV. Our panelists, all influential media decision makers from Egypt, will be discussing the current crisis, the role of the media and the prospects for peaceful change. The discussion will be chaired by Naomi Sakr from the University of Westminster and author of Transformations in Egyptian Journalism.

As political instability continues in Egypt, renowned Arab journalist Yosri Fouda will be joining the BBC’s Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen in conversation, to give some insight into how this situation will develop.

The largest and most famous torrent website in the world, The Pirate Bay, quickly became one of many antagonists of the entertainment industry. The three Swedish founders face $13 million in damage claims by the media establishment.
TPB-AFK chronicles a historic drama beyond the copyright debate and tells a human story torn by cyberwar. Director Simon Klose tells the inside story of how a cluster of hacktivists built the internet’s largest filesharing site, challenged the entertainment industry and helped shape the debate about intellectual freedom.

As the country goes to the polls we will be joined by a panel of experts to discuss what this election will mean for the future of Zimbabwe. Will 2013 see the end of Mugabe’s 33-year rule and who will replace him?

For almost one hundred years there was only one way to make a movie – photochemical film. Over the last two decades a digital process has emerged to challenge photochemical filmmaking. At a moment when digital and photochemical filmmaking coexist, Side by Side explores what has been gained, what is lost, and what the future might bring.

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 different faces of documentary.

As fierce fighting continues in Syria, the death toll according to the United Nations has now reached at least 93,000 and the number of refugees fleeing the country has exceeded 1.5 million. We will be joined by five journalists who have covered the situation in Syria extensively since the uprising began in early 2011. They will be discussing recent developments, on the ground and on the international stage, and asking what changes we could see in coming months.

A year after his victory in Egypt’s historic first free election Mohamed Morsi has been ousted. Since his removal from power by the military on 3 July tensions have soared on the streets of Egypt. With events developing at great speed we will be taking stock of what has happened and asking what this means for Egypt’s future.

Privacy of the individual, secrecy of the state and national security have been in sharp focus in past weeks due to the leak of material from the US’s National Security Agency (NSA). We will be joined by a panel of experts to ask whether it is possible to strike a balance.

In Smash & Grab – The Story of the Pink Panthers, director Havana Marking gets some of the members to reveal the gang’s networks, history and approach. They talk about sealed-tight safes, robberies that are years in the making and constant physical transformations. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Havana Marking.

On Thursday 4 July, 6pm-9.30pm the first TFN Film Funding Event, a joint BRITDOC Foundation and The Funding Network (TFN) initiative, will take place at the Frontline Club.