A Brief Visual History in the Time of ISIS, supported by Newspaper Club, is curated by Magnum photographer, Peter van Agtmael and includes an essay and timeline by Peter Harling, an expert on the Middle East, formerly of the International Crisis Group, and founder of Synaps. The work of nineteen photographers is included in this first newspaper, and the images range from those taken in the final years of the French mandate in Syria in 1941 to the fall of Mosul in 2017.

Each Magnum Chronicles newspaper will be curated by a different Magnum photographer, showcasing the breadth and depth of Magnum’s archive, combining contemporary images with archival to offer a unique perspective and context on global social and political issues through to lighter subjects of general interest. The aim of Magnum Chronicles is to create a series of intelligent free democratic publications that inform, engage and entertain through the use of visual narratives. Each publication will also incorporate collaborations with experts and creatives across many disciplines and fields, and will be in several languages.

Chair

Patrick Cockburn is an Irish journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent since 1979 for the Financial Times and, currently, for The Independent. He was awarded Foreign Commentator of the Year at the 2013 Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards, and is the author of several books on Iraq’s recent history, including The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq, Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq and the most recent The Jihadis Return: Isis and the New Sunni Uprising.

Speakers

Peter van Agtmael was born in Washington DC in 1981. He studied history at Yale. His work largely concentrates on America, looking at issues of conflict, identity, power, race and class. He also works extensively on the Israel/Palestine conflict and throughout the Middle East. He has won the W. Eugene Smith Grant, the ICP Infinity Award for Young Photographer, the Lumix Freelens Award, the Aaron Siskind Grant, a Magnum Foundation Grant as well as awards from World Press Photo, American Photography Annual, POYi, The Pulitzer Center, The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, FOAM and Photo District News. His book, ‘Disco Night Sept 11,’ on America at war in the post-9/11 era was released in 2014 by Red Hook Editions. Disco Night Sept 11 was shortlisted for the Aperture/Paris Photo Book Award and was named a ‘Book of the Year’ by The New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, Mother Jones, Vogue, American Photo and Photo Eye. “Buzzing at the Sill,” a book about America in the shadows of the wars, will come out in Fall 2016. He is a founder and partner in Red Hook Editions. Peter joined Magnum Photos in 2008 and became a member in 2013

Noman Benotman is Quilliam’s President and is an Executive Board Member. He leads Quilliam’s work on de-radicalisation processes in the UK and abroad, working to raise international awareness of Jihadist recantations, co-ordinating Quilliam’s outreach to current and former extremists and using Quilliam as a platform from which to share his inside knowledge of al-Qaeda and other Jihadist groups with a wider audience. He also heads the current research programmes. Born in Libya in 1967, Benotman first adopted radical Islamism in the mid-1980s after reading the books of Sayyid Qutb. In 1989 he travelled to Afghanistan where he fought against the Soviet Union, taking part in battles around Khost, Gardez and elsewhere. After the Soviet withdrawal, he helped set up the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group which aimed to violently overthrow Colonel Gaddafi and establish an ‘Islamic state’ in Libya. In 1994, he moved to Sudan where he forged close links with Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other key members of al-Qaeda. Since 1995 he has lived in London where he was initially part of the ‘Londonistan’ scene alongside other senior extremists such as Abu Qatada and Abu Musab al-Suri before gradually distancing himself from Islamism. During the last few years, he has played a key role in the disbanding of the LIFG and the issuing of its ‘refutations’. He is also well known as one of the most public critics of al-Qaeda, appearing widely on international media such as CNN and al-Jazeera as well as taking part in a range of international conferences. He has a degree in Human Development Studies from Birkbeck University and speaks English and Arabic.

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

The event will take place at the Romantso in Athens.

In October 2016, an elite team of Iraqi Special Forces was tasked with leading the fight to defeat ISIS in Mosul. It was the beginning of a brutal battle of attrition that was to last almost nine months.

Filmed over the course of the whole campaign, MOSUL follows the experiences of four young soldiers: Anmar, a college graduate seeking revenge after his father was the victim of a suicide attack; Hussein, a ruthless sniper and aspiring football player; Jamal, a wise-cracking sergeant; and Amjad, a young recruit excited to be on the frontline.

Full of hope and good intentions at the beginning of the campaign, the soldiers are forced to confront the reality of fighting an elusive and vicious enemy in a city full of trapped civilians who are themselves fearful and suspicious of the army. And with victory in sight, tragedy strikes. When ISIS eventually capitulates, much of the city is destroyed, and the surviving soldiers are left haunted by what they have seen and done.

Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGRsBxgO4j4

To book a ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mosul-screening-and-qa-with-filmmakers-olivier-sarbil-and-james-jones-tickets-39248865413

Credits:
Filmed and Directed: Olivier Sarbil
Co-Directed and Produced: James Jones
Produced: Raney Aronson-Rath, Dan Edge
Edited: Ella Newton
Production Managed: Pip Lacey

Following the screening and Q+A there will be drinks and refreshments available

PBS Frontline and The Guardian present THE BATTLE FOR IRAQ

Iraqi forces have been trying to oust Isis since October but they must fight among, protect and win over the many thousands of civilians in Mosul. In this groundbreaking documentary from director Joshua Baker, made in collaboration with PBS’s Frontline and The Guardian, Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad journeys into the heart of the battle remove ISIS from Iraq to find out what it will mean for the future of his country. However, the war decides to come to him.

Directed by: Joshua Baker (@JoshBakerTV)
Reporter: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad Emmy Award Winning Journalist
Executive Produced by: Dan Edge and Mustafa Khalili
Edited by: Gary Beelders
Runtime: 30′
#BattleForIraqPBS

PBS Frontline, in association with Channel 4, presents HUNTING ISIS

French filmmaker Olivier Sarbil spent six weeks embedded with soldiers from the 1st Battalion, a special unit of Iraq’s elite Golden Division, who are spearheading the battle against ISIS in Mosul. Hunting ISIS follows the dramatic journey the soldiers take as they push deeper and deeper into the city, facing fierce resistance from snipers, suicide bombers and shellfire. The film shows the challenges the soldiers face as they hunt for ISIS fighters who are hiding among the local population and provides a very intimate view of the brutal battle through the eyes of the men who are fighting to free Iraq.

Filmed and Directed by: Olivier Sarbil (@oliviersarbil)
Senior Producers: Dan Edge, James Jones
Edited by: Todd Downing
Managing Editor: Andrew Metz
Executive Producer: Raney Aronson-Rath
Runtime: 24′
#HuntingISIS

Acclaimed British foreign correspondent and author Christina Lamb now tells the timely and inspiring story of a remarkable young hero: sixteen year-old Nujeen Mustafa. Born with cerebral palsy, Nujeen undertook a harrowing journey from war-ravaged Aleppo to Germany in all in a wheelchair. She tells the details of her experience for the first time in a memoir, Nujeen, co-authored with Christina Lamb.

In the context of Nujeen’s unimaginable journey, we will look at the course of the Syrian Civil War, the impact of bringing individual stories to the public, and action Western countries could take to bring urgent relief to the besieged population of Aleppo.

Chaired by Azadeh Moaveni (@AzadehMoaveni), former Middle East correspondent for Time magazine. She reported from throughout the region for much of the past decade, and speaks Persian and Arabic. Her books include Lipstick Jihad, Honeymoon in Tehran, and she is co-author, with Shirin Ebadi, of Iran Awakening.

Speakers (full panel announced soon):

Nujeen Mustafa (@NujeenMustafa) is a Syrian refugee currently based in Germany and author of the memoir Nujeen

Christina Lamb (@christinalamb) is the roving foreign affairs correspondent for The Sunday Times. She has been a foreign correspondent for more than twenty five years, living in Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa first for the Financial Times then The Sunday Times. She is the author of The Africa House, House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided in War-torn Zimbabwe, Waiting For Allah: Pakistan’s Struggle for Democracy, The Sewing Circles of Herat, My Afghan Years and co-author of I Am Malala. Her newest book Nujeen: One Girl’s Incredible Journey From War-Torn Syria in a Wheelchair is published by Harper Collins.

Rt Hon. Andrew Mitchell is the MP for Sutton Coldfield and Secretary of State for International Development.

Mina Al-Oraibi (@AlOraibi) is an Iraqi-British journalist and political analyst, a senior fellow at the Institute of State Effectiveness and a Yale World Fellow. She is a member of the Global Agenda Council on the Middle East and has written extensively on US and European policies in the Middle East, in addition to conducting several high profile interviews including with US President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi.

Seen through the lens of filmmaker Brian Oakes, Foley’s close childhood friend, Jim: The James Foley Story takes us from small-town New England to the adrenaline-fuelled front lines of Libya and Syria, where photojournalist James (Jim) Foley pushed the limits of danger to report on the plight of civilians impacted by war.

