In the past 40 years Iraq has endured three major wars, a violent coup, two invasions, a decade of bombing, two insurgencies, attack by the so-called Islamic State group, and a sectarian civil war. Living through such relentless bloodshed has taken a heavy toll on the nation’s mental health. More than one third of Iraqi children are thought to have moderate to severe mental illness and all social indicators, from divorce to suicide, show significant increases.

There’s only one psychiatrist for every 300,000 Iraqi people and just one psychiatric hospital in the entire country. Abu Leith, the hospital’s registrar, has been in post for decades and embodies its memory of Iraq’s dark times. He signs in all the new arrivals and takes it on himself to give a decent burial to those patients who die in hospital. Some have been admitted with no documentation; they languish inside for years, their identities never known.

The film tells the stories of children who, as a result of extreme trauma, are suffering a severe physical impairment such as the inability to talk or walk. This loss of ability is the physical expression of a mental condition, as we see with Maryam, who was 12 years old when IS sold her into sex slavery. Later she was forced to wear a suicide belt, though she managed to cut herself free from it. Since then, her speech has become impaired; we see her being treated by a mobile psychiatry unit, and finding some comfort in learning to be a seamstress.

As this film reveals, the biggest obstacle to overcoming Iraq’s mental health crisis is stigma. This is now changing, as community leaders encourage Iraqis to defy the traditional culture of shame and speak without fear about their abuse. More and more women are coming forward to speak out.

A year in the making, BBC Arabic’s documentary Iraq: A State of Mind explores the mental health crisis that’s gripped the Iraqi people.

Chair

Christopher Mitchell became Documentaries Editor at BBC Arabic in April 2018, after two years working for the BBC as a freelance executive producer. He is an award-winning writer, director and executive producer, having made many films for networks including BBC TV, ITV, Channel 4, ARTE, WDR Germany and Al Jazeera English. He was managing director of the independent production company OR Media from 2005 until 2014.

Speaker

Namak Khoshnaw is a Kurdish filmmaker from Iraq who obtained his MA degree at the University of West London in film and Art. He has produced numerous compelling documentaries for the BBC uncovering the plight of the Iraqi people living under Islamic State rule. Among his work is the harrowing documentary titled Slaves of the Caliphate which tells the story of Yazidi women held as sex slaves by ISIS fighters. the film was broadcasted internationally in 2014, and Namak won New Ground Award for outstanding reporting. He has also produced number of 360 virtual reality films for the BBC and New York Times. 

Photograph courtesy of Namak Khoshnaw.

In the frontline town of Marinka, a new bakery has opened which brings some comfort and sustenance to war-weary locals. The film follows the people who run the bakery and the customers, as they struggle to gain a sense of normality among the rumble of war.

Chair

Roland Oliphant  is a Senior Foreign correspondent to the Telegraph and until recently covered Russia and the former Soviet Union from the Moscow bureau. He has reported on the Ukrainian revolution and civil war from Kiev, Crimea, and Eastern Ukraine.

Speakers

Albina Kovalyova (producer / director)  –  is an independent documentary producer/director, with extensive experience of covering the Ukrainian conflict from both sides of the line for major global television channels including NBC, Channel 4, BBC World and Al Jazeera. Her other documentary work includes films about the Belarus Free Theatre, Nenets Reindeer herders in Russia’s Arctic region, and Ukraine’s Aids Epidemic for the BBC, and an independent documentary about the Dau film set in Kharkiv. She is fully bilingual in Russian and English and has dual nationality.

Lucy Ash (presenter)– is an awarding-winning broadcast journalist with more than 20 years’ experience as a BBC correspondent, presenter and senior producer. Her most recent work includes: Ukraine’s Frontline Bakery (Radio 4, World Service and BBC World TV) a radio documentary and film about a new bakery in the town of Marinka, Eastern Ukraine, which is bringing some comfort and sustenance to the local people amidst the trauma of war; The Red and the White (BBC World Service, BBC Russian) a three part radio series on the Allied Intervention in North Russia at the end of WWI;Russia’s Exit Dilemma (Radio 3, World Service) in which Ash meets emigres, exiles and staunch remainers in London and Berlin, Moscow and St Petersburg to weigh up the prospects for the young and ambitious in today’s Russia. Other works by Lucy Ash includes Putin’s Park, Rebooting Rural Russia and Extreme Selfies – Russian Style, amongst many others. Ash’s freelance work outside of the BBC, includes the Guardian, The Times, and The Daily Telegraph. A half hour film When the West Invaded Russia, by Lucy Ash is due to be broadcast in March 2018.

