Frontline - Season 38 / Year 2020

FRONTLINE investigates how El Paso, Texas became the Trump administration's immigration policy testing ground, and then the target of a white supremacist. Interviews with current and former officials, Border Patrol agents, advocates and migrants tell the inside story from the epicenter of the border crisis.

An investigation into America's increasingly bitter, divided, and toxic politics. Part One traces how Barack Obama's promise of unity collapsed as increasing racial, cultural, and political divisions laid the groundwork for the rise of Donald Trump.

An investigation into America's increasingly bitter, divided and toxic politics. Part Two examines how Trump's campaign exploited the country's divisions, how his presidency has unleashed anger on both sides of the divide, and what America's polarization could mean for the country's future.

This two-part hour includes "Taliban Country" and "The Luanda Leaks."

Taliban Country: Nearly 20 years after the U.S. drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, the group claims it holds more territory than any time since the war began in 2001. As President Trump says he wants to end the war, FRONTLINE reporter Najibullah Quraishi goes on a dangerous journey inside both Taliban- and ISIS-held territory and exposes the harsh reality that not only is the Taliban once again wielding power, but the threat from ISIS looms large.

The Luanda Leaks: As part of a worldwide investigation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that draws on a trove of more than 700,000 leaked documents, FRONTLINE reporter Richard Bilton examines how Africa's richest woman, Isabel dos Santos, built a business empire with access to state funds from Angola, one of the poorest countries on earth — and the role U.S. companies have played in helping her amass her fortune.

With unique access inside the battle for Hong Kong, FRONTLINE follows five protesters through the most intense clashes over eight months of pro-democracy protests. The film examines their struggle against what they say is growing influence from the communist government of mainland China.

Examining Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' ascent to power and the global impact of the empire he built.

Once an unrivaled political power, the NRA is facing challenges from all sides. FRONTLINE investigates the organization's history and evolution, how it aligned with President Donald Trump and his base, and why it is under attack ahead of the 2020 election.

With the plastic industry expanding like never before and the crisis of ocean pollution growing, FRONTLINE and NPR investigate the fight over the future of plastics. Did the plastic industry use recycling to sell more plastic?

A special undercover report from China's secretive Xinjiang region. FRONTLINE investigates the Communist regime's mass imprisonment of Muslims, and its use and testing of sophisticated surveillance technology against the Uyghur community.

A special report on the government response to the coronavirus and the human toll. How did the U.S. become the country with the worst known coronavirus outbreak in the world? FRONTLINE investigates the American response to COVID-19 — from Washington state to Washington, D.C. — and examines what happens when politics and science collide.

Much of the suffering wrought by COVID-19 has played out where we cannot see: in closed hospital units.

With unprecedented access, award-winning filmmaker Sasha Joelle Achilli goes inside a hospital during the coronavirus crisis in northern Italy, capturing an unforgettable look at the harrowing, heroic fight doctors and nurses are waging against the disease.

"We have few weapons. The virus has them all," says Dr. Francesca Mangiatordi, a senior ER doctor at Cremona Hospital. "But with the few we have, we are trying to resist and fight back." Achilli's camera follows Mangiatordi, her staff, and the patients they're treating, creating an intimate and profound portrait of those at the front lines of a global pandemic.

As COVID-19 spread from Asia to the Middle East to Europe, why was the U.S. caught so unprepared? Despite repeated warnings of a potent contagion headed our way, America's leaders failed to prepare and protect us. Why and who is accountable?

The story of a drug company that pushed opioids by bribing doctors and committing insurance fraud. With the Financial Times, FRONTLINE investigates how Insys Therapeutics profited from a fentanyl-based painkiller 50 times stronger than heroin.

This is the story of the Iraq war, told by Iraqis who lived through it. They share their personal accounts and lasting memories of life under Saddam Hussein, the U.S.-led invasion of their country, and the 17 years of chaos that followed — from the sectarian violence to the rise and brutal reign of ISIS.

FRONTLINE examines how the COVID crisis has hit vulnerable immigrants and undocumented workers. The documentary follows the coronavirus pandemic's invisible victims, including crucial farm and meat-packing workers who lack protections and have been getting sick.

How trafficking in conspiracy theories went from the fringes of U.S. politics into the White House. FRONTLINE examines the alliance of conspiracy entrepreneur Alex Jones, President Donald Trump and his adviser Roger Stone and their role in the battle over truth and lies. 

A mother fights to survive COVID-19 and see her newborn baby; how the novel coronavirus hit one immigrant family, their struggle to be reunited, and the community that rallied around them.

Their families were already struggling to make ends meet. Then came the coronavirus. Director Jezza Neumann, who made 2012's Poor Kids, once again delves into how poverty impacts children. With the 2020 election approaching, Growing Up Poor in America follows three children and their families in the battleground state of Ohio as the COVID-19 pandemic amplifies their struggle to stay afloat. As the country also reckons with issues of race and racism, the children share their worries and hopes about their futures.

George Floyd's killing triggered mass demonstrations nationwide, calling for racial justice and police accountability in the United States. In the wake of those protests, New Yorker writer and historian Jelani Cobb returns to the troubled police department in Newark, New Jersey, he first visited four years ago in "Policing the Police" to examine whether reform can work and how police departments can be held accountable.

Amid the historic coronavirus pandemic, economic hardship, and a reckoning over racism, this November, Americans will decide who leads the nation for the next four years: President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden. Ahead of the 2020 election, FRONTLINE's critically acclaimed series "The Choice" returns with interwoven investigative biographies of both men, focusing on how they have responded in moments of crisis.

In this 2-hour special from veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team, hear from friends, family, colleagues, and adversaries about the challenges that shaped Trump and Biden's lives and could inform how they confront the crises facing the nation at this pivotal juncture.

Why was the United States left scrambling for critical medical equipment as the coronavirus swept the country? With the Associated Press and Global Reporting Centre, FRONTLINE investigates the fragmented global medical supply chain and its deadly consequences.

As America chooses its next president in the midst of a historic pandemic, FRONTLINE investigates whose vote counts — and whose might not in the 2020 election. With Columbia Journalism Investigations and reporters from the USA TODAY NETWORK, New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb reports on allegations of voter disenfranchisement, how unfounded claims of extensive voter fraud entered the political mainstream, rhetoric, and realities around mail-in ballots, and how the pandemic could impact turnout.

From the pandemic to the polls, 2020 has been a time of tumult across a deeply divided America. FRONTLINE presents a post-election special on the lives, fears, and hopes of Americans in the chaotic months leading up to the historic presidential contest. This documentary was filmed around the U.S. for much of the year, following Americans as they dealt with COVID-19 in their communities this spring, responded to George Floyd's killing this summer, and then experienced the polarizing election and its aftermath this fall.

Inside the no-holds-barred war for control of the Supreme Court. From Brett Kavanaugh to Robert Bork, this investigation explores how a 30-year-old grievance transformed the court and turned confirmations into bitter, partisan conflicts. The political struggle to control the country's highest court culminates in Amy Coney Barrett's nomination for Supreme Court Justice. This episode updates "Supreme Revenge," which premiered on May 21, 2019.

The story of an American boy taken by his mother to the ISIS-controlled city of Raqqa.