Frontline - Season 41 / Year 2023

FRONTLINE and Forbidden Films, the documentary arm of Forbidden Stories, investigate the powerful spyware Pegasus, sold to governments around the world by the Israeli company NSO Group. This two-part series, part of the Pegasus Project, examines how the hacking tool was used on journalists, activists, the wife and fiancée of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and others.

FRONTLINE and Forbidden Films, the documentary arm of Forbidden Stories, investigate the powerful spyware Pegasus, sold to governments around the world by the Israeli company NSO Group. This two-part series, part of the Pegasus Project, examines how the hacking tool was used on journalists, activists, the wife and fiancée of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and others.

FRONTLINE investigates Russian President Vladimir Putin's clashes with multiple American presidents as he's tried to rebuild the Russian empire. Veteran filmmaker Michael Kirk (Putin's Revenge, Putin's Road to War) and his team trace the miscalculations and missteps of U.S. presidents over five administrations, culminating in Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Around the country and across the world, the threat of a recession is looming, and economic uncertainty is rising as markets, businesses, and individuals adjust to a new reality: the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates and pulling back on its epic monetary experiment that started with the Great Financial Crisis.

From the award-winning team behind The Facebook Dilemma and Amazon Empire, the two-hour documentary Age of Easy Money investigates how the Fed's experiment has changed the American economy and what it means that the era may be over.

An investigation into how America's 20-year investment in Afghanistan culminated in Taliban victory, with a focus on the missteps and consequences.

How America's 20-year investment in Afghanistan culminated in Taliban victory. Drawing on decades of on-the-ground reporting and interviews with Taliban and U.S. officials, this epic three-part investigation traces the missteps and consequences.

How America's 20-year investment in Afghanistan culminated in Taliban victory. Drawing on decades of on-the-ground reporting and interviews with Taliban and U.S. officials, this epic three-part investigation traces the missteps and consequences.

As controversy erupts around Clarence and Ginni Thomas, FRONTLINE tells the inside story of one of Washington's most powerful couple's path to power and influence. This investigation from veteran filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team traces how race, power, and controversy collide in the rise of the Supreme Court justice and his wife and how the couple has reshaped American law, politics, and the Supreme Court.

FRONTLINE recounts the enduring story of the Battle of Fallujah, told by the people who lived through it. In this documentary from filmmaker James Bluemel (Once Upon A Time In Iraq, Exodus), soldiers, journalists, and ordinary Iraqis recount one of the defining episodes of the Iraq War twenty years after the invasion.

A year after the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, FRONTLINE, Futuro Investigates, and The Texas Tribune document the community's trauma and the fight over assault rifles. Journalist Maria Hinojosa examines the police response, Uvalde's history of struggle, and its efforts to heal.

Deadly traffic accidents involving large trucks have surged over the past decade. FRONTLINE and ProPublica examine one gruesome kind of truck accident — underride crashes — and why they keep happening.

Trucking industry representatives and the government's lead agency on traffic safety have said that their top priority is safety. Drawing on more than a year of reporting — including leaked documents and interviews with former government insiders, trucking industry representatives, and families of underride crash victims — the documentary reveals how, for decades, federal regulators proposed new rules to try to prevent underride crashes. Over and over, pushback from trucking industry lobbyists won the day, leaving drivers of smaller vehicles vulnerable.

With a trove of gripping footage filmed by protesters, this documentary goes inside the uprising that rocked Iran after the death of a young woman in police custody — and sheds new light on a regime under unprecedented pressure.

With Vladimir Putin facing down a mutiny, FRONTLINE examines how the Russian leader reached this moment of crisis. Veteran filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team examine the story of Putin's rise, his clashes at home and abroad, and how his troubled Ukraine war led to the greatest threat yet to his grip on power.

What is it like to give birth — and then be forced to say goodbye to your baby 24 hours later?

To most mothers, it's a scenario that's unimaginable. But it's reality for the dozens of pregnant women behind bars in any given year at Alabama's notorious Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women.

Tutwiler, a documentary short from FRONTLINE and The Marshall Project, offers a powerful and unforgettable window into the lives of incarcerated pregnant women — and what happens to their newborns.

The story of one journalist's battle to defend free speech in Putin's Russia. With unique access, FRONTLINE follows Nobel Peace Prize-winner Dmitry Muratov as he fights to keep his newspaper alive and his reporters safe amid a government crackdown.

FRONTLINE examines the Houston Astros cheating scandal and what it says about baseball today. With reporter Ben Reiter, the documentary traces the making of one of the best teams and worst scandals in modern Major League Baseball history, the limited accountability and how the Astros' approach to baseball changed the sport.

FRONTLINE traces Elon Musk's long and often troubled relationship with Twitter. James Jacoby and Anya Bourg (Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos, The Facebook Dilemma) follow Musk's journey from being one of the platform's most provocative users to becoming its sole proprietor, exploring the acquisition, free speech issues, and the company's uncertain future.

How Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell helped transform the Supreme Court and U.S. politics. Amid scrutiny of the high court and a power struggle in the GOP, FRONTLINE examines McConnell's rise and role in pushing the judiciary to the right and America's polarized democracy.

An AP team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion. As the only international reporters who remain in the city as Russian forces close in, Mstyslav Chernov and his two colleagues capture what become some of the most defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and more.

After nearly a decade covering international conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war, for The Associated Press, Mstyslav Chernov makes his feature film debut with 20 Days in Mariupol. The film draws on Chernov's daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war. It offers a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it's like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe.

Made in partnership with The Associated Press, 20 Days in Mariupolhas had a decorated run on the 2023 film festival circuit — including winning the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary and the Tim Hetherington Award at Sheffield Film Festival. The film was also honored with DocEdge Film Festival's awards for "Best International Director" and "Best International Editing."

Drawing on real-time, firsthand accounts and using official bodycam and audio, FRONTLINE, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reconstruct the chaotic response to the Uvalde school shooting and examine the missteps. The documentary delves into the lessons learned and the lingering trauma of that day.

An investigation into how a young Air National Guardsman allegedly leaked classified documents on the Discord chat platform. With The Washington Post, FRONTLINE examines Jack Teixeira's alleged leak of national security secrets, why he wasn't stopped, and the role of platforms like Discord.

To illustrate the extent of the leaked material, FRONTLINE and The Washington Post used images of classified documents in this film that had been previously released in news reports, on social media, and elsewhere on the internet.

This episode includes two segments: "Netanyahu, America and the Road to War in Gaza" and "Failure at the Fence."

Netanyahu, America & the Road to War in Gaza: As the war in Gaza continues with devastating consequences, this 90-minute documentary offers a sweeping examination of the critical moments leading up to this crisis over the past three decades and the pivotal role of a central player: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Starting with the Oslo Peace Accords and continuing through the October 7 Hamas attack and the ongoing war in Gaza, the documentary draws on years of reporting. It is an incisive look at the long history of failed peace efforts and violent conflict in the region — and the increasing tensions between Israel and its ally, the U.S., over the war's catastrophic toll and what comes next.

Failure at the Fence: A groundbreaking visual investigation in collaboration with The Washington Post features a detailed examination of how Hamas breached Israel's vaunted security barrier on October 7 and carried out its attack. This special collaboration stems from a Post reconstruction, now deepened with additional on-the-ground reporting and riveting interviews that present a remarkable picture of how, as the Post reporters show, Hamas was planning the attack in plain sight, and Israel was blinded to its own vulnerabilities.