Dr Anna Matveeva is a visiting research fellow at Kings College London. She is a member of the Russia and Eurasia Security research group. Her work specialises in conflict studies and developmental aspects of international peace building. The geographical remit of her interests covers conflicts in the Ukraine, the North and South Caucasus, and in Central Asia. Most recently, she has published a book, Through Times of Trouble: Conflict in Southeastern Ukraine Explained from Within (Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Politics) based on first hand accounts of participants themselves.

The Frontline Club will be hosting a series of screenings for the launch of a new virtual reality news documentary from the BBC. With headsets provided, we will be screening the immersive documentary followed by a Q&A with BBC Africa’s correspondent Alastair Leithead, executive producer and head of BBC’s VR Hub Zillah Watson and digital development director for BBC News James Montgomery on the potential this new technology holds for the future of news reporting.

DAMMING THE NILE

The Nile is the world’s longest river, and it’s where the world’s first war over water could be fought. For millennia Egypt has been the river’s great superpower, but now an ambitious and emerging Ethiopia has dammed the Blue Nile – where most of its water comes from. “Damming the Nile” is a virtual reality documentary series from BBC News, taking viewers on a deeply immersive journey down the Nile from its source to the sea through Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. On assignment with the BBC’s Africa correspondent and his team, you’ll explore the geopolitical struggles for regional power and influence along the Nile and investigate how these nations are navigating these choppy waters. Enjoy the ride.

Time Slots:

9:30 AM – 10:30 AM

11 AM – 12 PM 

16:30 – 5:30 PM

Please email events@www.beta.frontlineclub.com to reserve your place specifying what time you will be attending.

The Frontline Club will be screening a new BBC documentary,  Stacey Dooley – Face to Face with ISIS followed by a Q&A with Stacey and director Joshua Baker in conversation with Catrin Nye.

One year on from her first visit to Iraq, Stacey joins Shireen – a 23 year old Yazidi woman who was held as a sex slave for over two years by the so called Islamic State. Shireen managed to escape while she was enslaved in Mosul, but many Yazidi woman like her haven’t, and remain in ISIS captivity.

Shireen takes Stacey back to Mosul, the self-declared capital of ISIS in Iraq. She wants to revisit the places where she was held captive, in order to finally draw a line under the past. In East Mosul, they find the house where Shireen was imprisoned and sexually abused by a leading ISIS executioner for months.

But it’s the Old City of Mosul, where Shireen finally managed to escape ISIS, that means the most to her. With a military escort, the pair travel into the heart of the Old City – where ISIS only months ago made their last stand in a devastating and brutal battle. The danger is real: ISIS militants are still being hunted and unexploded bombs litter the street.

Keen to see justice is being served, Shireen and Stacey sit in on an interrogation of an ISIS suspect in court. But with the Iraqi justice system overwhelmed by the sheer number of ISIS suspects, justice isn’t as clear cut as Shireen and Stacey might have hoped.

Armed with countless unanswered questions, Shireen and Stacey finally have the chance to get answers when they come face to face with a senior ISIS commander in a maximum security facility. He has murdered hundreds of men and raped countless Yazidi women and girls. His frank answers will stay with Shireen and Stacey forever.

Run Time: 44 mins

Credits

Production: Insight TWI

Presenter: Stacey Dooley

Producer Director: Joshua Baker

Producer: Helen Spooner

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Nawal al-Maghafi and others.

Since March 2015, a coalition of the Middle East’s richest countries, led by Saudi Arabia, and armed by the UK and US has been bombing the region’s poorest state, Yemen.

While the bombing campaign has been receiving intermittent coverage in the international media, the enormous scale of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Yemen as a result continues to be overlooked.

Today, more than twenty million Yemenis are relying on aid to survive. The coalition’s blockade of the country has previously cut off the food and aid imports on which the population depends, and while trade has now resumed they maintain complete control over all imports and exports to and from Yemen.

