The Frontline Club will be screening the BBC Arabic documentary ‘Goodbye Aleppo’ followed by a Q&A with the makers of the film.
‘Goodbye Aleppo’ is a documentary about a team of four young citizen journalists who film themselves and each other as the battle for Aleppo rages around them in December 2016. They show us what daily life is like in the last days in the east of the city, as the Syrian Army, the Russian and Iran armies, and Iran-backed militias gradually take the city from opposition fighters. The team film in extremely dangerous and life-threatening situations, trapped, bombarded, and encircled with the civilians under siege in East Aleppo. ‘Goodbye Aleppo‘ is a dramatic, emotional, gripping, thoughtful, and unique film that tells the story of the fall of East Aleppo as it has never been seen before, through the personal stories and insights of these four young men.
This film is not just a dramatic, gripping story of one of the most important battles in Syria’s civil war, it is also an important historical document.
Speakers
Christine Garabedian is a freelance Producer-Director of documentaries and current affairs programmes. She was born in Beirut and is of mixed Dutch and Armenian-Lebanese heritage. In the last six years she has worked mainly at BBC Arabic, on the Broadcast Award-nominated documentary series ‘Close-up’, which includes observational films and investigations.
Kai Lawrence (Editor) is a freelance director and editor with more than 30 years experience in broadcast documentary and current affairs, working on projects that have either won or been nominated for: Academy Award, Foreign Press Association, BAFTA, AIB, Canadian Screen and Royal Television Society awards. Kai is also an electronic musician and a guest lecturer on the Goldsmith’s University BA Film course.
Mahmoud Ali Hamad (Associate Producer) was born and raised in Der’aa, Syria. He has worked at the BBC since 2009. He now works as a Field Producer at BBC Arabic. He has worked on Syria’s conflict and uprising since 2011 and often appears as a commentator on Syrian affairs.
On 28 October 2012, a government jet dropped a bomb on the village of al-Bara. Only 300 meters away, Olly Lambert was filming a meeting of rebel soldiers. While keeping his camera rolling, Lambert documented the shocking impact of the regime air strike on a civilian population.
As he was editing the highly acclaimed Syria: Across the Lines – a revealing report for Channel 4/PBS – he realised the footage shot that day in al-Bara offered a candid insight into the reality of documenting a war. Lambert decided to narrate the raw footage and publish it online, creating a rare, immersive and powerful portrait of the civil war. This footage went viral and reached a far greater number of people around the world than had tuned in to the original Channel 4/PBS piece.
Taking as his starting point the stark difference between the standard format piece of reportage he was commissioned to film and the 36 minutes of intimate personally narrated footage which became known as The Bombing of Al Bara, Lambert will discuss in depth the experience of filmmaking on the front line.
Directed by Olly Lambert
Duration: 36′
Year: 2012
Between the Lines was a three-day festival that took place at Rich Mix from 1 to 3 March. In a series of follow up events we continue to explore the challenges facing documentary makers, investigative journalists and citizen reporters in the new media landscape.
Presented by:
Supported by:
On 20 April 2011, photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was killed by mortar fire in the city of Misrata, Libya. He bled out in the back of a pick-up truck on his way to the hospital.
In his work Hetherington focused on the experience of war from the perspective of the individual. Through his photographs, writing and films, he offered new ways to think about human suffering as a result of war. He captured the perspective of the soldiers and the civilians, caught up in the many conflicts he reported. The work he did throughout his ten-year career has established him as one of the most important photojournalists of his generation.
Colleague and co-director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Restrepo, Sebastian Junger thoughtfully portrays Hetherington’s life and work. At a time when greater numbers of journalists are losing their lives covering conflict, the film also addresses the high risks taken by war journalists.
Directed by Sebastian Junger
Produced by James Brabazon
Duration: 79′
Year: 2013
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Created in 1989 by a small group of young British men and women, Frontline News Television was a pioneering international news agency for freelance video journalists that was 20 years ahead of its time. The agency closed in 2003, by which time half of its camera-people had been killed while filming around the world.
FNTV founders Peter Jouvenal and the Frontline Club’s Vaughan Smith, in conversation with BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson, will tell the thrilling story of the agency with clips from the footage they and their colleagues recorded on the front line.
