Dogwoof at Frontline Season – Frontline Club

Change Season: Screening – An African Election

Charlotte Cook — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Set against the backdrop of the 2008 presidential election in Ghana, An African Election shows the complexities of a country struggling to prove the credibility of its democracy to the rest of the world.

Director Jarreth Merz follows the key players for almost three months to provide a behind-the-scenes look at the parties, experts, and citizens participating in the election. Full of suspense, the film is an unprecedented insider’s view of the political, economic and social forces at work in the West African country as it struggles to legitimise itself to the rest of the world.

With both political parties prepared to do almost anything to win, the film depicts the threat of violence and allegations of cheating while leading viewers to the heart-pounding climax of a momentous election.

Directed by Jarreth Merz
2011
89 mins

This screening is kindly supported by Dogwoof and is part of a season of their films showing at the club. More details of the season are here.

Fully Booked: Screening – The Interrupters

Charlotte Cook — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:00:00 +0000

The Interrupters follows the ground-breaking work of three ‘violence interrupters’ working in the crime-filled streets of Chicago over the course of a year.

Inspired by personal connections to crime, the three members of Cease Fire walk the streets helping to stop the ‘disease’ of violence in the neighbourhoods and homes where conflicts arise.

Motivated by their own misdeeds, Ameena, Cobe and Eddie form strong relationships with the people they want to help. By physically putting themselves in the middle of conflicts, the three Cease Fire members invest their time in changing lives.

This moving film showcases an alternative system of reform which focuses on the individual to promote peace and understanding in one of the country’s most violent neighbourhoods.

Directed by Steve James
2011
144 minutes

This screening is kindly supported by Dogwoof and is part of a season of their films showing at the club. More details of the season are here.

FULLY BOOKED – Screening – Page One: Inside the New York Times

Charlotte Cook — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Spanning an entire year in the life of the behemoth of American print media, Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times examines the changing face of journalism, and the conflicts that arise as a result.

The film shows how the internet is changing the way stories are reported, broken, and interpreted and poses the questions: how can The New York Times navigate change while maintaining its reputation for quality journalism?

Page One straddles the current crisis in journalism, including interviews with veteran journalists as they compete with the newer generation of internet-savvy writers. While the paper struggles to keep afloat in an economic recession, writers battle it out over breaking news in a high-stakes competition for readership.

Directed by Andrew Rossi
2011
88 mins

This screening is kindly supported by Dogwoof and is part of a season of their films showing at the club. More details of the season are here.

Screening – Bobby Fischer Against the World

Charlotte Cook — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Bobby Fischer Against the World examines the manic, paranoid, and brilliant world of former World Chess Champion and international icon Bobby Fischer. Following the course of Fischer’s life, the film is an in-depth portrait of the enigmatic icon and his eventual descent into relative obscurity.

The film uses archive footage to reconstruct the famous match between Fischer and Boris Spassky from the USSR, which garnered international media attention as a metaphor for the conflict between America and the USSR during the Cold War.

An engaging documentary that follows Fischer in a downward spiral that includes conspiracy theories, anti-Semitic remarks, and eventual withdrawal from the game.

Directed by Liz Garbus
2011
90 mins
This screening is kindly supported by Dogwoof and is part of a season of their films showing at the club. More details of the season are here.

SOLD OUT – Special Preview Screening: Blood in the Mobile

Charlotte Cook — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:00:00 +0000

If you knew that buying a cell phone in Europe was funding the bloody civil war in the Congo which has claimed 5 million lives, would you feel responsible?

Blood in the Mobile poses this question through an investigation into the illegal mining of minerals necessary for the manufacturing of cell phones and the funding this industry provides to the ongoing war effort.

Exploring the deep caves where children are forced to work for days on end mining for Westerners and the soldiers poised on the surface ready to claim more lives, Blood in the Mobile offers a shocking view into the question of responsibility between Congo and Europe.

2010
Directed by Frank Piasecki Poulsen

This screening is kindly supported by Dogwoof and is part of a season of their films showing at the club. More details of the season are here.

Sunday Screening – Budrus

Charlotte Cook — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000

In an inspiring tale, Budrus follows the struggle of a father and daughter team who fight to save their village from imminent destruction at the hands of the IDF’s Separation Barrier.

Uniting the disparate forces of Fatah, Hamas, and Israelis in a non-violent form of protest, father Ayed Morrar finds little success with the movement until his 15-year-old daughter Iltezam rallies support from the women of the village. By bringing together various groups in the West Bank village, Ayed and Iltezam begin a journey that resonates throughout Palestine and Israel.

Combining interviews from Israelis and Palestinians, military officials and citizens, Budrus examines the ubiquitous need to unite different peoples together in a peaceful manner to protest. Ultimately illustrating how this united front can lead to success, the efforts examined in Budrus have ramifications in all areas of conflict in the world.

Directed by Julia Bacha
70 mins
2009

Awards:
Winner Special Jury Mention Tribeca Film Festival 2010
Winner Witness Award Silverdocs 2010
Winner Audience Award at Berlin International Film Festival 2010

This screening is kindly supported by Dogwoof and is part of a season of their films showing at the club. More details of the season are here.

Sunday Screening – GasLand

Charlotte Cook — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000

When filmmaker Josh Fox was asked to lease his land for the new mode of natural energy drilling, he decided to travel across the United States in search of the reality of the little known practice. Following the trail of the Halliburton-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing, Fox encounters a veritable web of experience as an area the size of Saudi Arabia filled with natural gas is discovered. Hearing the cost to residents of the drilling areas, Fox uncovers the great, and disturbing, untold story of ‘fracking’.

Filmed in a plethora of styles ranging from expose to what the director calls a “bluegrass banjo meltdown,” Oscar nominated GasLand explores the tangled threads of the country’s search for natural energy production. From residents in a drilling area being able to light their drinking water on fire, to the scope of the undertaking of fracking, Gasland offers a unique look into the continued justification for conspicuous consumption in the United States.

Directed by Josh Fox
2010
107 mins

Awards:
2011 Oscar Nominated
2010 Special Jury Prize Documentary Sundance

This screening is kindly supported by Dogwoof and is part of a season of their films showing at the club. More details of the season are here.

Sunday Screening – Restrepo

Charlotte Cook — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

In the most dangerous place in Afghanistan, the violently contested Korengal Valley, a platoon of fifteen American soldiers fight a seemingly endless war against an Al-Qaeda stronghold. Told through the voices of the soldiers themselves, Restrepo takes the viewer on a harrowing journey through the lives of the men serving abroad without the interjection of the vox populi usually heard on the news.

The platoon, named after a medic who was killed during an insurgence, explore the remote countryside of their post in attempts to win the hearts and minds of the valley’s native Afghan people. At every step, however, the threat of bombs and snipers looms as the soldiers try to push forwards into no-mans land. A personal story of loss, tactic, isolation, and the human cost of war, the film explores one of the most hotly debated and discussed military actions in the past decade.

Directed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
93 mins
2010

Awards:
2011 Oscar Nominated
Winner Grand Jury Prize 2010 Documentary Sundance

This screening is kindly supported by Dogwoof and is part of a season of their films showing at the club. More details of the season are here.