“The Outlaw Ocean” represents a four-year project, built on a series of deeply reported features for The New York Times that brought Urbina from the Antarctic to Somalia — though most of it takes place in the vastness of the high seas, a region that begins 13 miles from shore.  Traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, seabound abortion providers, clandestine oil-dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways— each chapter in the book tells a very different story.

Join Urbina as he talks to Oliver Steeds, investigative journalist and Mission Director of Nekton, about the book and the challenges of reporting from the high seas. Signed copies of “The Outlaw Ocean” will be available at the event.

Reviews for Outlaw Ocean 

“This is just incredible investigative work.” —Naomi Klein

“Our planet is 70% ocean and yet to watch the tv or read the papers you’d have little idea humans ever ventured offshore. Thanks to Ian Urbina for beginning to close the reporting gap, and for showing the high drama to be found on the high seas.“ —Bill McKibben

“It is a master class in journalism.” — Blair Braverman, New York Times.

Speakers

Ian Urbina is an investigative reporter for The New York Times. He has won a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News and a George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting. Several of his stories have been developed into major feature films and one was nominated for an Emmy Award. He has degrees in history and cultural anthropology from Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. Before joining the Times, he was a Fulbright Fellow in Cuba and he also wrote about the Middle East and Africa for various outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, and Harper’s Magazine. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his family.

Oliver Steeds is a critically acclaimed international investigative journalist and broadcaster. His films and reports – covering war, human rights, indigenous peoples, environmental affairs, politics and development – have been broadcast by NBC, ABC, Al Jazeera, Channel 4 and Discovery Channels, amongst others. Oliver is also founder and Mission Director of Nekton, a new marine institute that explores and protects the deep ocean.

Is truth stranger than fiction? Kompromat was originally conceived as a counter-factual, satirical work of fiction. However, in light of recent events, has Stanley in fact, pinpointed some of the glaring truths behind 2 of the biggest political earthquakes in recent history?

Kompromat explores, in a light-hearted way, the increasingly plausible possibility of Russian involvement in both the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election as the 45th President of the United States.

Link to book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kompromat-Stanley-Johnson/dp/1786074141

Stanley Johnson

Stanley Johnson is a former MEP, environmental campaigner, journalist and author of twenty-five books. Stanley won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry and has awards from Greenpeace and the RSPCA. He recently received the RSPB Medal as well as the WWF’s Leader of the Living Planet Award, both awarded for services in conservation. In the run-up to the EU Referendum 2016, he founded and co-chaired Environmentalists for Europe. Stanley Johnson recently starred in ITV’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! He was one of the first presenters of More 4’s The Last Word, and has appeared on Have I Got News For You, The One Show, Pointless and the Fake News Programme.

Rachel Johnson

Rachel Johnson is a journalist, author and television presenter. Rachel is an author of seven books as well as currently a columnist for The Mail on Sunday. Over her career she has worked for the BBC, The Financial Times, The Evening Standard and several other publications.  In 2014 Rachel was a judge on the BBC Woman’s Hour Power List. She sits on the boards of Bright Blue, the modernising Tory think-tank, and Intelligence Squared. 

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Craig Atkinson via Skype.

Do Not Resist is an urgent and powerful exploration of the rapid militarisation of the police in the United States. Opening on startling on-the-scene footage in Ferguson, Missouri, the film then broadens its scope to present scenes from across the country — a conference presentation where the value of high-end weapons technologies is presented to potential police buyers; a community that has just received its very own military-grade tank; and a SWAT team arriving at a home to execute a warrant. The cumulative effect of these vignettes paints a startling picture of the direction in which American law enforcement is headed.

Craig Atkinson filmed his directorial debut over two years and in 11 states. Through keen and thoughtful observances, Atkinson deftly presents the characters and stories that comprise this pressing issue. The result reveals a rare and surprising look into the increasingly disturbing realities of American police culture.

Directed by: Craig Atkinson
Country: United States
Year: 2016
Runtime: 73′

This screening will be followed by a panel discussion with director Stephanie Soechtig via Skype and others.

In the past few years, a drastic rise in mass shootings has ripped across the United States, compounding an epidemic of gun violence. Despite a growing body count at the hands of guns, and the outpour of shock and outrage that comes with it, the Obama administration has failed to respond with meaningful action. What is keeping the two sides of this debate — those favouring stricter gun control laws and Second Amendment purists like the NRA — from finding common ground?

Filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig and Katie Couric present a documentary that is scrupulously comprehensive and decidedly fair to both sides of one of the most polarising issues at play in the 2016 elections. Searingly powerful with never-before-seen footage and eye opening analysis of the influence of the NRA, Under the Gun gives a human face to a crisis that is scarring the conscience of a nation.

Directed by: Stephanie Soechtig
Narrated by: Katie Couric
Year: 2016
Runtime: 110′
Website: AtlasFilms.com

Chair:

Paul Adams is a correspondent for the BBC World Affairs Unit, based in London. He previously served as the BBC’s world affairs correspondent in London, before moving to Washington D.C. He regularly reports for BBC News, BBC World News, BBC Radio and the BBC One bulletins from various locations around the world.

Panelists:

Andrew Feinstein is the author of the critically-acclaimed The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade which reveals the corruption and malfeasance at the heart of the global arms business, both formal and illicit. The book is already in its 9th edition across a number of languages. “The Shadow World” was short-listed for the Alan Paton Prize for Non-fiction. A documentary feature film of the book premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April 2016, and was awarded Best Documentary Feature at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He is Executive Director of Corruption Watch – an NGO that details and exposes the impact of bribery and corruption on democracy, governance and development.

Iain Overton is Director of Investigations at the London-based charity Action on Armed Violence and an investigative journalist who has worked in over eighty countries around the world. Reporting from the killing zones of Colombia, Iraq and Somalia, he has made films for the BBC, ITN and Al Jazeera, as well as working with The Guardian, The Independent and The Sunday Times. He was founding editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and is author of Gun Baby Gun.

Dr Leslie Vinjamuri is Director of the Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice and a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in International Relations at SOAS, University of London. Leslie is also Chair of the International Relations Speaker Series at SOAS. Her research areas include transatlantic relations, US foreign policy, the politics of international intervention, human rights and justice, and UN Security Council Diplomacy. Leslie is currently working on a project on international responses to mass atrocities and violent conflict which, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (2015-2016).

The film, produced over the course of four years, follows a convicted murderer, Uisdean, struggling to rebuild his life and his reputation in the remote Highland village where his family have lived for 200 years, and where he now cares for his father.

The project initially started as a short film, in which McLoughlan said she “very much let him tell his own story. I didn’t edit it very much.”

The purpose of the longer film was to be “a lot more sceptical, a lot more socially responsible,” and bring editorial balance to Uisdean’s explanation of his criminal past.

McLoughlan said that she “realised that [Uisdean’s] biggest battle would be staying out of prison, and that was probably where the story was going to be.” Her suspicion was right, and Uisdean’s battle to stay out of prison becomes the documentary’s defining narrative.

What makes Uisdean’s story fascinating is the internal conflict between his apparently violent history and his budding romantic relationship that is captured on camera.

Regarding the significance of the film’s stunning imagery of the Highland landscape, McLoughlan explained, “I knew that he was ridiculously romantic about the Highlands – the idea that it would in some way cleanse him.”

The film seeks to redress that “idealistic” image of the Highlands, and illustrate that it is also a landscape of conflict.

“Sometimes there is an issue of the Highlands being more a case of shortbread and [tweed] costume than substance.

“It is a Highland myth that it’s cleansing and pastoral in itself. I became fascinated by the image of a porcelain boy [in Uisdean’s father’s house] which looks incredibly cute, but when you look closely at him, you see he’s throttling a rabbit by the neck.”

The documentary’s soundtrack, which features a score of electronic Icelandic and Scottish-Norweigan folk music was also chosen to reflect that conflict, that “mixture of the beautiful and the ugly going on at the same time.”

The external conflict of his setting was an apt reflection of Uisdean’s own internal struggle. McLoughlan was interested in exploring “when [the landscape] is a healing thing for someone who’s been in a very tiny cell for sixteen years, and when it’s a torment, because there are no other distractions. There is just you, and your past, and your failure to reinvent yourself.”

