FRONTLINE: the pbs documentary series not the flea medicine

Honestly I can't believe that there's no thread for Frontline already -- does nobody watch PBS? I used to watch these with my parents, and then I forgot about it, then I downloaded a bunch of their podcasts and got obsessed all over again. These docs are so humorless and dry and informative. They're great.

Iran-Contra
The October Surprise (this really happened)
Iraq War II

Oh man, yeah the Iraq War ones were serious nightmare material. I should go back and watch Iran-Contra.

Sometimes the domestic ones can be a little goofy, but they have their charms -- my students LOVE Post-Mortem and The Real CSI.

Domestic meaning US-focused, not political/financial/doom-tinged

I expected the new one, Never Forget to Lie (about Holocaust survivors) to be a little drippy but for some reason it reminded me of The Land of Silence and Darkness. It's pretty austere, and the filmmaker's focus on memory is more interesting than if they had focused on the atrocity itself.

I used to have a ritual when I was unemployed, I would order a large pizza and eat the entire thing while watching Frontline. This was around the time we were well into the second Iraq war. Now I just watch the ones about drugs or the environment, the financial ones just make me angry and sad. I put it in the same category as Consumer Reports, hopelessly uncool but a touchstone, a quiet spot at the carnival.

That sounds like a really depressing ritual, but of course that makes me like it.

There's something about watching Frontline that feels like taking reality medicine, eating pieces of broken glass because the world is a tough and ugly place full of terrible people. But I'd rather know that than not know it. I'll eat the broken glass if it means that no one can hurt me by surprising me with a plateful of broken glass.

But like I said, I have a hearty appetite for doom and bad news.

Still, the one about retirement was a little too close to home! I'm going to have to give that one a shot on a strong sunny day.

The beginning, the first 5 min I heard, was just a bunch of people saying "yeah, I'll probably just work until I die, I have no plan b"

yikes

Wow, no old Frontline threads? Frontline is incredible. Off the top of my head, I recommend Country Boys, The Interrupters and ... I think it's called Poor Kids.

Poor Kids is about the young children of families on the extreme end of hand to mouth. It's both inspiring and heartbreaking.

David Sutherland (who made Country Boys) has a new one -- Kind Hearted Woman. I posted about it on the Country Boys thread and no one cared, but since you liked that you have to see it. It's amazing.

Poor Kids was so so so so so so sad. The scene with the dog? Gah.

"The Man Who Knew,""Money, Power & Wall Street" four-parter absolutely riveting. "The Merchants of Cool" good one from earlier.

I didn't like Kind Hearted Woman too well. Though we had a (sad) laugh at the constant shots of trains and sounds of train whistles until we realized that all the places she moved to were probably like a block away from the train tracks.

Why didn't you like it? I haven't made it through part 2 tbh but she is such a familiar person to me. I thought it was really beautiful and intimate.

I think it was just a little too repetitive and depressing, iirc. Like, so many shots of her walking down the highway in the bitter cold, that kind of thing, and almost every aspect of her life was so damaged. Just bleak all around.

Have never seen Harvest of Shame but it wins the best title award.

I watched this on YouTube. It's about migrant workers in the 60s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJTVF_dya7E

sponsored by Philip Morris!!

Tangential, but PBS making their own channel on Roku with a ton of content streaming is crazy. They're getting a pledge drive donation from me this year.

The one about mutual funds and retirement savings from just a few weeks ago was jawdropping. Good, but also miserable.

xpost But no Frontline on the Roku channel!

All-time favorite is, I think I have the title right, 'The Last Battle of the Gulf War' about Gulf War Syndrome. If it's the one I'm thinking of there was all kinds of horrifying revelations about the soldiers' exposure to depleted uranium. Terrifying stuff.

Country Boys was fantastic.

The one about the Anthrax investigations was excellent too.

