Screenings
Special Preview Screening: WMD
An innovatively shot thriller based on real events in 2002, WMD tells the story of an ordinary MI6 Desk Officer who discovers forged documents in the principal evidence being compiled to invade Iraq and attempts to expose their source.
NEW: Screening – Going Postal
With extraordinary access to those involved, including one teenage murderer himself, GOING POSTAL tells the story of the school and workplace shootings which have cast a shadow over American society since the 1980s. This April saw the 10th anniversary of Columbine, but the phenomenon is twice as old. Hundreds have been killed. The film, directed by the award-winning Paul Tickell, seeks to build up a picture of how and why this violence occurs.
Christian Poveda Tribute: Screening – La Vida Loca
In Central America, they are called “Maras”, these groups of youngsters who have modeled themselves on the Los Angeles youth gangs. They are extremely violent and are propagating terror in El Salvador and elsewhere. This is a study, through photography and the personal stories of these gang members, of a violent phenomenon that has been imported from the USA.
Screening – The Poet of Baghdad
The Poet of Baghdad – Enemy of the State tells the story of one of Iraq’s most famous poets, Nabeel Yasin. When a young man in Iraq, officers from Saddam Hussein’s regime stamped the words Enemy of the State on Nabeel’s passport, because of his politically sensitive poems. Unable to work or leave the country his family were repeatedly arrested and tortured.
Capturing Conflict: Mo & Me
No one captured Africa’s pain and passion more incisively than Mohamed Amin, photographer and frontline cameraman extraordinaire. He was the most famous photojournalist in the world, making the news as often as he covered it. ‘Mo’ trained his unwavering lens on every aspect of African life, never shying from the tragedy, never failing to revel in the success. Through the gaze of his camera lens, he showed the world what some were afraid to see and what most people wished they could ignore.
Capturing Conflict: Cry Freetown
A brutal portrayal of what happened in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone in January 1999.
Sorious Samura shot the film at great risk for his own life, keenly aware of the fact that the strong images he recorded were the only thing that could shake the world from its indifference to the plight of his countrymen, women and children.
Capturing Conflict: Somalia: Al-Qaeda’s New Haven
Unreported World visits one of the most dangerous places on earth to investigate the growth of a militant Islamic network and asks whether Somalia’s fertile training ground for Islamic terrorists could provoke a regional civil war.
Reporter Aidan Hartley and Producer James Brabazon are the first western journalists to set foot in Somalia since BBC producer Kate Peyton was killed nine months ago while crossing a Mogadishu street. A decade has passed since the UN military mission in Somalia ended following the deaths of 18 US special forces and 1,000 Somalis in the so-called “Blackhawk Down” battle.
Preview Screening: Russian Lessons
The film covers the Russia-Georgia war of August 2008 and investigates Russia’s foreign policy stance under Prime Minister Putin. Evidence of Russian imperialist plotting shows through the superficial politicking, tactical mistakes and naivety of the Georgians. Importantly the film puts the recent war in the context of post-Soviet history, which has managed to keep its darkest secrets away from international public’s attention despite dozens of relevant UN resolutions.
FULLY BOOKED Capturing Conflict: Unseen Gaza
Is what has been presented on our screens and in our papers a true reflection of events on the ground in Gaza? And how do these reports differ to those aired in other countries?
With reporters unable to enter Gaza, attempted media manipulation from both sides and strict regulations governing what images that can be shown on British TV, Jon Snow asks a range of journalists from at home and abroad about the challenges of getting the full story.
CANCELLED Nick Broomfield presents A Time Comes
Nick Broomfield’s new film, A Time Comes: The Story of the Kingsnorth Six, looks at the celebrated case of the Kingsnorth 6. In 2007 environmental activists scaled the smokestack at Kingsnorth power station in Kent and painted Gordon Brown’s name down the side.
Charged with £30k of criminal damage they faced jail, but argued in court that what they did was justified because of climate change. In a ground-breaking verdict the jury acquitted them.
