Documentary
Screening: Shorts at the Frontline Club
Shorts at the Frontline Club will showcase moving, striking and also funny stories in an evening filled with short documentaries from different parts of the world covering a wide range of topics.
Screening: The Suffering Grasses – Iara Lee
Director and activist Iara Lee’s new film The Suffering Grasses caused more than a stir at the Frontline Club on the 7th September. Returning to the very start of this protracted and continuing struggle – graffiti scrawled by children on a wall in Deraa – the 52 minute piece documented the conflict through the eyes […]
We Are Legion – The Story of the Hacktivists
We Are Legion tracks the evolution of hacktivism from the ludicrous website 4chan- a mish-mash of memes, revolting images and heated discussions about Manga- through to the formation of Anonymous, which builds its backbone from declaring an international war on Scientology and gains it political purpose from Wikileaks and the battle for free information on the internet. Through interviews with hacktivists, scholars and the victims of hacking, we learn more about what motivates some members of this diverse group of young idealists.
Screening: We Are Legion – The Story of the Hacktivists + Q&A
We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists explores the historical roots of early hacktivist groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and Electronic Disturbance Theater, and tells the story of how they evolved into groups such as Anonymous. Director Brian Knappenberger traces the birth of a powerful democratic online activism which in these rapidly changing times is beginning to make corporations and governments very nervous.
Club Classics: Khodorkovsky
Opt for our £15 special offer for both the screening and a classic from our clubroom menu, 6pm onwards.
Khodorkovsky takes an explosive look into the life of former titan of the Russian oil industry, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, during his trial in Russia for an oligarchical rule of the market. After returning to his homeland from exile, Khodorkovsky is immediately arrested for challenging then President Putin, and a journey into the mind of one of Russia’s most powerful people begins.
Club Classics: Restrepo
Opt for our £15 special offer for both the screening and a classic from our clubroom menu, 6pm onwards.
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.
Kony: Hunt for the World’s Most Wanted
By Jonathan Couturier In the wake of the Kony 2012 campaign that went viral attracting more than 100 million viewers, for BBC Panorama, BAFTA-winning reporter Sorious Samura travelled to the frontline of the battle to bring Joseph Kony to justice. The result is an incisive and often shocking documentary that asks why, after more than two decades, has […]
FULLY BOOKED Screening – Kony: Hunt for the World’s Most Wanted
Join us for a preview of BBC Panorama‘s Kony: Hunt for the World’s Most Wanted, followed by a Q&A with reporter Sorious Samura, Ron McCullagh of Insight News TV and producer Andrew Bell.
Somewhere in the vast, dense jungles of central Africa is hidden Joseph Kony, one of the world’s most wanted men. In the wake of the infamous “Kony 2012” internet campaign to bring him to justice this year, BAFTA-winning reporter Sorious Samura investigates the myths surrounding Kony and travels to the front line of the fight to bring one of Africa’s most bizarre and brutal leaders to justice.
Club Classics: Last Train Home
Opt for our £15 special offer for both the screening and a classic from our clubroom menu, 6pm onwards.
Each year in China more than 130 million migrant workers travel home for the New Year’s holiday — the one time they’ll reunite with family all year. The mass exodus constitutes the world’s largest human migration. Amid this chaos, director Lixin Fan focuses on one couple, Changhua and Sugin Zhang, who embark upon a two-day journey to see their children.
Club Classics: Out of the Ashes
Opt for our £15 special offer for both the screening and a classic from our clubroom menu, 6pm onwards.
An inspirational documentary following the extraordinary quest of the Afghan cricket team to qualify for the 2011 World Cup. Against a backdrop of war and poverty, Out of the Ashes, traces the remarkable journey of a team of young Afghans as they chase a seemingly impossible dream – shedding new light on a nation beyond burqas, bombs, drugs and devastation.
Workshop: Digital Bootcamp
Digital Bootcamp is a master class designed to help you and your film navigate the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
2 Day Workshop: Introduction to editing with Final Cut Pro X
FCP X works with new paradigms from tapeless workflows. This workshop will take you through this revolutionary new way of editing from start to finish.
Club Classics: Shooting Robert King
Opt for our £15 special offer for both the screening and a classic from our clubroom menu, 6pm onwards.
Made over 15 years by club founders Vaughan Smith and Richard Parry the film is an intimate journey with war photographer Robert King, following his ambition to win the Pullitzer Prize for photography in the most dangerous warzones of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Workshop: Documentary Storytelling
This one day workshop in documentary storytelling seeks to bridge the gap between storytelling and documentary. It aims to teach filmmakers and editors the ways in which a strong and coherent story can be told through the power of film. This will not only elevate the standard of a documentary but also increase the impact of its message.
Storyville Sneak Preview Screening: Hitler, Stalin & Mr Jones
In the 1930’s Welsh journalist and foreign correspondent Gareth Jones’ greatest scoop was to reveal the starvation to death of millions in Ukraine, caused by Stalin’s policies. In the political reality of those days of competing ideologies there was a fine line between journalism and spying. Hitler, Stalin & Mr. Jones explores to what extent Jones’ own dual role may have contributed to his early death.
Storyville Screening: Hitler, Stalin & Mr Jones
In the 1930’s Welsh journalist and foreign correspondent Gareth Jones’ greatest scoop was to reveal the starvation to death of millions in Ukraine, caused by Stalin’s policies. In the political reality of those days of competing ideologies there was a fine line between journalism and spying. Hitler, Stalin & Mr. Jones explores to what extent Jones’ own dual role may have contributed to his early death.
Screening: The Brussels Business
Brussels is the second biggest lobbying capital of the world. With the existence of a strong, well organised and deeply rooted lobby network directors Friedrich Moser and Matthieu Lietaert raise the question who really runs the European Union.
FULLY BOOKED Reflections with John Pilger
In association with BBC College of Journalism
Renowned investigative journalist, author and documentary film-maker John Pilger will be joining us in conversation with broadcaster, journalist and writer Charles Glass to look back on half a century of reporting from around the world.
FULLY BOOKED Screening: Five Broken Cameras
For the birth of his fourth son, Palestinian villager Emad Burnat bought his first camera and began filming as the separation barrier is being built in his village Bil’in.
Five cameras are broken – and the footage of each tells a different part of the story of his village’s non-violent resistance to the Israeli army.
External Screening at Curzon Soho: Big Boys Gone Bananas!*
Tickets: Book online on the Curzon’s website.
What will a big corporation do in order to protect its brand? Swedish filmmaker Fredik Gertten personally experienced how far one was prepared to go in the aftermath of releasing his previous film Bananas!*. That first documentary follows the lawsuit that 12 Nicaraguan plantation workers successfully brought against the fruit giant Dole Food Company. Just before Gertten left Sweden to attend the world premier of his film at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival, the film is mysteriously removed from competition.
Masterclass with Fredrik Gertten: the dark side of PR and Big Boys Gone Bananas!*
Filmmaker Fredrik Gertten took on the multinational corporation Dole Food Company and it’s PR army and won. Upon the release of Gertten’s blockbuster documentary Bananas!*, which recounts the law suit 12 Nicaraguan plantation workers brought against Dole, his tenacity and journalistic mettle were tested to their limits when he was hounded by Dole’s lawyers and PR firms.
Gertten will be at the Frontline Club to give a masterclass in filmmaking against the odds. He will give a detailed account of his ordeal and answer questions about his films and filmmaking in general.
Moderated by John Sweeney of the BBC’s Panorama.
Documentary Networking Party: Distribution
In anticipation of this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest, the biggest event in the UK’s documentary calendar, the Frontline Club is hosting a networking party for documentary filmmakers and those working in distribution and production.
With drinks sponsored by Chivas Regal, the party will include a short panel discussion on how you can get your documentary distributed and how to get the most out of an industry festival like Sheffield.
FULLY BOOKED Insight with Nick Fraser – Why Documentaries Matter
Editor of BBC Storyville Nick Fraser will be discussing the evolution of documentary, its defining nature and the future for this form of storytelling.
FULLY BOOKED Exclusive Preview Screening: Rupture – A Matter of Life or Death
Rupture is a documentary that tackles the personal tragedies and triumphs of people that have suffered brain hemorrhages and strokes. Academy Award winning director Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire) bears witness to actress Maryam d’Abo in her journey to understanding how her subarachnoid haemorrhage affected her life and how similar brain vascular diseases have affected the lives of friends and other creative figures in the UK and the US.
Afghan Army Girls: Q&A with first-time director Lalage Snow
The screening of Afghan Army girls ended with a roaring sound of applause at the Frontline Club yesterday evening.
FULLY BOOKED Screening: Afghan Army Girls
For the first time in post-Taliban Afghanistan the national army is recruiting women, but only very few have stepped forward for training. In Afghan Army Girls, photojournalist and first-time director Lalage Snow reveals the difficulties, threats and personal changes these women go through as well as the complicated status they have in Afghan society. Followed by Q&A with director Lalage Snow.
FULLY BOOKED Screening: Saving Face
Every year hundreds of people, most of them women, are attacked with acid in Pakistan. Saving Face is a heartbreaking and human documentary that follows two of these survivors as they reveal their internal and external scars.
The Trouble With Girls – raising daughters as sons in Afghanistan
By Ivana Davidovic “Why do we need to give a girl a boy’s face to give her freedom?” That is the question asked by Azita Rafhat, a former member of the Afghan parliament, who opted for a radical decision to raise one of her four daughters as a boy, having succumbed to the still prevailing […]
Screening: An Arab Spring in Saudi?
By Charlene Rodrigues This time last year, when we witnessed uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, Shaimaa Khalil’s curiosity took her to the streets of Saudi Arabia to investigate what was happening in one of the world’s richest oil-producing countries. The resulting documentary, An Arab spring in Saudi?, is a study of the authoritarianism of the Saudi […]
Frontline Club Documentary Programmer Role
The Frontline Club is looking for a Documentary Programmer with relevant experience in the field of film programming, documentary or broadcasting.
Candidates should have at least two years’ experience in a relevant field.