The Forum Blog
The unreported price of war
By Natricia Duncan The occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) amongst soldiers is being downplayed, claims author and former Territorial Army soldier Jake Wood. “When I got back from Afghan we had this briefing and it said that 99.9 per cent of soldiers will not suffer from PTSD. Clearly that’s bollocks” he said in a […]
Contesting identities – exploring the role of women in India
By Nishat Ahmed The preview screening of The World Before Her held the audience captive at the Frontline Club on Tuesday 2 April. It was not just the trials and tribulations of two opposites – a beauty contest and a fundamentalist Hindu training camp – but a means by which to focus on the contesting roles of […]
Fixing a broken food system: why food is not the problem
By Holly Young “Hunger is the most heartbreaking and the most unnecessary crisis in the world” stated David Bull, executive director of UNICEF UK as he opened the session on Tuesday 26 March.
Russia’s winter of discontent
By Jonathan Couturier On Monday 25 March, the Frontline Club screened Winter, Go Away – a documentary assembling the works of 10 young filmmakers, as they captured the day-to-day turbulence, violence and disaffection fuelling the anti-Putin protests in early 2012. The camera follows the different faces of the opposition: young and old, rich and poor, famous and anonymous […]
The lessons learned from Iraq and living in a more sceptical age
by Sally Ashley-Cound The question of what has actually been learned from the Iraq war ten years on was put to a panel chaired by Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow at the Frontline Club on 20 March 2013.
The secret world behind the occupation
By John Pryor Recent Israeli elections have awakened new discussions about the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations. With this in mind, an audience gathered at the Frontline Club on 18 March for a screening of Academy Award-nominated The Gatekeepers. This powerful film provides a unique insight into the aftermath of the Six Day War and the occupation from […]
Dissident blogger documentary brings Forbidden Voices to London
By Alexandra Glynn A week after International Women’s Day, women were still very much in the spotlight for the screening of Forbidden Voices, a documentary about three female dissident bloggers at the Frontline Club on Friday 15 March. Director Barbara Miller’s powerful film follows three women – from Cuba, China and Iran – who defy the […]
Documenting the world through short films
By Joëlle Pouliot On March 14, the audience at the Frontline Club travelled around the globe through five short films. All documentaries were related to current affairs, but the styles of storytelling ranged from comedy and animation, to the more classical approach.
Kenya’s past, present and future: Words of caution and grounds for optimism
By Holly Young The event on the 11 March at the Frontline Club was a panel debate analysing the previous week’s much anticipated election results in Kenya. The panel, chaired by Audrey Brown, producer and presenter on BBC Focus on Africa and Network Africa, examined the implications of Uhuru Kenyatta election as Kenya’s new President, […]
The Grey Line: Portraits of doubt and courage
By Jim Treadway Jo Metson Scott spent the past five years photographing American and British soldiers who spoke out against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Using their letters and portraits, her book The Grey Line explores the soldiers’ reasons for doing so, and the fates that have awaited them. Metson Scott introduced The Grey Line […]
Afghani children held hostage in the drug trade
By Nishat Ahmed Children pay the heaviest price for Afghanistan’s drugs trade – according to a powerful account by journalist Najibullah Quraishi and producer Jamie Doran in their documentary Opium Brides. Opening to a packed screening at the Frontline Club on Friday 7 March, the film exposed the failure of the Afghan government and its […]
Syria: Who should help and when?
By Sally Ashley-Cound Paddy O’Connell started this month’s First Wednesday with a tribute to Marie Colvin who was killed in Homs a year a ago. After introducing the panel O’Connell got straight on to the news announced today by Foreign Secretary William Hague that the UK will be sending a £13m package of logistical and […]
When reporting from Haiti, Mali or Syria, are our cameras turned off too quickly?
By Caroline Schmitt What is the relationship between the extent of a disaster, its media coverage and the resulting help from charities and the public? A panel of Sky News and BBC journalists, DFID and experts with a background in humanitarian aid analysed these dependencies at a ShelterBox event hosted by the Frontline Club on March 5 […]
Calls to support fledgling freelancers as more flock to war zones
By Helena Williams Calls to support the next generation of independent journalists working in conflict zones were made just days after French freelance photographer Olivier Voisin was killed by shrapnel in Syria.
Chavez’s Legacy
By Jim Treadway As cancer threatens Hugo Chavez’s life, an expert panel considered his legacy before a sold-out audience on 26 February. “He’s this wonderful presence [in person],” remarked Rory Carroll, who spent from 2006 t0 2012 in Caracas as The Guardian‘s chief correspondent for South America, and whose latest book Commandante profiles Chavez in depth.
Mission accomplished? Weak police as the allies retreat from Afghanistan
By Alex Glynn Reporter Ben Anderson joined a panel at the Frontline Club on Monday 25 February to discuss his new 30-minute documentary for BBC’s Panorama on the allied troops’ legacy in Afghanistan and the condition of the Afghan police. Will Pike, a former British Army Major in Afghanistan, and Dawood Azami, former BBC World Service Bureau Chief in Kabul, joined Anderson to […]
The media & the military: an amicable separation?