Capturing Conflict: Death in Gaza
In spring 2003, filmmaker James Miller and reporter Saira Shah, following the success of their Peabody-winning films “Unholy War” and “Beneath the Veil,” set out to take a first-hand look at the culture of hate that permeates the Middle East. They captured the lives of three Palestinian children growing up in the bullet-riddled streets of Gaza, indoctrinated in the creed of Jihad, and had planned to show the Israeli side next. But on May 2, in the midst of filming, Miller was shot to death by an Israeli tank, falling victim to the conflict he covered.
Capturing Conflict: Russian Newspaper Murders
This one-hour documentary film tells the dramatic story of the dangers and pressures surrounding the press in today’s Russia.
In the evening of 9th October 2003, Alexei Sidorov, Editor in Chief of the ‘Togliatti Observer’, was murdered outside his home, becoming the sixth journalist in the industrial city of Togliatti to be murdered since 1995. The killer used an ice-pick, stabbing Sidorov several times before escaping in full view of witnesses and passers-by. Just 18 months earlier, Sidorov’s friend and the founding editor of the ‘Togliatti Observer’, Valery Ivanov, was shot outside his home with a silenced pistol.
Capturing Conflict: Tortured Truths (House of Journalists)
Tortured Truths is the story of La Maison des Journalistes, a Parisian refuge for persecuted journalists from all over the world who have suffered torture, prison sentences and death threats because they dared to express themselves freely.
Director Christine Garabedian carefully extracts personal stories from some of the refuge’s inhabitants including an Iraqi poet punished for writing about love and reconciliation amongst his countrymen, a political cartoonist from Burma and a Cuban investigative reporter. What they have in common is that they all fled their home countries fearing their lives merely for speaking out.
Classic Screening – The Man Who Stole Uganda
When most of the British media was welcoming Idi Amin after his January 1971 military coup, the conventional line being “Thank God we’ve seen the back of that awful drunken socialist Milton Obote, now Amin’s the kind of chap we can deal with (pity about the coup, but hey, that’s Africa).” World in Action’s investigative […]
Screening – Comrades
From the dusty roads of the Soweto township to the manicured lawns of Johannesburg’s suburbs, Comrades follows seven diverse men and women as they train for and compete in a 56 mile ultra-marathon – ‘Comrades’ – run annually by more than 12,000 amateurs between the cities of Durban and Peitermaritzburg.
Over the course of the film we discover these runners’ individual personalities and their stories of hardship and success. But we also gain an insight into South Africa itself, for Comrades’ history is interwoven with that of the country’s.
David Munro Tribute: Screening of Going Back
Update: We have decided to screen Going Back in conjunction with clips from The Four Horsemen and a personal film about david made by filmmaker Rodrigo Vasquez. We were very lucky to be able to obtain this footage and felt that it provides a far greater amount of time for a discussion between two important […]
NEW Screening: How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin
The film is a personal journey through Russia by Leslie Woodhead, telling the story of a secret revolution which led to the fall of communism.
The film begins where Woodhead first met up with the Beatles in 1962. As a young TV researcher, he worked on a brief black and white film shot in the Cavern Club in Liverpool before the world had heard of the Beatles.
25 years later, when Woodhead began to make films in Russia, he became aware of how the Beatles legend had soaked into the lives of a generation of kids. He even met some who had seen that little film in the Cavern Club long ago. Now he has been back in Russia to talk to some of the Beatles generation, and to hear their stories about how the Fab Four changed their lives – and how they made the the revolution which transformed their country into ‘Beatlestan.’
David Munro Tribute: Screening of Death Of A Nation -The Timor Conspiracy
There will be a second tribute to David on Wednesday 12th August 7pm with a screening of Year Zero (1979) & Going Back (1982) The documentary film-maker David Munro will be best remembered for the epic documentaries he made in collaboration with the journalist John Pilger for ITV, and especially for the courage and ability […]
Screening – Battle for Swat Valley
Swat is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Earlier this year the Pakistani Government agreed to the demand by religious and tribal leaders for the implementation of Sharia law in the Valley in return for an end to the fighting with the Taliban which had waged for over two years. Instead of disarming, the Taliban sent in their fighters and took over the Valley. Schools and Government offices were destroyed, local leaders kidnapped and killed.