From 7 – 21 March, the Frontline Club and the Scottish Documentary Institute are teaming up to present New Scottish Documentary, a series showcasing some of the the boldest and most innovative new works produced in Scotland.  Featuring one screening per week, we’ll be celebrating the richness of Scottish nonfiction filmmaking, including discussions with veteran documentary makers and up-and-coming directors to watch.  The programme includes Scotland on Screen, an evening of short films produced with assistance from the Scottish Documentary Institute and showcasing the diverse beauty of the Scottish landscape.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Lou McLoughlan.

This remarkable BAFTA nominated film from the new Scottish school of documentary filmmaking follows a convicted murderer over four years as he struggles to grapple with rebuilding his reputation in a remote Highland village while caring for his father. Though the film controversially gives the protagonist space to protest his innocence, an incredible four years of footage investigate his character – and the shattered hopes his pattern of recidivism leaves behind him.

16 Years Till Summer represents part of an exciting new wave of documentary filmmaking sweeping international festivals from Scotland; as such, it’s as bold in it’s subject matter as it is sceptical of finding ‘truth’ only in traditional forms of documentary film language. Prepare to have your preconceptions challenged.

Lou McLoughlan was one of BAFTA’s 2011 Brits to Watch, an initiative showcasing new British talent to the international industry. Her short, Caring For Calum, won two BAFTAs in the Scotland New Talent awards. 16 Years Till Summer is her newest feature. The film had its world premiere at Visions du Reel 2015, and was selected for Sheffield Doc/Fest‘s 2015 ‘Best of British’ documentary series.

Directed by: Lou McLoughlan
Country: United Kingdom
Year: 2015
Runtime: 80′

On Thursday 12 November, award-winning reporter Sandra Rodríguez Nieto spoke with author and journalist for the Observer and the Guardian Ed Vulliamy about life and death in Juarez, the Mexican murder capital of the world.

The evening at the Frontline Club began with a touching dedication to a close friend and colleague of Rodríguez‘s, Arnando Rodriguez, “who was brutally and horribly murdered… He became a symbol of our profession at its most noble.”

Rodríguez cited the murder as a turning point for her: “After Armando got killed, it was just the opposite reaction to fear [for her colleagues at El Diario]. We were committed to keep on writing, to honour him.”

Death became a part of Rodríguez and her colleagues’ everyday conversations while working as a crime reporter for El Diario de Juárez. “We started to share our last wills: ‘If I get killed, don’t let anybody open my coffin’.”

In her latest book, The Story of Vicente, Who Murdered His Mother, His Father and His Sister: Life and Death in Juarez, Rodríguez uses 16-year-old Vicente’s murder of his entire family to highlight how a culture of impunity has destabilised Mexican society.

Rodríguez said: “Vicente might be a sociopath but he convinced two other kids from different backgrounds to help him… and that killing a family was totally easy. When I asked him why, his answer was a revelation for me: ‘Because this is Juarez; this is Mexico’.”

The culture of impunity in Juarez, and Mexico as a whole, is a topic that dominated much of the discussion. Rodríguez was adamant that “we have not just a problem of violence but of impunity, sending the message that killing is easy… and these kids are internalising this environment. A whole generation of kids in Mexico believe that murder is basically legal.”

Rodríguez made clear the extent of corruption in Mexico. She noted that “there is no single institution that you can trust… Not the police, not the army, not the judiciary.”

She expressed her deep belief that a lack of prosecution for crimes is central to the continuation of violence: “If a state doesn’t prosecute crime, it’s sending the message that human life isn’t worth it and that’s the tragedy of the country.”

She also highlighted the multi-layered and interweaving nexus of corruption in Mexico. “Corruption doesn’t start with the bottom of society, it starts at the top and spreads to the bottom.” When she questioned the state attorney in Juarez about an FBI indictment in which eleven out of twenty  cartel members were found to be former police officers, he told her: ”I don’t prosecute organised crime – it’s not my business.”

You can’t sustain a society where.. you work you don’t make money, you get killed nobody cares but that’s Mexico.” @frontlineclub — Molly (@mollykathleenv) November 12, 2015

But Vulliamy also noted the hypocrisy present in much of the discourse on Mexico. “I always get wary of sitting in London talking about endemic corruption in Mexico. HSBC was caught laundering money and none of them went to jail either.”

Rodríguez also pointed out the injustice of the divide between neighbouring El Paso, Texas, and Juarez: “One is the safest place in the US, the other is the murder capital of the world.“ This is because “when narcos in El Paso want to kill, they do it in Juarez.”

When questioned about legalisation, Rodríguez strongly criticised the war on drugs. “The first killer in Mexico is diabetes caused by the consumption of sugar… That’s the drug that’s killing Mexican people.”

She continued: “I want to challenge the narrative of the war on drugs. It’s obviously not working… the prohibition is totally wrong.”

Following an audience question on the role of community solidarity and development, Rodríguez sounded a note of hope. “Juarez is full of grassroots movements. Juarez surprised the country by the level of organisation among the people.”

Among the audience was Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who said: “Frontline performs a fantastic service of giving voice to journalists who are reporting what many are afraid to. Sandra Rodríguez is one of many who does this. We need to get out there what happens when governments fail to deal with the deep corruption of both banking and narco trafficking.”

One Mexican audience member was moved to tears when thanking Rodríguez for her valuable work in exposing the endemic corruption and violence in her country: “You and good journalism: that’s the solution. We will change Mexico with people like you.”

He’s a household name in Ghana, but few have seen his face. Investigative journalist Anas Aremewaw Anas is on a mission to ferret out corruption in every corner of his country. Wearing an array of disguises, he regularly goes deep undercover to trap suspected criminals – splashing their faces across newspapers and handing them over to delighted police.

Despite his notoriety, Anas’ methods attract criticism from other journalists, who believe his investigations go too far in luring and catching suspected criminals to achieve sensationalist stories.

Director Ryan Mullins follows Anas during a chaotic, adrenaline-filled period which sees him revelling in fulfilling his three-pronged approach: naming, shaming and jailing. Whilst some journalists look on in dismay at his tactics, Anas enjoys being worshipped by the people, and is welcomed back to his old elementary school like a rock star. But as he begins his next big case – the exposure of a church he suspects is guilty of human trafficking – the lines begin to blur, as we witness the human fallout of his actions.

Director: Ryan Mullins
Producers: Bob Moore, Mila Aung-Thwin
Running time: 90′
Year: 2014
Country: Canada
Distributor: Dogwoof

Burden of Peace tells the impressive story of Claudia Paz Y Paz, the first woman to lead the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Guatemala. Ravaged for years by a devastating civil war, in which nearly 200,000 Mayan Indians were systematically massacred, the country today is one of the most crime-ridden in the world. Paz Y Paz starts a frontal attack against corruption, drug gangs and impunity and does what everyone had hitherto held to be impossible: she arrests former dictator Efraín Rios Montt on charges of genocide against the Mayan Indians.

Each year, nearly 6,000 people are murdered in Guatemala, and the individuals responsible almost always avoid prosecution. When Claudia Paz Y Paz took office in 2010, senior political officials openly criticised her soft spoken demeanour and questioned her ability to combat issues of crime and corruption, claiming that the position of Attorney General is not suited to a human rights lawyer.

Directed by Joey Boink
Producer: Framewerk
Duration: 76′
Year: 2015
For any enquiries contact info@framewerk.nl

Federal Penal Colony No. 56 is situated in central Russia, in the middle of a forest larger than Germany and a seven-hour drive from the nearest city. In winter, temperatures fall to 40 degrees below zero. There are 260 prisoners serving out their sentences, all of them for murder.

Filmmakers Nick Read and Mark Franchetti managed to gain access to this isolated world, where they focused their meticulous eye for detail on the prisoner’s daily lives.

In remarkably candid interviews, the men talk about their crimes and their punishment. What does freedom mean to them? Is penitence and forgiveness possible for their terrible deeds? The prison’s director of 26 years also has his say. He too is condemned to this godforsaken place, not as punishment, but by a contract.

Directed by Nick Read
Duration: 80′
Year: 2013