I go on kicks where I get totally obsessed with it but I haven't been down the rabbit hole in years. So glad this thread is here!! (Also I love the thread title, LL)

I love the narrator! He has a lovely voice

Oh, wait, there it is, in regular netflix.

argh wait I was wrong.
the documentary I was thinking of was called Invisible War, Depleted Uranium and the Politics of Radiation, it was a french documentary they aired on the Australian version of Frontline. Sorry.
link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psfK8ijrzyc

Oh man I go on hard core Frontline binges sometimes. It has definitely influenced my decision to change careers and go into social work!

I make my students choose one film and then write about it. Then they have to give a little presentation basically selling it to the rest of the class so everyone super wants to watch it. My favorite project -- the whole process from choosing the movie to giving the presentation is part of the project. It rules.

As for Kind Hearted Woman, I think the bleakness is part of the point -- but I'll get back to you once I've watched...all 4 hours of it? Yikes. I love how long and unrelenting Sutherland's stuff is. I mean, if you thought it was hard to watch, imagine living in North Dakota.

uh oh your hospital could kill you
(this is actually no joke there has been a lot of this in my family and i know we can't be alone)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/uncategorized/interactive-your-hospital-may-be-hazardous-to-your-health/

At a week-long hackathon sponsored by the TriBeCa Film Institute and Mozilla and supported by the Ford Foundation, the two worked with Pro Publica reporters Marshall Allen and Olga Pierce, FRONTLINE’s own Sam Bailey, and the fantastic team at Ocupop to build “Your Hospital May Be Hazardous To Your Health,” an interactive video that highlights a number of inaccurate — and dangerous — assumptions often made about our health care systems.

It’s a fantastic piece of work, especially considering the short amount of time they had to pull together the story and construct the interactive experience.

Check it out and let us know what you think.

this may fall into the same category as the dollars for dentists one -- cannot handle under any circumstances

I finally finished the Kind Hearted Woman podcast on my walk to work yesterday, and to anyone who found it too boring or depressing, I have to ask -- did you watch the whole thing? Parts 1 and 2?

I might feel differently if I had sat in front of a computer at watched it, but the audiocast was such a rollercoaster of emotions/intensity that I have no idea how anyone could find it boring. Even if you don't buy Robin's subdued survivor life mission (these things are never as simple as they look), you have to at least admit that she is a fascinating person. I almost died when she was talking about her power point and how she was organizing her speech. Totally going to have my students watch this, or at least that segment!!

ugh at = and
typos but you get my point

Agree about the Frontline audiocast - especially when it's something not terribly visual, I get wrapped up in it way more just listening.

Currently watching David Sutherland's The Farmer's Wife -- a little over an hour in and desperately curious how he managed to get bedroom scenes? (Just lying in bed talking, but still there is a documentary filmmaker in yr bedroom). If you don't feel like looking it up, it's a tenant farming family in Nebraska circa 1995-1998 (it said 3 years were covered and it started in '95, so I'm assuming)

Reeeeally interesting how differently Juanita and Robin approach the idea of public aid/asking for help/social services. One of my favorite things about Sutherland, in addition to the fact that he is incapable of editing out mundanities (I love them), is that he is so absent as a filmmaker. Sure, there's some music and scenic sunset shots and w/e but I don't get a whiff of Sutherland while watching the movie itself. He seems really good at letting people speak for themselves in all of his movies. Part of that is showing their ugly/boring sides occasionally, and part of it is getting and staying out of the way from shooting through editing.

Anyway, recommended here since the Country Boys thread didn't seem very active anymore.

Next Frontline doc has a classic superbummer topic: rape on the job for agricultural workers.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/rape-in-the-fields/the-hidden-story-of-rape-on-the-job-in-america/

The films are the result of a year-long reporting effort. Bergman and his team traveled from the almond groves of California’s Central Valley to the packing plants of Iowa, from the apple orchards of Washington’s Yakima Valley to the tomato fields of Florida. They spoke with dozens of women who say they have been sexually abused on the job.

