Wed, Oct 18, 2017
Described by some military commanders as the deadliest urban combat since World War II, the battle to drive ISIS out of Mosul as the terror group held civilians captive there was brutal and grueling. Shot over the course of the entire nine-month fight, this vivid documentary follows the experiences of four young soldiers in a team of Iraqi Special Forces tasked with leading the battle. Visceral footage of the fighting is interwoven with intimate and searching interviews with the young soldiers. Full of hope at the beginning of the campaign, the reality of fighting an elusive and vicious enemy in a city full of trapped civilians ultimately takes its toll: By the end of filming, one of the four soldiers is dead. And for the surviving soldiers, haunted by what they have seen and done, the war goes on. Mosul is a stunning look at the high cost of the Iraqi Army's victory over ISIS in the city, large parts of which have been destroyed, with hundreds of thousands of civilians still displaced.
Tue, Feb 13, 2018
Some 25 dead bodies have been found on Long Island since 2016, all linked to the violent gang MS-13. Numerous immigrant teens are missing. As law enforcement tries to stop the gang, FRONTLINE goes inside the crackdown - investigating how the slew of gruesome killings led to many immigrant teens being accused of gang affiliation and unlawfully detained.
Tue, Apr 10, 2018
President Donald Trump's time in office has been marked by ongoing turmoil - including in his own Republican Party, where presidential tweetstorms, inflammatory rhetoric and high-profile dissent have fueled open conflict. In Trump's Takeover, FRONTLINE's acclaimed political team tells the inside story of a president who vowed to take down the Washington establishment, and who has fought an intense war for control of the GOP. Through interviews with longtime Republican legislators like Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), House Freedom Caucus members including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), current and former senior White House officials including Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer, authors, and journalists, Trump's Takeover examines how the president is remaking the GOP in his own image, counter-punching when criticized and publicly attacking those who defy him. The film traces the president's relationship with the GOP-led Congress, from his Twitter attacks on fellow Republicans after the failed Obamacare repeal-and-replace effort, to a split over what many in the party said was the president's inadequate response to deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, to when Congress ultimately delivered a major legislative victory for Trump with the passage of tax reform. Gripping and revealing, Trump's Takeover is a window into the potential lasting impact of the Trump era on the Republican Party and the American political system as a whole. It's the story of President Trump's takeover of the Republican Party - from the perspective of Republican lawmakers and insiders themselves.
Tue, Apr 24, 2018
Trafficked in America investigates how teenagers from Central America were smuggled into the U.S. by traffickers who promised them jobs and a better life-only to force them to live and work in virtual slavery to pay off their debt. This documentary shines new light on a labor trafficking case in which Guatemalan teens were forced by a third-party contractor to work against their will at Trillium Farms in Ohio, a major egg producer. The investigative team exposes a criminal network that exploited undocumented minors, the companies who profited from their forced labor, and how U.S. government policies and practices helped to deliver some teens directly to their traffickers.
Tue, May 1, 2018
More than seven months after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, more than 100,000 Americans are still without power, as part of the worst blackout in U.S. history. FRONTLINE and NPR investigate how the federal response in Puerto Rico left millions of Americans in the dark for months - and the storm before the storm: how Wall Street, Puerto Rico's government, and Washington fueled a debt crisis that left the island's economy in ruins and its infrastructure crippled even before Maria hit. The investigative team uncovered a trove of insider documents that show a government relief effort in chaos, struggling with key contracts, basic supplies, and its own workforce. The film, produced with the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, uncovers a series of shortcomings after Maria, including how half of FEMA's staff on the island were trainees or unqualified, how contractors FEMA turned to failed to deliver hundreds of thousands of tarps, and how the Army Corps' temporary roof repair program was glaringly slow compared to other storms - putting up just 439 roofs in the first 30 days after the storm compared to more than 4,500 in the first month after Irma in Florida. Underpinning it all, Blackout in Puerto Rico delves into Wall Street's role in the island's economic demise - a crisis that left it dangerously vulnerable to a storm like Maria - and the relationship between Puerto Rico and the U.S., including how Congress's withdrawal of a special tax break helped spur the Puerto Rican government's cycle of debt and borrowing. Gripping and riveting, Blackout in Puerto Rico is a must-watch look inside the ongoing recovery effort in Puerto Rico - and the economic crisis that devastated the island long before Maria.