On Thanksgiving Day 2012, Jim Foley was kidnapped in Syria and went missing for two years. Thrown into a world of false leads and misinformation, the Foley family was threatened with prosecution by the U.S. government if they paid a ransom. In Oakes’s gut-wrenching film, Foley’s family, friends, and fellow journalists tell Jim’s story, while his fellow hostages reveal the details of captivity with chilling immediacy.

Brilliantly constructed with unparalleled access, Jim is a harrowing chronicle of bravery, compassion, and pain at the dawn of a new World War against ISIS.

Tickets can be booked through the Bertha DocHouse website and the screening will take place at the Curzon Bloomsbury cinema.

Directed by: Brian Oakes
Country: United States
Year: 2016
runtime: 120′

On the release of his new book Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea, we will be joined by senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) Dr Shiraz Maher – in conversation with journalist Clarissa Ward – to discuss the origins and development of salafi-jihadism. We will be tracing the evolution of the key ideas behind one of today’s most destructive forces – as well as its transmutation and growing prominence in recent years. We will explore what salafi-jihadism seeks to achieve, and the extent to which its rapid escalation is a product of recent wars.

This event will be moderated by Clarissa Ward, a multi award-winning senior international correspondent based at CNN London.

Dr. Shiraz Maher is a member of the War Studies department at King’s College London and a senior research fellow in its International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR). He currently leads the Centre’s research on the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts and also researches the political philosophy of Salafi-Jihadi movements. He is an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, and has given evidence before three parliamentary committees on the Syrian conflict, the flow of foreign fighters into the country, and the rise of Islamic State. He is a contributing writer for the New Statesman, and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in Journalism in 2016.

On 3 August 2014, Daesh militants attacked and took over Sinjar in northern Iraq, a Kurdish-controlled town that was predominantly inhabited by Yazidis.

It was a normal, unbearably hot August day and young Yazidi girl Rukan (11) and her friends had decided to play in the shade, building toys and playing hide and seek, when suddenly they heard cars and approaching gun fire. The genocide against the Yazidis was unfolding – the 74th of its kind.

The so-called Islamic State would brutally slaughter men and women, kidnap the girls and leave the rest of the families with nothing. As thousands of civilians fled to the Sinjar Mountains to find safety, they found themselves stranded without food and water.

Two years on, the plight of the Yazidis has disappeared from international attention. In making Descendants of an Angel – the first feature length documentary focusing on the genocide – the team at Dokumanity films travelled to Shingal, Iraq. They met with Yazidi commanders that were still there and refugees, young and old, that had to leave everything behind. Capturing first-hand accounts of the genocide and the struggles Yazidi refugees are continuing to face, Descendants of an Angel is an invaluable and sensitive record of the 2014 genocide that is carried by the voices of its survivors.

Production company: Dokumanity Films
Country: Germany
Year: 2016

This groundbreaking documentary from Memento films and ARTE provides rare testimonies from Daesh defectors and those who have helped them escape. Gaining unprecedented access, directors Thomas Dandois and Francois-Xavier Tregan capture what daily life is like inside Daesh and expose the conditions surrounding the dangerous process of exfiltration.

In southeast Turkey, a few dozen kilometres from war-torn Syria, at great risk to themselves, a clandestine network is exfiltrating fighters who have decided to leave Daesh. For the first time, these deserters have agreed to give a detailed account of the roles they played and what life is like under the yoke of Islamic State.

Most of them have lived in Raqqa, the political and military capital of the terrorist group. Personal accounts of this sort are extremely rare because, in general, Daesh deserters go into hiding and keep quiet. If they give themselves up to their country’s authorities, they are immediately imprisoned and can no longer have any contact with their lawyers or families.

The exfiltration network, made up of long-term fighters of the Free Syrian Army, has agreed to reveal a few of its working methods. By helping the deserters to flee and by collecting their testimonies, they want to denounce Islamic State’s lies, its false promises, its cult of violence and its widespread corruption. The members of the network are convinced that, in doing so, they will be able to discourage future Jihad candidates and block precious recruitment channels.

Directed by: Thomas Dandois and Francois-Xavier Tregan
Produced by: Memento, ARTE GEIE
Year: 2016
Runtime: 58′

Heenali Patel sat down with artist and journalist Molly Crabapple to discuss ‘Scenes from the Syrian War’, her collection of illustrations made in collaboration with Syrian writer Marwan Hisham. Using photos sent via cell phone, Molly recreated rare glimpses of daily life in ISIS-occupied areas of Syria.

Filmed by Adam Barr.