Frontline: Inside the Iranian Uprising

How many times must the citizens of Iran take to the streets to protest their oppressive clerical regime, before the governments of the liberal West finally do something tangible to support them? Sadly, we are still asking. Who in the Biden administration could object to the most recent Iranian protest slogan: “women, life, freedom?” It is indeed Iranian women who were at the forefront of the latest round of protests and it has been Iranian women who have been dying as a result. Drawing on a wealth of protest footage posted (at least temporarily) to social media and authenticated by third parties, Nightline documents the demonstrations and the regime’s brutal response in director Majed Neisi’s “Inside the Iranian Uprising,” which premieres on digital this Thursday.

It all started with the murder Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman, who died in a Tehran hospital, after having been arrested by the Iranian Morality Police. Her story went viral throughout Iran and around the world, after reporters (one of whom, Niloofar Hamedi, has since been arrested) published photos of Amini in a coma and her parents grieving in the hospital.

Many women were so outraged, they took to the streets, burning their hijabs in public protests, even though that very definitely made them targets for the same savagery that killed Amini. One of those was Nika Shakarami, a 16-year-old YouTube influencer, who mysteriously disappeared after burning her hijab in a protest, until the government finally produced her body nine days later, claiming she was the victim of a highly convenient suicide.

Yet, some of the most horrific accounts of torture in this Frontline report come from men, like the medical student who bravely offers an on-camera description of how he was sodomized with a police baton. Neisi and the Frontline producers mask the identity of another torture victim, using a British voice actor to overdub his shocking account of how the so-called Morality Police raped him and another man while they were in custody.

The Tank Man, on the Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre

As a result of the CCP’s draconian “National Security” Law, Hong Kong residents can no longer safely watch this Frontline documentary, commemorate the events it chronicles, or search on-line for the image it focuses on. We must remember for them. In fact, the image of the lone man standing in front of a column of tanks has become an iconic image of courageous defiance in the face of overwhelming state oppression. Writer-producer-director Antony Thomas investigates who he was and how the crackdown on the 1989 democracy protests drove him to do what he did in Frontline: The Tank Man, which is available on-line.

Unlike other vital Tiananmen Massacre documentaries (like Tiananmen: The People vs.The Party and Moving the Mountain), Tank Man largely focuses on events outside the Square, but that rather makes sense, considering the Tank Man was blocking tanks on the Boulevard leading out of the Square. In fact, one of the eye-opening aspects of Thomas’s report is the carnage that resulted when the PLA strafed apartment buildings around Muxidi Bridge with combat-grade ammunition.

Consequently, Thomas’s talking heads suggest the majority of killings happened at barricades set up by average working-class citizens to protect the students in the Square. Yet, the most senseless murders were those of groups of parents mowed down by the PLA, who had come to the Square desperate to find their children.

Thomas and company fully explain the circumstances surrounding the historic film of Tank Man and how determined the state security apparatus was to prevent it airing in the international media. They also establish how thoroughly blocked all images of the protests are on the Chinese internet—as well as the culpability of Western tech firms like Microsoft, Cisco, and Yahoo in aiding and abetting the CCP’s censorship.

Thomas also spends a good deal of time examining the vast economic disparities between the urban super-rich and the rural underclass. They make valid points regarding the inequality of China’s economic growth, which has been used to justify the Party’s ironclad grip on power post-Massacre, but it sort of distracts from sheer courage and abject horror of the events of 1989.

Frontline: China Undercover

Frontline calls the cultural genocide currently underway in East Turkestan “the largest mass incarceration of an ethnic group since the Holocaust.” The severity and pervasiveness of the CCP’s campaign against the Muslim Uyghurs they proceed to document justifies such a chilling statement. The world has no shortage of crises right now (again, thanks to the CCP), but the Chinese Communist government’s systematic human rights abuses demand the public’s attention and outrage. Therefore, PBS and Frontline deserve credit for producing and airing China Undercover, filmed, directed, and co-produced by Robin Barnwell, which is now available on the Frontline website and the PBS app.

Access to East Turkestan is tightly controlled by the Party, especially for foreigners and independent journalists. However, Barnwell and his colleagues were able to recruit an ethnic Han Chinese businessman living in Southeast Asia to be their secret eyes and ears in the locked-down region. Thanks to his Han heritage, the man they dub “Li” had much greater freedom of movement than native Uyghur citizens. Indeed, we see him cruise through security checkpoints that stop and invasively search Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs (who have it just as badly in East Turkestan).

Probably two million Muslims are imprisoned in re-education camps, judging from satellite photos of the massive detention centers. Also judging from satellite intel, it appears numerous mosques have been razed into rubble. However, it is hard for Uyghurs and Kazakhs to speak openly, because of the CCP’s Orwellian surveillance apparatus. It is so finely tuned, residents must speak in code over phone lines, because certain words and phrases will automatically alert the authorities. If someone is sent to the camps, they are said to be “studying” instead.

