Documentary
Screening: Brotherhood & Courage – The Men of Washm Station + Q&A
The Washm Station in central Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is the city’s oldest and busiest fire station. Through unrestricted access behind the scenes of the Washm fire station, director Tom Roberts offers an intimate portrait of life in Saudi Arabia. He conveys the intensity of the experience and the danger that the firefighters face every day, as well as the camaraderie that is forged in these harsh conditions. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with award-winning director Tom Roberts and executive producer Christopher Mitchell.
Between the Lines Follow-Up Event: Salma + Q&A
This is an external event taking place at Rich Mix. Growing up in South India, Salma spent most of her childhood under house arrest. She poured out her anguish writing poetry which she sneaked out of the house. Against the odds she became one of the best known Tamil poets and her newfound fame helped her start on the path to freedom. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Kim Longinotto’s long-term editor Ollie Huddleston.
Screening: In the Shadow of a Man + Q&A
In the wake of the Egyptian revolution, four women speak of their fight for the future and what it means to be a woman in Egypt. Although Wafaa, Suzanne, Shahinda and Badreya are each from vastly different backgrounds and generations, they are deeply connected by the current changes in Egypt. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Hanan Abdalla, moderated by Yasmin El Derby.
Preview Screening: Pretty Village + debate
Pretty Village tells the harrowing story of the 1992 Kevljani massacre and its continuing effect on the lives of survivors. Using home movies and personal testimonies of the villagers, director David Evans visits a pre-war world where Serbs, Croats and Musilms lived in a complex web of mutual support systems and shared values.
This screening will be followed by a debate with director David Evans, protagonist and producer Kemal Pervanic and journalist at ITV News Penny Marshall. Moderated by Ed Vulliamy, writer for The Guardian and The Observer.
Screening: Shorts at the Frontline Club Syria Special
Join us for a special edition of Shorts at the Frontline Club, bringing together moving, striking and compelling stories, with a special focus on Syria. All films have been made in or around Syria since the uprising began in early 2011. This selection not only illustrates the complexity on the ground, but also shows the challenges reporters, journalists and filmmakers face when trying to grasp the situation.
Screening: The Pirate Bay – Away From Keyboard (TPB-AFK)
The largest and most famous torrent website in the world, The Pirate Bay, quickly became one of many antagonists of the entertainment industry. The three Swedish founders face $13 million in damage claims by the media establishment.
TPB-AFK chronicles a historic drama beyond the copyright debate and tells a human story torn by cyberwar. Director Simon Klose tells the inside story of how a cluster of hacktivists built the internet’s largest filesharing site, challenged the entertainment industry and helped shape the debate about intellectual freedom.
Screening: Rewind This! + Q&A
Home video changed the way the world consumed films. For the first time, small independent production companies could operate on an even playing field with the major film studios. Through the rise and fall of VHS, Rewind This! discusses media consumption, zero budget filmmaking, unchecked global piracy and an exploding film industry where everything was possible – developments that laid the foundation for today’s digital culture. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Josh Johnson via Skype.
Screening: The Human Scale+ Q&A
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Andreas M. Dalsgaard.
The Human Scale: it’s a ticking time bomb. In the next 40 years the number of people living in cities will nearly double. There is not enough time to build the necessary infrastructure to accomodate all of us. According to revolutionary Danish city planner Jan Gehl, even the largest of megacities must be re-thought, re-designed and re-sized to the human scale.
Screening: Google and the World Brain + Q&A
In Google and the World Brain, director Ben Lewis connects the central story of Google Books with fundamental issues related to the Internet – privacy, copyright, data-mining, downloading and surveillance. Through interviews with experts from across the world we learn about the implications of one of the most ambitious and simultaneously controversial projects ever conceived on the Internet. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Ben Lewis.
TFN Film Funding Event 4 July
On Thursday 4 July, 6pm-9.30pm the first TFN Film Funding Event, a joint BRITDOC Foundation and The Funding Network (TFN) initiative, will take place at the Frontline Club.
What Took You So Long? – Talking Strategy with the Guerrilla Filmmakers
By George Symonds From Somalia to Iraq, Haiti to Columbia and many places in between, filmmakers What Took You So Long? do not only make films – they explore, connect and collaborate with communities worldwide. Ahead of their distinguished Guerrilla Filmmaking Workshop at the Frontline Club, we caught up with the team for an exclusive Q&A: […]
Screening: Shorts at the Frontline Club + Q&A
Join us for an evening of short documentaries, from different parts of the world, covering a wide range of topics. Shorts at the Frontline Club showcases moving, striking and funny films, exploring the different faces of documentary.
Screening: Side by Side
For almost one hundred years there was only one way to make a movie – photochemical film. Over the last two decades a digital process has emerged to challenge photochemical filmmaking. At a moment when digital and photochemical filmmaking coexist, Side by Side explores what has been gained, what is lost, and what the future might bring.