By Sally Ashley-Cound The past, present and future of British military engagement with the media was the centre of a lively debate at the Frontline Club on 20 February 2013. Chaired by Stewart Purvis, professor of television journalism at City University London and former Editor-in-Chief and CEO of ITN.
The immense power of the state
By Laura Hughes A screening of Reportero took place at the Frontline Club on Friday 15 February, followed by a Q&A over Skype with the director Bernardo Ruiz. Ruiz’s documentary follows the story of reporter Sergio Haro and his colleagues at Zeta, an independent Mexican weekly newspaper. Since Zeta was founded in 1980, three of […]
Window of opportunity for the DRC
By Richard Nield The coming year could be a window of opportunity for the international community to tackle the violence and lawlessness that has claimed more than 5 million lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the past 15 years. The panel: Kassim Kayira, Noëlla Coursaris Musunka, Jean-Roger Kaseki, Patrick Smith, Ben Shepherd. Photograph: […]
Connecting film with debate: Between the Lines launch event
By Caroline Schmitt Between the Lines, a festival dedicated to connecting new journalism with documentary and film-making, was launched at the Frontline Club on Tuesday 12 February, 2013. Documentary programmer, Wotienke Vermeer, introduces Between the Lines at the Frontline Club. Photography: Caroline Schmitt Elizabeth Wood, one of the festival curators, introduced the Club to the […]
‘Prisoner of conscience’: preview screening of British drama Complicit
By Nishat Ahmed The moral dilemma of being compliant in the ill-treatment of terror suspects was tackled at the Frontline Club with a preview screening of the feature-length TV drama, Complicit, on Monday 11 February. The audience watched a compelling account of the complexities faced by British intelligence services in their attempt to foil terror plots. […]
Defending justice in the DRC
By Holly Young The event on the 8 February at the Frontline Club was a screening of Justice for Sale, followed by a Q&A with Femke van Velzen, one half of a documentary duo – twin sisters who make up IF Productions. For Femke and Ilse, this is their third film about the Democratic Republic of Congo. […]
Al Qaeda in Yemen – Part II: Poverty, frustration and exploitation
By Alex Glynn A lively discussion between journalists, audience members and Yemeni diplomats followed the screening of In the Hands of Al Qaeda at the Frontline Club on Monday 4 February. The documentary, which saw Jamie Doran, and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, along with their camerawoman Safa Al Ahmad, travel to Yemen, investigating how al Qaeda in the […]
Untangling Mali
By Sally Ashley-Cound The complex situation of the French-led intervention in Mali and the issues in the surrounding region was untangled somewhat on 6 February 2013 at the Frontline Club’s First Wednesday: A new front in the fight against terrorism? Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House was the chair and started things off by asking the […]
Transforming Egyptian Journalism
By Richard Nield The key to the development of the media in Egypt is not the transformation of journalists but the transformation of institutions, argues Naomi Sakr in her new book, Transformations in Egyptian Journalism. “I wanted to demonstrate that journalism as such may be the least of the problems in the Egyptian media,” said […]
Al Qaeda in Yemen – Part I: Divisions, distrust and mutual hatred
By Tom Meade Kalashnikovs, dilapidated cities and drone destruction gripped the audience at an overflowing screening of In the Hands of Al Qaeda on Monday 4 February at the Frontline Club. Award-winning journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad and producer Jamie Doran were on hand after the screening to answer questions on Yemen, al Qaeda and the making of their latest film.
Around the world in five short films
By Anna Reitman Shorts at the Frontline Club on 1 February showcased five documentaries that highlight different ways of telling non-fictional stories. Four of the filmmakers were on hand to discuss the themes and process behind their work. The first film of the evening, Afghanistan: The forgotten war, was shot by Vaughan Smith, who spent […]
The blight of our societies
By Jonathan Couturier Inequality blights our societies – the panel that gathered for the Inequality Debate at the Frontline Club on 30 January had no doubts about that. Charles Sennot, of GlobalPost, put the problem into perspective: the gap between rich and poor in developed economies is growing so fast that inequality is reaching developing country levels. You […]
Living the American Dream
By Natricia Duncan Regal thrones, miles of marble and fairy-tale affluence graced a packed Frontline Club on Tuesday 28 January. Award winning director Lauren Greenfield was on hand for a Q&A, and the audience was treated to the compelling story of a family who lived the American dream, but had a rude awakening when the […]
Alma’s violent confessions
By Nicky Armstrong On Friday 25 January, the Frontline Club hosted it’s first live film screening – interactive web-documentary, Alma, a Tale of Violence by Isabelle Fougère and Miquel Dewever-Plana. Joined by award-winning e-producer Alexandre Brachet and moderated by Himesh Kar from WorldView, the audience took part in a unique viewing, following the ‘route’ of the […]