We meet Shuaib, he was rushed in to hospital suffering from fever and diarrhoea. Hodeida’s main hospital is already struggling to cope, working under airstrikes, electricity cuts and lack of supplies. Shuaib’s antibiotic is completely out of stock, and doctors do the best they can to save him with the little supplies that they have.

Through the eyes of Ashwaq Muharram, a medical doctor living and practicing in Hodeida, viewers will see the silent killer of this ongoing conflict: the blockade currently imposed by the Saudi-led coalition and the widespread bombing of infrastructure which is drastically disrupting civilians’ access to aid.

This critical film provides an insight into what is happening in Yemen beyond the bombs and the bullets. It will introduce the audience to Yemenis whose coping strategies have collapsed, and who are in desperate need of the world’s attention as a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds in their land.

Directed and Reported by: Nawal Al-Maghafi
Edit Producer: Karolina Mottram
Edited by: Shayma Alissi
Filmed by: Mohammed Al-Mikhlafi
Runtime: 25′

Speakers:

Kavita Puri – Editor, BBC Our World

Nawal Al-Maghafi – BBC Reporter

Andre Heller Perache – head of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) programmes unit and former head of mission in Yemen

Peter Oborne – Associate editor of The Spectator and chief political commentator at The Daily Telegraph

In April 2016, the OCCRP also had a hand in one of the largest leaks in journalistic history – the Panama Papers – which revealed the secretive offshore companies used by politicians, oligarchs, criminals and sportspeople to hide their wealth, evade taxes and commit fraud. The documents, obtained from offshore services provider Mossack Fonseca, again demonstrated that corruption and financial crime are widespread and systematic, and infiltrate governments, corporations and civil services – with the UK as no exception. Their prevalence is bolstered by an ability to operate with ease across many frontiers, and transparency remains their natural enemy.

On the eve of a Downing Street summit aiming to challenge cross-border organised crime and corruption, we will be joined by OCCRP co-founder and editor Drew Sullivan and others to discuss how best to report on – and combat – transnational organised crime and corruption, with a particular focus on the London link and recent Panama Papers leaks. We will be asking what the role of transparency and government data is in combating corruption, and what role journalism can play in preventing its occurrence and bringing those accountable to justice.

This event will be moderated by award-winning journalist Oliver Bullough – author of two books about Russian history and politics: The Last Man in Russia and Let Our Fame be Great; and expert guide for the Kleptocracy Tours initiative, which exposes money laundering via property in London.

The panel:

Daniel Balint-Kurti is a journalist and campaign leader of the Special Investigations team at Global Witness. He focuses on anti-corruption issues in Africa and has been at Global Witness since 2010, before which he worked on The Times foreign desk and as an Associate Fellow of Chatham House. He was based as a reporter in central and western Africa for seven years, from 1999 to 2006. At Global Witness he has investigated corruption scandals involving large Western companies in several African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea.

Meirion Jones is an investigative journalist and producer, and former head of investigations at BBC Newsnight. He won the London Press Awards Scoop of the Year prize for his part in the investigation on Jimmy Savile. He also received the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ Daniel Pearl Award for his investigation into the dumping of Trafigura’s toxic waste in Africa. Meirion has conducted detailed investigations on vulture fund operations that diverted debt relief from some of the world’s poorest countries.

Drew Sullivan is co-founder and editor of OCCRP. His work has been awarded the Daniel Pearl Award, the Online Journalism Award for investigative reporting, the Global Shining Light Award for reporting under duress, the Tom Renner award for Crime Reporting and many other international awards. He worked as an investigative reporter for the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville and for the Special Assignment Team of the Associated Press in New York. He has also served on the board of directors of Investigative Reporters and Editors and the National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting.

Holly Watt has been on the investigations team at the Guardian for just over a year, spending the last eight months working on the Panama Papers. She previously worked at The Sunday Times and The Telegraph. She’s been nominated for Scoop of the Year at the Press Awards six times, and has received nominations for news reporter of the year and political journalist of the year. Holly was the Laurence Stern Fellow in 2008 and has reported from all over the world, including Afghanistan and Libya.

In 2012, the brutal gang rape on a Delhi bus of a 23-year-old medical student, who later died from her injuries, made international headlines and ignited protests. India’s Daughter is an impassioned plea for change and a tribute to a remarkable and inspiring young woman. The film explores the compelling human stories behind the incident and the political ramifications in India.

