Nick Fraser – Frontline Club

World Stories Launch + Screening/Q&A

Millicent Teasdale — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 13:37:42 +0000

Special guests, members and others are invited to the launch of World Stories, a global documentary initiative by The Why Foundation – an independent editorial organisation based in Copenhagen, Denmark headed by filmmaker and journalist Christoffer Guldbrandsen, and founded by BBC Storyville editor Nick Fraser and Mette Hoffmann Meyer, head of documentary at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.

World Stories Presentation – by Nick Fraser and Christoffer Guldbrandsen

World Stories is an initiative created by The Why Foundation. It is a collaboration with broadcasters and channels from around the world including BBC World News. A global strand of 20 award-winning documentaries are curated and distributed to underserved countries and broadcasters around the world. World Stories is about bringing compelling stories through great documentaries to people who would otherwise not have the opportunity to view them.

Nick Fraser is editor of BBC Storyville, the BBC’s acclaimed international documentary strand that has been commissioning and supporting the production of award winning films since 1997.

Christoffer Guldbrandsen is the CEO of The Why Foundation. A journalist and filmmaker by trade, he joined The Why Foundation in 2014 leaving a position as executive editor of DR2, the current affairs channel of Danish Broadcasting Corporation.

Screening: My Afghanistan – Everyday stories of bombs and bullets + Q&A

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Nagieb Khaja.

Nagieb Khaja, a young Danish journalist of Afghan origin, travels to Lashkar Gah, capital of the province of Helmand in Afghanistan. Because journalists aren’t allowed out of their hotels without a military escort, contact with the civilian population remains near impossible. But Khaja has a trick up his sleeve. He gives cell phones equipped with HD cameras to 30 civilians, asking them to film their daily lives. This provides us with a rare glimpse into the war-torn existence of regular Afghanis; a valuable antithesis to our very Western perspective on the war.

FULLY BOOKED Insight with Nick Fraser – Why Documentaries Matter

Phil Brown — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 19:00:00 +0000

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In the past two decades documentaries have become recognised as an innovative cultural form. Rather than just observing, they are now thought capable of creating change.

In a publication for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism entitled Why Documentaries Matter Nick Fraser, editor of the BBC’s prize-winning strand of international documentaries Storyville, looks at the history of documentaries, showing how definitions have changed – and the fragility of funding. If we want good documentaries, he concludes, we have to find ways of encouraging their creators.

Editor of BBC Storyville Nick Fraser will be discussing the evolution of documentary, its defining nature and the future for this form of storytelling.

“The rise of documentaries over the past two decades owes more to Nick Fraser than to any other single person. For so many of us who make non-fiction films, Nick’s peerless brand of tough love and mischievous curiosity have inspired us to aim higher as we try to promote greater understanding of the major events and issues of our time.”

– Eugene Jarecki, Documentary film maker

Showing at Frontline this week: Bobby Fischer Against the World

Charlotte Cook — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:08:06 +0000

by Paige Gresty

This week, Frontline Club is proud to present the screening of Bobby Fischer Against the World. A tremendous combination of archive footage, interviews, and Fischer’s own voice, the film examines how the world’s number one chess player rose from a child prodigy, alienated from friends and family, to the American superstar of the chess world who fought against the Soviet Union in a match that represented a microcosm of the Cold War, to a man spiralling into madness, paranoia, and self-destruction.

The film illustrates the cultural legacy that Fischer left in his awake subsequently following his mental deterioration, and especially the effect his withdrawal from the public eye had on America. Rare interviews with those who knew him best provide an insight into the chess giant as the film grapples with the causes of Fischer’s instability.

Bobby Fischer Against the World provides an interesting example of how the worldwide cult of celebrity, ubiquitous in contemporary society, leads to personal destruction in even the most brilliant of minds. With Fischer continually straddling the line between genius and insanity, the film leaves us questioning how to best manage the platform that celebrity brings.

For those of us who remember Fischer, and even for those of us who have only heard of him as a legend, this film brings to light previous unseen facets of his personality and demeanour which are sure to interest even the most novice chess players. From the mathematical possibilities of the chess board to the ranting swan song of a once-great man, Bobby Fischer Against the World delves behind the iconic man.

The screening will be this Friday, 7 pm. For more information and to book tickets, please click here.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with BBC Storyville Series Editor Nick Fraser and and journalist John Laurence who played Bobby Fischer at chess and reported from the 1972 World Championship in Reykjavik.