Frontline: Syria’s Second Front

You can draw a lot of conclusions about people simply from judging the groups trying to kill them. Most western observers are utterly baffled by the bedlam of the Syrian Civil War. However, it is pretty easy to side with the initial rebel groups who rose up against the Assad regime and now find themselves battling a virulently Islamist faction in the north, once the particulars of the conflict are established.  This Tuesday, PBS’s Frontline broadcasts Syria’s Second Front and Children of Aleppo (promo here), two boots-on-the-ground reports from Syria documenting the precarious state of the original, largely secular rebels and the dire conditions faced by sympathetic civilians.

ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is supposedly so extreme and violent, al-Qaeda wants to keep them at arm’s length. Presumably, they will patch things up if ISIS takes operational control of Syria, which is not outside the realm of possibility. They have little use for secular society and a special enmity for reporters, whom they are perfectly willing to execute on sight. Nevertheless, Muhammad Ali, a daring independent journalist with a memorable name, has infiltrated ISIS controlled territory with a team of Free Syrian Army aligned rebels.

When ISIS eventually leaves town, everyone is relieved to see them go. Frankly, many of the local citizenry are quite courageous expressing their hopes for a free secular democratic state. However, the prospects are rather iffy, even if the fractious rebel forces can unite against both ISIS and Assad. Second Front offers some cautious optimism on this score, but it is tempered by the shocking footage of the better organized ISIS brutally administering Sharia Law.

According to Children of Aleppo, an estimated 11,000 children have been killed in the course of the Syrian conflict. Most parents opted to shelter their sons and daughters outside the country. One FSA captain is a notable exception. He and his wife still live in their once fashionable Aleppo flat with their son and three daughters. The captain’s comrades are now like extended family to his girls, which would be almost heartwarming, if their familiarity with the sounds of war were not so tragically well developed.

Those who have seen Matthew VanDyke’s Not Anymore will also recognize his footage of a twelve year old protest singer, who just started performing for his camera as a shell landed nearly on top of them. Both survived, but she evidently now lives in Qatar. Frankly, VanDyke’s film is even more effective than the Frontline films at putting a human face on the Syrian civil war. Although it is now available online, interested New Yorkers can see VanDyke’s short doc on the big screen on February 28^th as part of the 2014 Winter Film Awards. In contrast, Syria’s Second Front better establishes the ideological and geopolitical context for the various factions.

The one-two punch of last month’s Secret State of North Korea and the upcoming Syria’s Second Front make this Frontline’s strongest season perhaps ever. Both Broadcasts represent solid investigative journalism conducted in countries that do not recognize press freedoms. Highly recommended, Frontline’s twofer of Syria’s Second Front and Children of Aleppo airs Tuesday night (2/11) on most PBS stations nationwide.

Frontline Takes an Unvarnished Look Inside the Secret State of North Korea

Has Kim Jong-un lost the mandate of North Korea’s secular Marxist Heaven?  Some speculate this might be the case, but everyone agrees the young Communist tyrant will not hesitate to kill as many people as it takes to maintain his grip on absolute power.  A portrait of widespread misery mixed with a little hope emerges in writer-director-producer James Jones’ Secret State of North Korea (promo here), which airs on most PBS stations this Tuesday as part of the current season of Frontline.

According to satellite images, the total area devoted North Korea’s political prison camp system has measurably increased under Kim Jong-un.  To put things in perspective, former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry explains some camps are actually larger than the city of Washington, DC.  When it is estimated one out every one hundred North Koreans is a political prisoner, it is hard to find grounds for optimism.

Yet, Jones introduces viewers to a brave group of activists, who it seems are growing in number.  Through his network of contacts, Asia Media’s Jiro Ishimaru smuggles out unvarnished video footage of the shocking day-to-day conditions endured by North Koreans.  Jones draws extensively from his underground journalism throughout his expose.  While there are encouraging episodes of defiance, the images of emaciated street orphans are heartbreaking in the extreme.

Jones also profiles North Korean defectors who try to infiltrate the truth back into the DPRK, either as contraband DVDs and flash drives or as radio and television broadcasts originating in the South but intended for Northern audiences (like the teen-centric On My Way to Meet You).  In fact, the simple proliferation of cell phones represents a significant challenge to the royal heir’s authority.  Yet, any hopefulness Jones’ talking heads might have is tempered by the ruthless and erratic behavior Kim has demonstrated thus far.

Secret State will also not inspire much confidence in the CIA’s information gathering, but that is an old story by now.  Frankly, for foreign policy decision makers, time spent watching Jones’ report would probably be reasonably productive.  It is inspiring when documenting the heroic work done by defectors, but rather scary when analyzing Kim’s mental state. Clearly, nobody interviewed on-camera blithely dismisses his provocations as mere “saber-rattling.”  One of the best installments of Frontline in years, Secret State of North Korea is recommended for all viewers concerned about human rights and potential nuclear aggression.  It premieres on most PBS outlets this coming Tuesday (1/14).