BAFTA winning filmmaker Leslee Udwin, herself a victim of rape, went to India inspired by the protests against sexual assault. With an all Indian crew, she got exclusive, first time on camera interviews with the rapists and defence attorney.

This month India’s government banned the film while the BBC moved their planned broadcast up by days and ignited a new controversy.

Following the screening we will be joined by director Leslee Udwin and others to discuss the international reactions to the film, the aftermath of the Indian broadcast ban, and the greater issue of gender based violence.

Yasmin Ali Bhai Brown is a journalist who has written for The Guardian, Observer, The New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, The Evening Standard, The Mail and other newspapers and is now a regular columnist on The Independent and London’s Evening Standard. She is also a radio and television broadcaster and author of several books exploring immigration, feminism, and race relations.

Directed by: Leslee Udwin
UK/India 2015
Runtime: 62 minutes

This screening is presented with the help of iProbono.
iProbono is a non-profit network connecting lawyers to civil society organisations and activists. The network’s global outreach enables the legal community to engage in projects from around the world and allows organisations to source assistance both locally and across jurisdictions.

As part of its free speech campaign in India, iProbono is representing Leslee Udwin and ‘India’s Daughter’.

On 23 October 1984, the BBC aired a landmark report on the famine in Ethiopia. Describing the crisis as a ‘biblical famine’, the report galvanised the public, spurred the UK government into action and prompted the creation of the infamous Live Aid concert.

Now 30 years on, is media reporting of today’s conflicts and disasters having the same effect on the public and has the nature of conflict and disaster reporting changed? How are journalists adapting to these changes?

How are humanitarian organisations working with media outlets to help generate interest and understanding of the crises affecting millions of civilians around the world?

Join the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) as they examine the current state of conflict and disaster reporting and how humanitarian agencies can work with the media to raise awareness and much-needed funds.

Chaired by Ben Parker who has worked in media and humanitarian response for over 20 years. He co-founded the IRIN humanitarian news service in 1995. As well as a reporter and editor, he has been an aid worker, most recently as head of UN’s humanitarian office in Syria in 2012, and as UN director of communications in Somalia.

The panel:

Juliana Ruhfus, senior reporter for the People and Power programme on Al Jazeera English, specialising in investigative work. Her journalistic work with Channel 4, BBC and now Al Jazeera has taken her to over 30 countries, including Somalia, Yemen, Haiti, Libya and Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

Marc DuBois was the head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) UK from 2008–14. He has worked in the front lines of humanitarian crises for MSF in countries including Sudan and Angola.

Jon Snow, Channel 4 News anchor since 1989. During his career he has covered conflicts in countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Angola as well as the Haiti earthquake and the recent crisis in Gaza.

Eva Svoboda, research fellow in the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute. She has worked for various NGOs and the ICRC in emergencies in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

If you are unable to attend you can watch the event live, to receive a reminder register here.

Photograph: isafmedia

Acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese and his longtime documentary collaborator David Tedeschi pay homage to a 20th century American institution: The New York Review of Books. Since its founding over 50 years ago during the New York City newspaper strike of 1963, America’s leading journal of ideas has pursued its goal with rigour, a unique style and more than its share of controversy.

Confrontation and enlightened debate are both singled out as the Review‘s key virtues. The film weaves rarely seen archival material, interviews and excerpts from writings by such icons as James Baldwin, Gore Vidal and Joan Didion. These scenes reflect the humming and restless energy of a magazine that still feels as vital as its indefatigable founding editor, Robert Silvers.

Directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi
Duration: 95’
Year: 2014

This screening is in partnership with BBC Arena, the BBC’s multi award winning arts programme.

Described as “the foremost television cameraman of his generation”, Darren Conway, or DC as he is widely known, has been documenting global events for two decades.

His work covering Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and more recently Syria has seen him receive the RTS award for best news cameraman six times and earlier this year he was awarded an OBE for services to British broadcast journalism.

DC will be joining Vin Ray in conversation to reflect on a career capturing some of the most poignant pictures of the past 20 years, to talk about how he started out and to impart advise to anyone looking to embark on a career as a cameraman.

Reflections is described by host Vin Ray as a cross between Desert Island Discs and This Is Your Life, bringing journalists to the stage to reflect on the stories that have influenced them most throughout their career and the journalists whose work has inspired them.

In association with: