Past Events and Screenings

Directors Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks explore whether the world can survive the “progress trap”. Making connections between economics, the environment, history and science to argue that the rules the world currently lives by are unsustainable.

Nearly three years after the end of the 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka that reportedly left an estimated 80,000-100,000 dead, questions are still arising about alleged war crimes and how they will be addressed.

Join us at the Frontline Club to discuss the impact of Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields and the situation today in Sri Lanka.

As westerners face greater surveillance in the name of security, including threats of increased controls in the wake of the August 2011 riots, we will be joined by Timothy Garton Ash and a respected panel of experts to discuss what the historian and commentator has set out as the first principle of free speech: That all human beings must be free and able to express themselves, and to receive and impart information and ideas, regardless of frontiers.

Is it time to create a new global code that governs freedom of speech? We will be discussing this vital issue and examining what such a code would include.

It’s one of the most corrupt countries in the world and widely criticised for its human rights record but this year Azerbaijan is hosting Eurovision – one of the most glitzy TV music competitions in the world.

Rupture is a documentary that tackles the personal tragedies and triumphs of people that have suffered brain hemorrhages and strokes. Academy Award winning director Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire) bears witness to actress Maryam d’Abo in her journey to understanding how her subarachnoid haemorrhage affected her life and how similar brain vascular diseases have affected the lives of friends and other creative figures in the UK and the US.

A documentary that looks at the 677 concentration camps, rape houses and prisons set up during the Bosnian war and their legacy today in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Director Mirko Pincelli addresses the complexity of post conflict society, where everyday life exists somewhere between past and present.

After a fabulous show at the Frontline Club in April, Punchlines returns on 10 May for another night of high-octane giggles.

Join us at the Frontline Club for an evening with long time New York Times correspondent Alan Cowell who went from having the distinction of being the last correspondent to date to file by carrier pigeon to heading the New York Times web-based breaking news operation in Paris. It is this tradition that is documented in his new novel The Paris Correspondent and that he will be discussing with broadcaster, journalist and writer Charles Glass.

The relationship between the press and politicians is what is now under scrutiny at the Leveson Inquiry and the long awaited testimony from Rupert and James Murdoch has unearthed a relationship that paints an uncomfortable picture for the government.

Following these latest revelations, hosted by BBC Radio 4’s Paddy O’Connell, we will be examining what we have heard and what the ramifications will be for politicians and the press.

One of the first films to get the footage of protests in the wake of elections in Belarus in 2010, Europe’s Last Dictator gives us a rare glimpse into the struggle against Aleksander Lukashenko’s brutal regime.

International thinkers lift the lid on the power elites of today’s global economy and how the majority has been made to pay for what the filmmakers describe as “the greatest heist in history”.

Channel 4 News’ international editor Lindsey Hilsum will be joining us in conversation with BBC Arabic presenter Rasha Qandeel to discuss Libya and her new book charting the country’s history from the beginnings of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime to the dictator’s squalid end.

Photo agency Panos Pictures is celebrating 25 years of contributions to photojournalism, with its focus on social and development issues. This event will bring together key voices in Panos Pictures to discuss the developments at Panos and in the photojournalism industry over the past 25 years, and what the future holds in store.

Paul Lowe will be in conversation with the Director of Panos Pictures, Adrian Evans and two Panos photojournalists, Andrew Testa and Chloe Dewe Mathews.

Little is known about the prison camps of North Korea where it is estimated that 200,000 are imprisoned. Shin Dong-Hyuk is the only person born into one of these camps that has ever escaped.

He will be joining us at the Frontline Club with Blaine Harden whose book Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West recounts this extraordinary journey.

For the first time in post-Taliban Afghanistan the national army is recruiting women, but only very few have stepped forward for training. In Afghan Army Girls, photojournalist and first-time director Lalage Snow reveals the difficulties, threats and personal changes these women go through as well as the complicated status they have in Afghan society. Followed by Q&A with director Lalage Snow.

From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad is a groundbreaking documentary about one of the most explosive conflicts in the world. For the first time on the record, an Israeli official, vice Prime Minister Moshe Yalon, implicitly, accepts the responsibility for the assassination of Iranian scientists, damaging Iranian nuclear centrifuges with a computer virus and destroying Iran’s military and nuclear facilities in the past few years.

As we approach the one year anniversary of the death of Osama Bin Laden, Ahmed Rashid will be joining senior BBC presenter and special correspondent Lyse Doucet to discuss the future for Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States.

Jon Shenk’s The Island President tells the story of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, a man confronting a problem greater than any other world leader has ever faced – the literal survival of his country and everyone in it.

After bringing democracy to the Maldives following thirty years of despotic rule, Nasheed is now faced with an even greater challenge: as one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1,200 islands of the Maldives enough to make them uninhabitable.

What has happened to the people of Bosnia in the aftermath of the Bosnian war which broke out 20 years ago?

Ed Vulliamy writer for the Guardian and Observer will be joining Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith in conversation to look back at the impact of the war both then and on people’s lives today.

Join us for an evening of comedy at the Frontline Club. PUNCHLINES our new monthly event will feature the comic talents of Paul Chowdhry, Jen Brister, Suzi Ruffell others.

Door’s open at 7pm and the show starts at 7.30pm. Please arrive early to ensure seats.