And they found that in the vast fields and orchards of today’s agribusiness, it’s easy for a rapist to stalk his victims — who are often, but not always, undocumented women who dare not denounce their attackers for fear they’ll be deported.

“These women live in fear, but they were willing to go on camera to tell their stories at great personal risk,” says Bergman says. “They didn’t want to see it happening to other women.”

jesus

Also, interestingly, they're airing it on Univision as well as PBS in order to reach more Hispanic viewers.

really? that's actually awesome.

Really! I thought so too! Great idea.

Esp considering the quality of programming on US Spanish language tv in general.

Oof. That would be a good one to show to my next employment law class just to really bum them the fuck out. "Enjoy this movie, students! I'll be out in the hall reading a book so I don't cry in front of you."

that's great re: Univision.

tbh that latest one, I would totally read the facts in text but I might not be able to handle it through the eyes/ears. So abysmal.

watched the retirement one last night
really think it should be required viewing -- esp liked the part about how fiduciary agreements and how financial services professionals intentionally give the impression that they are on the customer's side when they decidedly are not.

super recommend powering through the heavy uncomfortable reality of the first 10 min (i'm going to work until i'm 90, when i will die at work) to learn about the stuff that the financial services industry has been selling us via retirements accounts/managed mutual funds and also to watch the CEOs squirm like worms under pretty serious direct questioning about their products.

pls mentally remove that first "how"

Next on Frontline: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/two-american-families/in-milwaukee-a-familys-struggle-for-survival/

In 1991, when Bill Moyers first began following the lives of Claude and Jackie Stanley, the parents of five had just been laid off from well-paying manufacturing jobs in Milwaukee.

They’ve been battling to keep from sliding into poverty ever since.

Two American Families, a 90-minute FRONTLINE documentary premiering July 9, tells the Stanleys’ story — and that of another Milwaukee family, the Neumanns — all the way up to the present, and raises troubling questions about trends toward part-time, low-wage work in America.

In this excerpt from Two American Families, meet Claude and Jackie, now approaching retirement age, and their son, Keith, now grown.

“My heart goes out to that generation that was promised something from America, by America — that they would have a better life. And that’s not the case anymore,” Keith tells Moyers.

Bill Moyers will appear tonight (June 26) on The Colbert Report to discuss Two American Families. The documentary premieres July 9 on FRONTLINE (check local PBS listings).

Also - I watched about 20 min of the one about agricultural workers and it felt too much like talking to one of my students, had to stop watching. It reminded me of how many truly horrific stories I've heard.

george packer wrote about this btw, it sounds really good

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/07/the-fall-of-the-american-worker.html

i saw bill moyers on the aforementioned june 26th colbert report episode. apparently this will be the 200th frontline episode!

I look forward to discussing it with fellow Frontline viewers here. Happy 200th bday, Frontline!

also to watch the CEOs squirm like worms under pretty serious direct questioning about their products.

Just watched this yesterday. Those fucking motherfuckers..."Well, we believe our commission-based financial consultants who are under no obligation to put the customer's interests ahead of their own are just as good as fiduciaries."

I'm so glad they believe that.

looking forward to that new one, will set DVR tonight

ooh yay

and yeah, mladic was a touch watch all round but i am glad i watched, there was a lot i was not aware of at the time

*tough

will watch new sutherland no q's asked! It will be a frontline?

yup
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/marcos-doesnt-live-here-anymore/

premieres 4/15

Marcos Doesn't Live Here Anymore is definitely worth your time -- lots of food for thought, looming elephants in the room, awkward community meetings & very private personal conversations

ooh i forgot about this - must watch

curious what other people think about it
report back!

i still haven't been able to discuss this because no one i know has watched it
cmon ilx don't leave me hangin

plus upcoming one is about the neverending battle about legal abortion and i probably won't watch that tbh

I can't watch Frontline anymore, the daily news pushes me past the point I can bear watching anything except X-Files reruns or the Voyage of the Mimi

Caught the one covering the history of the Mueller report a couple of weeks back.
But having to d/ld them so only catching them when I see them upped.

i watched marcos. i had a lot of thoughts.

i worked on one of these once, "the future of war" in 2000. it was basically my one and only involvement with serious journalism, before i spent the rest of my 20s reviewing shit alt-country records. ah well.