Frontline’s cameramen and women were the first to pick up small format, consumer, cameras. Their successes included securing the first western media interview with Bin Laden, the first film of the stinger missiles that altered the course of the 1980’s war in Afghanistan, key footage of the Romanian revolution, the only uncontrolled footage of the ground conflict in the first Gulf War and footage of the Kosovo conflict that led to British and NATO involvement. The dramatic story of the agency is told by David Loyn of the BBC in his book, recently published in paperback, Frontline: Reporting from the World’s Deadliest Places.
This event is free to attend but please register in advance by clicking the "book" link above. The event has been made possible through a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund with which the Frontline Club Charitable Trust is currently digitising and cataloguing 1,000 hours of FNTV footage.
Participants will have the chance to be involved in the digitisation and cataloguing of the Frontline News Television Archive, participate in the organisation of summer events about Frontline News Television and help run and edit interviews with former members of the agency and the families of those who died in their work. The most committed volunteers will be given training in oral history taking and have a chance to conduct some interviews themselves.
With footage from the late 80s to the present day, Frontline’s video archive is a unique treasure trove of cutting-edge journalism from the front lines of Afghanistan, the Former Yugoslavia, the Gulf War and the Romanian revolution. The story of Frontline News Television is told in the BBC’s David Loyn’s book Frontline: Reporting from the World’s Deadliest Places.
Here is short video cut from interview and archive footage that was made for an exhibition earlier in the year. Interviews were conducted by volunteers who had worked on the footage.
Volunteers are asked to commit two days a week to the project. Lunch is provided.
For more information visit:
http://www.beta.frontlineclub.com/blogs/theforum/2011/05/frontline-television-news-archive.html
Dates: June – September 2012 (flexible start and end dates)
Deadline for applications: 15th June- earlier applications welcomed
Candidates must have at least a basic knowledge of the history of the late 20th century, an interest in journalism and good communication and research skills.
To apply, email a CV and short covering letter to Will Spens: william.spens@www.beta.frontlineclub.com
A unique exploration of the psychological and emotional toll of covering wars and the risks journalists take in order to cover them.
Shortlisted for the Academy Award nomination for best documentary, Under Fire: Journalists in Combat is co-produced by Dr. Anthony Feinstein, who works as a psychiatrist for CNN, CBS, BBC, Reuters and other international news outfits.
The documentary features the experiences and insights of award winning journalists such as Chris Hedges, Jeremy B Owen, Christina Lamb, Paul Watson, Ian Stuart, Finbarr O’ Reilly, Jon Steele and many more. Among those interviewed are prominent war journalists from the New York Times; BBC, Times of London and many others.
Directed by: Martyn Burke
Year: 2011
Duration: 89′
**The London Premiere of Under Fire: Journalists in Combat is part of a series of events, screenings and workshops examining the challenges to safety faced by journalists around the world.**
]]>Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith has been given a prestigious Bayeux-Calvados award for Blood and Dust, a film shot during 10 days spent with a US Medevac helicopter team in Afghanistan.
The awards, which were launched in 1994, recognise the work of journalists covering conflicts around the world.
Smith’s film, which was shown on Al Jazeera in February this year, won the grand format television category with his coverage of the work of the paramedics of the US Army’s 214th Aviation Regiment.
This year the awards were dominated by Libya, with Sky News’ Alex Crawford’s team announced winners of two awards at an event in north-west France for their reports from Libya’s besieged town of Zawiyah, between 4 to 6 March.
Smith, who has filmed in Afghanistan several times in the past, said he decided to go back because he was concerned that his previous work had shown the machinery of war but not the suffering:
"This being a grevous omission I went back last winter to film US army air ambulances, ‘Dustoff’ helicopters, flying over Marjah in Southern Afghanistan, " he said: "The pictures are strong and show both US marines and Afghan civilians being lifted off the battlefield in equal numbers."
Of his decision to work with Al Jazeera, he said: "I couldn’t find another news broadcaster in Britain that would show the film without cutting out the stronger images. I have huge respect for the way Al Jazeera as a broadcaster engages the world while so many others appear to retreat from it."
Read more about Vaughan Smith in Afghanistan.
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