Screening: Smash & Grab – The Story of the Pink Panthers + Q&A
In Smash & Grab – The Story of the Pink Panthers, director Havana Marking gets some of the members to reveal the gang’s networks, history and approach. They talk about sealed-tight safes, robberies that are years in the making and constant physical transformations. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Havana Marking.
Preview Screening: We Steal Secrets – The Story of WikiLeaks + Q&A
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Alex Gibney.
In 2010, WikiLeaks and its sources used the power of the internet to usher in what was for some a new era of transparency, and for others the beginnings of a new information war. In We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, Academy Award winner Alex Gibney explores how this enormous trove of classified US data was leaked and the impact the documents have had on international events.
Between the Lines Follow-up Event: The Act of Killing + Q&A at the ICA
This is an external event taking place at the ICA: the screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Joshua Oppenheimer.
In this chilling and inventive documentary, produced by Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, the unrepentant former members of Indonesian death squads are challenged to re-enact some of their many murders in the style of the American movies they love.
El Gusto: the “people’s music”
By Ratha Lehall On Tuesday 4 June, The Frontline Club hosted a screening of El Gusto. Despite a 6-hour flight delay and a broken ankle, director Safinez Bousbia made it up to the Frontline Club just in time for a lively Q&A. The film follows Bousbia on her journey to reunite a group of around 30 Jewish and Muslim Chaabi musicians, […]
Meet the Director: Safinez Bousbia and El Gusto Orchestra
By Nick Dyson Filmmaker Safinez Bousbia describes El Gusto as “the story of a group of musicians – Jews and Muslims – torn apart by history and brought together today by music”. In reality it took more than music alone to bring these musicians back together; rather the director’s own extraordinary efforts over a two […]
Screening: The Network + Q&A
Unique, uplifting and heartbreaking, The Network tells the story of Afghanistan’s first independent television network – TOLO TV – and the people behind it. With over 800 Afghans employed producing news, current affairs, drama, comedy, music, and lifestyle programmes, the whole team face their biggest challenge with the impending withdrawal of foreign troops. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Eva Orner.
Screening: El Gusto + Q&A
Chaabi music used to be the heart and soul of cosmopolitan Algiers, uniting Muslim and Jewish traditions. By the start of the Algerian War of Independence in 1954 the two communities were no longer allowed to work together, the music stopped and friendships were forced apart. Half a century later they got together again for an extraordinary concert and the start of a new musical career. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Safinez Bousbia.
One World Echoes in London
One World Echoes in London is a series of human rights film screenings supported by by the Czech Centre London. Celebrating the 15th anniversary of One World, Europe´s largest human rights film festival established in Prague in 1998 by the Czech NGO People in Need. This series offers a selection of extraordinary documentary films exploring societies and […]
Screening: Fortress + Q&A
Over 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union directors Klára Tasovská and Lukáš Kokeš travel back in time on their visit to the unrecognised Pridnestrovian Moldovian Republic. A separatist region within Moldova with its own passports and stamps, an elected president and a legal system. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Lukáš Kokeš.
Greenland holds its breath: the duality of change
By Lizzie Kendal On Monday 29 April, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of The Village at the End of the World, followed by a Q&A with director Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane, 2007). “They say in Greenland that they’re holding their breath about their future,” she explained as she introduced the film, which explores the challenges […]
Screening: Shorts at the Frontline Club
Join us for an evening of short documentaries, from different parts of the world, covering a wide range of topics. Shorts at the Frontline Club showcases moving, striking and funny films, exploring the different faces of documentary.
Preview Screening: State Builders + Q&A
After a 50-year civil war and with a flag, a national anthem and a capital, the Republic of South Sudan became the world’s newest nation on 9 July 2011. State Builders chronicles the first year of independence in which the first foundations of this fledgling democracy are laid. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with directors Florence Martin-Kessler and Anne Poiret.
Screening: Orania + Q&A
The white Afrikaans inhabitants of Orania in South Africa’s Northern Cape province refuse to be part of the “Rainbow Nation”. Director Tobias Lindner carefully observes this culturally homogeneous society situated in the middle of a multicultural country, and explores the mechanisms behind the societal experiment. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Tobias Linder.
Screening: Motherland or Death
For over 50 years Cuba has been following the battle-cry of the revolution: Patria o Muerte, which translates as Motherland or Death. Veteran Russian documentarian Vitaly Mansky centers on the generation born before the revolution. They are devoted to their motherland with heart and soul, yet curse the circumstances in which they are forced to live.
Sneak Preview Screening: No Fire Zone + Q&A
No Fire Zone – The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, chronicles the final 138 days of the 26 year Sri Lankan civil war, told by the people who lived through it. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Callum Macrae.
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 […]
Workshop: Documentary Storytelling
This one-day workshop will address the challenge of storytelling in documentary.