Harbl I’d like to know your thoughts. I had some too. Lots actually. I can’t stop thinking about the lack of overt discussion in the film about language. How can they not talk about language? The communication difficulties between him and his wife were like a cloud hanging over the whole thing.

F hazel that makes me sad. I basically only get my news via local public radio and am on a strict no-opinion/no-prognostication diet. I get the aversion :(

i'm sleepy and not able to articulate these things well anyway but what i appreciated most about this one was it was not constructed in a way to be such a hopeful story like too many political documentaries are. it was just extremely complicated. and you say "how can they not talk about language" which is true but there are many things that were not talked about here that made it more interesting in a way. i am having trouble with how to explain this...having spent more time apart than together, their relationship had frozen in a honeymoon period in a way? these two had not enough experience being with each other. it is easy to long for a person when you talk on skype for one hour a day and spend all your other time fighting to get them back to you. together the language and other difficulties just turn sort of toxic. it was like there was a wall between them when they were together. in fact i felt that had he not been deported this may not have lasted. i feel bad for thinking that.

There are always huge elephants in the room in all the Sutherland docs I’ve seen— it’s why I love them! Language was just a small part of it. Culture was another part. Distance wasn’t so much of an elephant but an albatross they had to carry around. Thank you for your thoughts!

Sadly I thought for sure there wouldn’t be 4 kids if he hadn’t been deported but I am a romantic realist, not a romantic. His deportation characterized/epitomized their relationship in a way.

yup, i think you're right

At the same time, jfc can they let the guy back in to be with his veteran wife? Just say yes — that was all anyone had to do.

My nomination for most awkward scene was tied between them awkwardly walking around Mexico City and arguing about their (“luxury”) apartment wherever they were in the Yucatán.

"Trump's Trade War" = extremely boring imo, put me directly to sleep

That means it has its virtues, but I don't recommend watching it. Suuuuuuuuuper dull.

If you're like "this day/week/month/year is pretty nice, but what I really need right now is a way to freak out about the law of the land" then this Frontline is for you!
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/thirty-nine-supreme-revenge-interviews-on-the-record-at-your-fingertips/

i...don't think i'm gonna watch this one

same :(

new one about Saudi Arabia is suuuuper long (almost 2 hours) and O_O
haven't missed a frontline in years, why start now

Just watched the episode about Flint's water problems and I'm fucking furious.

omfg is anyone watching this America’s Great Divide series??!!?? It’s reminding me how much we (we = ppl who live in the USA, in this context) have been through. I’m halfway through episode 2 and the initial press briefings w Sean Spicer are like the 800th least shocking thing in there and they are still shocking. If you have the stomach, I recommend. No idea how I have the stomach but here I am.

I tried watching some of it online. Having lived through it once, while paying attention, was enough to teach me everything I needed to know about the past dozen years. A reprise is not particularly instructive, although you're right enough that it is quite painful in retrospect. But it was painful enough the first time through that the lessons hadn't faded away.

I was also paying attention while living through it -- seeing the summary was actually quite instructive for me because 1) it made it easier for me to be able to explain what happened to students and 2) it gives people who weren't paying attention/were too young to get it a solid primer for "how did we get here?!"

It was actually easier to get through than the first time it all went down because I have better coping skills now. After a lot of work...

New one!

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-amazon-convinced-millions-of-people-to-welcome-listening-devices-into-their-homes/

Even one of the founders of Amazon Web Services approaches his Alexa devices with caution.

Robert Frederick, who left the company in 2006, tells FRONTLINE that he turns off his Alexa devices “whenever I want to have a private moment.”

“I don’t want certain conversations to be heard by humans,” Frederick says. “Conversations that I know for a fact are things that should not be shared, I turn off those particular listening devices.”

"listening devices" literally turns my stomach but this is still some pretty lite content comparatively

there'll no doubt be another snowden-esque revelation that the devices were indeed listening all along, for national security reasons naturally, and everyone will be outraged for two to three weeks

It's only a matter of storage density and voice recognition capability both increasing beyond certain points that you can expect to be recorded in every public space (and most private spaces) 24/7/365. Will it be abused? In early 21st century terms, yes. In 2040 terms? It'll be as normal as being required to carry picture ID on you at all times, which similarly used to freak people the fuck out.

If I live until 2040, I plan to communicate in public only by scribbling notes on pad of paper and handing it to people. Using a number 3 pencil.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/coronavirus-pandemic/

Not as alarming as you would think -- made me feel proud of medical professionals and determined to fight this shit

Some good new ones -- I really liked the one about Iraqis/the war (Once Upon a Time in Iraq) and the most recent one about C19 + agricultural/meatpacking workers is essential if you have eaten a piece of broccoli in the last 5 months (and didn't grow it yourself, and if you did enjoy your high horse!)
Covid's Hidden Toll https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/covids-hidden-toll/

1) Here to stan for Independent Lens' docu-series Philly DA (the series, not necessarily the man although I believe he has good intentions)
2) There's a new Frontline about refugees from Eritrea and one of my students wrote her final project about this very same journey! Looking forward to watching that one
3) Have not watched the covid retrospective docs yet -- I feel like it's a little soon?!?!

first ep of Philly DA was great, not looking forward to the way this unravels... it unravels right? How can it not unravel.

It's so gooooooooood!!! I like the eps that drift away from the central Krasner-tory the best but he was obvs the reason for the season. I watched the whole thing already bc I have PBS passport & was hungry for docs. My only recommendation is to watch it quickly because it's easy to get confused and the filmmakers didn't remind us what everyone's name is so it's always "that lady w curly hair who was a holdover from previous administration" or whatever.

Also the screaming FOP-supporting white people = background players in Mare of Easttown

Krasner-Story
typo oops

This looks promising! Sort of boring, but I like that --

A trove of nearly 12 million confidential documents, collectively known as the Pandora Papers, reveals the hidden assets and secret deals of some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people, including 130 billionaires, 35 current and former world leaders and more than 330 politicians and public officials.

The documents — shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists by an anonymous source — include records from 14 financial service providers around the world. The leaked files illustrate the global entanglement of political power and secretive offshore finance, and how U.S. trusts are sheltering millions in controversial assets.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/pandora-papers-video-news-icij/

Some earlier talk here: The proof is in the Putin: thread for Panama Papers/Mossack Fonseca leaks.

the el mozote episode from yesterday is heartbreaking

i don't think i'll be watching that one. for the curious and non-googling https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/massacre-in-el-salvador/

i am however interested in the Pandora Papers segment that apparently also finally aired. I've been out of the loop lately!

Welp. I haven't made it through the USA and the Taliban three-parter but I am almost through the one about Clarence and Ginni and I am here to recommend for anyone who lives in USA and is subject to the rulings of the Supreme Court (aka everyone who lives in USA or cares). These people, my god. If you're not there for "how did they get here?" seeing his testimony juxtaposed with Anita Hill's and knowing one of them had to be perjuring themselves...and that it wasn't Anita Hill? Bone chilling.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/clarence-and-ginni-thomas/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJuRx1wARUk

One of the most chilling things was how everything -- everything!! -- comes or goes through Ginni. When the confirmation trials were going down, Ginni reported to John Danforth that Clarence was suffering with stress, "curled up in the fetal position" and apparently "a broken man" -- in an interview in the documentary he said "it's hard to see a man suffer that way" (or something to that effect) but

did he SEE it? no
it was reported by Ginni

they are truly a group project. in light of current circumstances, i really do think this is an illuminating look at the damage this type of marital partnership can inflict when they are fully coordinated. which they are.