Screenings
Screening – Burma VJ
Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to Burma’s video journalists who insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country despite risking torture and life in jail. Armed with small handycams they make their undercover reportages, smuggle the material out of the […]
FULLY BOOKED: Screening – Kate Adie Returns to Tiananmen Square
To millions of TV viewers, Kate Adie remains synonymous with war reporting. It became a joke in the British Army that when Adie arrived on the scene they knew they were in trouble. But there is one assignment that stands out as the most difficult of her career: reporting the massacre of hundreds of civilians […]
NEW – Screening – World in Action: The Dust at Acre Mill
Regarded as a classic edition of the Granada Television current affairs series WORLD IN ACTION, THE DUST AT ACRE MILL, transmitted on 28 June 1971, was the first programme to bring the lethal dangers of ill-protected contact with asbestos to the attention of the general public. Combining simple reconstruction with the testimony of former workers […]
Antony Thomas Presents – Death of a Princess
In July 1977 Princess Misha’al Bint Bin Mohammed and her lover were executed in a car park in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She was nineteen years old, a princess of one of the largest and wealthiest royal families in the world.
A British construction worker had secretly photographed the execution, and when the illustrated story appeared across the entire front page of the Daily Express, it caused a international sensation. But that was nothing compared with the furore that erupted over Antony Thomas’ docu-drama, “Death of a Princess”.
Screening – Angels of Rio
A unique filmic blend of documentary observation and re-enactment, Angels of Rio is a film about corruption, violence and generational change in Brazil today.
Equipped with mini-camera, video transmitters, and other more sophisticated electronic devices, a group of female private eyes explore all possible tracks. While following Brazil’s most famous private eye Luiz with the girls, we get to approach what lies beneath the surface of the sunny place, filmed by the “angels” secret cameras, as well as the personal motivations of the team for doing this job.
Screening – Saving Soweto
Chris Hani Baragwanath (or Bara) Hospital in Soweto, South Africa, occupies more than 173 acres with 3,200 beds and 6,670 staff members. While “Saving Soweto” highlights many of the major health and social issues South Africa is grappling with today, namely crime, social violence and HIV/AIDS, it also draws attention to the tireless work performed […]
Free Screening: Kivalina: The Canary in the Mine
In time for next week’s Arctic Ministerial Conference this is a film that shows the first test case for the world that is trying to pin down responsibility on the 24 main oil, electricity and coal companies. This case will hit the press in May when the case goes to court. This is the only […]
Screening – Anna: Seven Years on the Frontline
Anna Politkovskaya, an observer of the Novaya Gazeta ("New newspaper") was killed on 7th of October, 2006 in the hall of her apartment building. Many people believe that this murder was connected to her professional activities. The film tells us about last seven years of Anna’s life, the period that she had worked for the […]
Sneak Preview Screening: Team Qatar
Team Qatar follows the journey of five Middle Eastern teens from the world’s richest country as they are initiated into the cutthroat subculture of competitive high-school debating. They are charismatic and cultured, with strong views, immense curiosity, and a boundless ambition that they direct – for five intense weeks, under the guidance of their Oxford-trained […]
Screening – Sean McAllister Presents: The Minders
As part of our successful ‘Presents’ strand, award-winning director Sean McAllister will introduce his 1998 documentary The Minders and take part in a post screening Q&A. "This extraordinary film was made by Sean McAllister during the last Iraqi crisis (the one defused by the UN’s Kofi Annan in person *February 1998). With air strikes averted, […]
Screening: Ahlaam
Based on true stories, Ahlaam follows the fate of three Iraqi citizens that find themselves trapped inside the bombed ruins of a Baghdad Psychiatric Asylum on the night US forces start their ’shock and awe’ campaign to “liberate” Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s totalitarian regime. Ahlaam is Iraq’s first feature film from the post-Saddam era to […]
Screening: The Reckoning
‘The Epic Story of the Battle for the International Criminal Court’ Late in the 20th century, in response to repeated mass atrocities around the world, more than 120 countries united to form the International Criminal Court (ICC)—the first permanent court created to prosecute perpetrators (no matter how powerful) of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and […]
Screening: Afghan Star
After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, pop culture has returned to Afghanistan. Millions are watching Afghan Star – a Pop Idol-style TV series in which people from across the country compete for a cash prize and record deal. 2000 people audition, including three brave women. The viewers vote for their favorite singers […]
Special Sneak Preview: Doormat
Doormat is the recent winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Documentary at HBO’s South Asian Film Festival at New York City’s Rubin Museum of Art, juried by such luminaries as Waris Ahluwalia of The Darjeeling Limited, Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and Maulik Pancholy of 30 Rock. […]
NEW – Double Bill Screening: Turkey’s Hidden Shame and Lost Children of Chechnya
Double Bill screening of two 25 minute investigative episodes produced exclusively for Witness, the international strand at Al Jazeera English. Both examine the plight of downtrodden and forgotten populations in Turkey and Chechnya. Turkey’s Hidden Shame Turkish lawyer Eren Keskin represents hundreds of women – many of them Kurdish – who say they’ve been sexually […]
CANCELLED: Screening: In the Shadow of the Moon
Between 1968 and 1972, nine American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon, and 12 men walked upon its surface. They remain the only human beings to have stood on another world. "In the Shadow of the Moon" brings together for the first, and very possibly the last, time surviving crew members from every single Apollo mission […]
Preview Screening: The Deadline
As the world’s fish stocks fall year by year the Life of the Ocean is further threatened by a new breed of pirate. Lured by an $80 billion industry and operating without licenses these pirates are ravaging fishing grounds with illegal nets and catching fish before they can even breed. Most shocking of all these […]
FULLY BOOKED Screening – Ken Loach Presents: Which Side Are You On?
Esteemed film director, Ken Loach joins us for an evening to present and talk about two pieces from his archive, the remarkable Which Side Are You On? And 11’09"11 a short film made in response to 9/11. Which Side Are You On? (1984)An anthology of striking miners’ songs and poems inspired by the miners’ strike […]
Screening – Pawel Pawlikowski Presents: Serbian Epics
As part of our successful ‘Presents’ strand, multi award-winning director Pawel Pawlikowski will introduce his 1992 documentary Serbian Epics and take part in a post screening Q&A. In this documentary, set in Bosnia during the war, Pawlikowski steers clear of the usual cliches of war reporting, using a more anthropological perspective relying not on commentary […]
NEW Iran Screening: Iran and the West – ‘Nuclear Confrontation’
This evening we will preview the final episode of the landmark series, Iran and the West, produced by award winning filmmaker Norma Percy and directed by Paul Mitchell (Watergate, The Death of Yugoslavia). ‘Nuclear Confrontation’ is full of extraordinary series from an A-list of contributors including Iran’s President Khatami who gives a unique insider account […]
Iran Screening: The Fall of A Shah – The Story of the Iranian Revolution
The Fall of a Shah is the story of the rise and fall of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. The film includes exclusive interviews with some of the people closest to the Shah and Ayatollah Khomeini. The film picks up where Bahari’s previous film, An Iranian Odyssey, finishes: the return of the Shah […]
Iran Screening: An Iranian Odyssey – Mossadegh, Oil and the 1953 CIA Coup
In 1951 Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh tried to end British domination of Iran. Mossadegh nationalized Iranian oil which had been monopolized by a single British company, BP, for more than forty years. Mossadegh had to fight against a virtual alliance of foreign and domestic enemies. They undermined him in a struggle for power and […]
Classic Screening: Beneath the Veil – Inside the Taliban’s Afghanistan
Filmed in late 2000 and early 2001, ‘Beneath the Veil‘ is the story of Saira Shah’s journey through Taliban Afghanistan, a country savaged by years of war but not yet under international scrutiny. Hailed as one of the most daring, insightful and shocking news documentaries of recent years it laid bare a devastating country savaged […]
Preview Screening: Child Miners – A Film by Rodrigo Vazquez
Followed by director by Rodrigo Vazquez Child Miners is a poignant observational documentary from acclaimed director Rodrigo Vazquez (Inside Hamas, Bolivia, Looking for the Revolution) that follows the plight of two young Bolivian tin miners. Jorge and Alex are two of 3,000 children working in Bolivia´s tin mines. This film follows their lives as they […]
Preview Screening: Frost/Nixon
Followed by Q&A with Peter Morgan and others tbc Frontline is pleased to present a second sneak preview of Frost/Nixon – the film adaptation of Peter Morgan’s hugely successful stage play. Oscar winning director Ron Howard brings this remarkable story to the screen, not only recreating the on-air interview, but also showing the motivations of […]
Screening: The English Surgeon
Followed by Q&A with director Geoffrey Smith and surgeon Henry Marsh What is it like to have God like surgical powers, yet to struggle against your own humanity? What is it like to try and save a life, and yet to fail? Shot in a Ukrainian hospital full of desperate patients and makeshift equipment, The […]
Preview Screening: Pig Business
Followed by Q&A with director Tracy Worcester and others tbc A shocking new feature-length documentary, Pig Business, shows how gruesome methods of factory farming are increasingly inflicting hidden long-term damage on public health and the environment, making a mockery of animal welfare and driving traditional, small-scale, humane farmers to the wall. Pig Business is the […]
Cuba at 50 Screening: Personal Che
Followed by discussion with Micheal Channon (Roehampton University) Personal Che, directed by filmmakers Adriana Marino and Douglas Duarte, is a film that has Che at the centre but examines not the history, but rather how this man continues to be re-interpreted by many around the world in ways that would probably surprise Che himself. Many […]
Preview Screening: The Fixer – Afghanistan Behind the Scenes
When foreign journalists are working in hostile environments, they often rely on a local (The Fixer) to set up interviews, interpret conversations, and provide links and leads to people and stories. They are an essential tool in the newsgathering process. In this revealing film, director Aaron Rockett follows the journey of freelance journalist Sean Langan and his fixer, Sami Sharaf on the streets of Kabul as they film a story about the country’s first all female driving school.
HIV / AIDS Season – Screening: Living with AIDS
In Living with AIDS, Sorious Samura works as an orderly in hospital in Zambia , where the majority of the patients are HIV positive. Confronted daily with death, he describes his workplace as being like a frontline in a war zone. The staff work under horrendous conditions where protective gloves are a luxury and shrouds for the dead are stained with the blood of previous corpses.