Public opinion in Pakistan was outraged at the take over of Swat by the Taliban and forced the government to send in the army to take back the Valley. But is it a war they can win? And at what cost?
Screening – Democracy in Flames
Democracy In Flames is a journey into the heart of Pakistan’s democratic process in action, and provides a timeless historical snapshot at a turning point in world history. Obama, Iran, Afghanistan, India, and even China are on the borders of a country increasingly seen as having a pivotal role in world affairs. This film follows a student from London to his hometown of Lahore, possessed with the grievances of a generation, and charged with monitoring free and fair elections.
Screening – Taking the Flak
The adventures of filming a tale of badly behaving journalists in an African civil war – a comedy about journalism & journalists and how creating a fictional civil war can involve more complicated logistics than covering a real one.
FULLY BOOKED Screening – Corporations on Trial
Corporations on Trial is a five part series on Al Jazeera charting the rapidly growing number of law suits brought against multi-national corporations. War crimes, conspiracy, corruption and payments to terrorist organisations – over the last decade some of the world’s largest companies have found themselves in the dock, hiring hot-shot lawyers to defend themselves […]
Screening – Anthrax War
On the 6th Anniversary of the death of Dr. David Kelly, a screening of a provocative film about the 2001 Anthrax Attacks that examines Kelly’s role in the hidden world of germ weapons research. Anthrax War examines the 2001 Anthrax Attacks and offers a frightening glimpse into today’s secret and dangerous world of germ […]
Screening – President Evo
In 2005, Evo Morales made history by becoming the first indigenous person to be president of Bolivia.
He was elected on the promise that he would get the poor indigenous people that make up 60 per cent of the population out of poverty through a revolution in democracy.
Evo never imagined that this promise would lead to the worst period of socio-political instability that the country has seen for decades.
FULLY BOOKED Screening – The End of the Line
Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act. The End of the Line, the first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in […]
Screening – Escape from Huang Shi
Escape from Huang Shi is a brutal and compelling story based on true events that took place during the 2nd World War. In 1937 George Hogg (Rhys Meyers), a young English journalist travels to war ravaged China in search of the frontline and a big story. He encounters and overcomes unimaginable horrors as he works […]
Cancelled: Narco Wars: Screening – Mexico: Seven Days in Hell
Unreported World travels to Mexico where international demand for cocaine in the US and Europe has led to the deaths of thousands in a brutal war between gangs fighting for control of cocaine trafficking routes. Reporter Evan Williams and Director Alex Nott provide a snapshot of seven days of death in Culiacan, capital of the […]
Free Screening – Kabul Cops
In the past four years, 5,000 young men have graduated from Afghanistan’s national police academy. After just 12 weeks of training, new recruits join a fledgling police force that’s been tasked not only with reducing ordinary crime but also fighting terrorism. There’s no doubt it’s a dangerous job. Casualties among Afghan policemen outnumber casualties […]
Narco Wars: Screening – Dancing with the Devil
Rio de Janeiro. September, 2008. Three men stalk the gloomy back-alleys of the city’s notorious slums. Spiderman, a 28-year-old drug lord, embarks on a routine patrol through the shadowy streets of Coréia, the sprawling slum he controls. Inspector Leonardo Torres, a muscle-bound operative from Rio’s drug squad, inches through the alleys of another shantytown, shots […]
Screening – Fighting Passions
Fighting Passions gets behind the clichés of warfare to uncover shockingly honest accounts from the frontline. For us, it’s a crime. For them, it’s a job. For all the divisions between civilians and soldiers, there is one defining line – the act of killing. And soldiers who’ve done it, famously don’t talk about it. But […]
