Past Events and Screenings

Part Civil War documentary, part expose of the end of a relationship, Sherman’s March is Ross McElwee’s ode to love and life in the 1980s.

When more details about the News of the World phone hacking scandal were revealed earlier this year, there were calls for greater regulation of the press. At the same time, the use of super-injunctions (or ‘gagging orders’) by celebrities to stop the press revealing details about scandals has also been called in to question.

Focusing on issues of privacy, justice and journalistic ethics, we will be asking whether the current system of law and regulation is – or is not – in need of reform.

Getting the best images possible means that photographers and video journalists in particular need to get hair-raisingly close to the action, often putting themselves in danger. Reuters photographer Andrew Winning and video journalist Inigo Gilmore will speak at the Frontline Club about shooting on Libya’s front line.

The multiple award winning film, The Arbor, recollects the life of Andrea Dunbar, the short-lived, alcoholic playwright from Bradford and focuses in particular on the troubled relationship between Dunbar and her daughter Lorraine. Part fact, part re-enactment and part archival footage, Clio Barnard’s debut feature seamlessly amalgamates location shots, audio interviews and lip-synched acting performances to create a unique and genre-blending ‘documentary’ experience.

What do we really think of democracy? We’re all supposed to be citizens – but what does it mean to be a citizen? Please Vote For Me answers these questions briskly and hilariously, through the medium of an election staged in a Chinese classroom in which 9 year olds strive to turn themselves into politicians to get elected to the post of Class Monitor -Nick Fraser.

The explosion of the internship in the past 10 years has begun to raise some serious questions about the implications for a generation expected to work wage-free in order to move onto the career ladder.

Ross Perlin, an ex intern himself and the author of Intern Nation will be at the Frontline Club to take part in a panel discussion about internships and his investigation into a trend which, he argues, is destroying “what’s left of the ordered world of training, hard work and fair compensation”.

The evening will reveal the extent of the problem of pirate fishing, which takes place in both the developed and developing world. Discussion will focus on the many issues surrounding pirate fishing, including its dramatic impact on poorer coastal states, where hundreds of thousands of people rely on fish for food and livelihood. How EU subsidies are still benefitting illegal fishing operations, and how port states are being seen as the frontline in combating this activity. We will be exploring possible solutions and the importance of the role of the media in exposing the impacts of pirate fishing as a crime, comparable to international drugs smuggling.

Fourteen Days in May is the seminal documentary which examines the voices, roles, and truth behind capital punishment in America through the case of Edward Earl Johnson.

The Prosecutor is the powerful story of Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the first chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court. His critics say that he is a threat to peace, stirring controversy in international waters, while peace advocates argue that he is too lax. Can he prove them wrong?

Organised by BBC Arabic.

Followed by a panel discussion

At a secret rendezvous on the Tunisian border, a young man hands over to Libyan rebels a crate of medical supplies. He’s hoping for a precious cargo in return – memory cards and small video tapes that he will upload to the internet and show the world what is happening inside the Libyan capitol, Tripoli. In the revolutions of 2011, these are the new weapons of the internet age.

Two years after Iranians took to the streets to protest against the apparent rigging of the presidential elections we will be examining the impact of the Arab Spring. What has been the response of the government of Iran to the uprisings? Could they inspire further protests among the people? We will also be looking at the power struggle between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the conservative clerics and asking what it could mean for Iran’s future.

As many established media organisations are forced to cut back on their foreign bureaux, new opportunities are emerging for a new type of foreign correspondent – the independent multimedia journalist.

We’ll be bringing together a panel of experts to talk about their experiences of reporting, including kit, the realities of going it alone, and working relationships with the established news organisations.

Please join us for May’s Club Quiz with quizmaster George Chamier.
The event is open to anyone and you can enter as an individual or as a team of six.

Al Venter’s unusual claim to fame is that, after covering conflicts on almost all continents for near-on five decades, he is still alive. That comes through rather forcefully in his last book, Barrel of a Gun, recently released in the US and Britain.

This is a rare and unprecedented opportunity to hear Venter speak; expect a searching and revealing evening that will cover blood diamonds, Al-Qaeda and the Islamic quest for nuclear weapons.

Leila Ahmed was raised in Cairo in the 1940’s, by a generation of women who never dressed in veils and headscarves. To them, they seemed irrelevant to both modern life and Islamic piety. Today, the majority of Muslim women throughout the Islamic world again wear the veil. Why, Ahmed asks, did this change take root so swiftly, and what does this shift mean for women, Islam, and the West.

Leila Ahmed, who is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity at the Harvard Divinity School, will be joining us at the Club in conversation with Azadeh Moaveni, Iranian-American writer, journalist and author of Lipstick Jihad, to discuss her new book A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America and her surprising discoveries about Muslim women, Islamism and democracy.

My Perestroika follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times – from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia.

Funny, moving and provocative, Donor Unknown raises intriguing questions about our understanding of family, fatherhood, and the strange power of genetic connections.

Download this episode View in iTunes With a panel of experts and journalists we will be examining the political realignment taking place in the Middle East and North Africa. We will be asking what the shifts in Arab world mean for Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia: What is Israel’s likely response to the emerging democracies […]

Amnesty! When They Are Free takes an unprecedented look into the world of Amnesty International and how the organisation has changed the world for the better. Despite their efforts, however, Amnesty International cannot solve everthing, and the film leaves the lingering question: have organisations such as Amnesty curbed the number of acts of violence that people commit against each other?

Khodorkovsky takes an explosive look into the life of former titan of the Russian oil industry, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The film examines those who knew him best, and offers unprecedented access to Khodorkovsky as he stands trial.