The showreel of Jake Hanrahan, who started Popular Front.
Every year in Northern Ireland, both the Irish Republicans and the British Unionists build huge bonfires to celebrate their culture. Each side burns the other’s flag. We went to the Bogside in Derry to talk with a group of young lads calling themselves the Bogside Republican Youth. They spent all summer building this year’s bonfire, which caused controversy due to its links to the IRA and the recent violence in the area. The biggest problem of the Bogside is not militancy though, it’s the poverty and complete lack of leadership. Derry has the highest rate of unemployment in Northern Ireland, more than twice the average. The city is also one of the most unemployed in the UK as a whole. The young lads of the Bogside have nothing to do and nowhere to go. We filmed with them over two days as they set the bonfire alight.
Anarchists and other leftist groups in Athens have been clashing with police tonight to mark 10 years since Alexandros Grigoropoulos, an unarmed 15-year-old anarchist, was shot dead by a police officer in #Exarchia. We planned to make a proper dispatch about the protests, but we couldn't get around the police line. There were other issues too and just not enough time, so here's some raw footage of the clashes at least. We hate "riot porn" but there was fuck all else we could get with the time we had. Filmed by Conall Kearney.
For more than five weeks now the so-called Yellow Vest protests have turned into weekly clashes between demonstrators and police in France. The protests were sparked when the French President Macron hiked up fuel taxes after also abolishing a policy that put a high tax on the rich. Due to this, the perception is that the poor are made poorer and the rich are made richer. There is no one specific demographic to protesters out on the streets in Paris—they’re all just very angry and want Macron to resign. At Popular Front we went to cover the protests after seeing weeks of police violence and dangerous clashes throughout Paris. The weekend we arrived was the beginning of a new police tactic—heavy kettling. We were stuck with Yellow Vest protesters for hours, finding it near impossible to move throughout the city. Either way, we made this short dispatch to give you an idea of why so many people are so pissed off in France.
Ukraine has a long history of political anarchism, dating back to the Black Army of anarchist revolutionary Nestor Makhno in the 1920s. Since the country's 2014 Maidan revolution though, the historical and modern day rise of fascist groups is more widely known. Whilst the Russian government's claims that the revolution was some kind of "Nazi Junta" are false, Ukraine does have a rising problem with militant fascism that cannot be ignored. In a bid to combat the growing far-right, a group of anarchists calling themselves Rev Dia (Revolutionary Action) have begun to organise. They're armed, training, and have never spoken to journalists before. Until now... (We f*cked up the clip for a few seconds at 04:43 by having the wrong audio with the subtitles. The subs are what he said though. Sorry about that.)
It’s been two years since the city of Raqqa was liberated from ISIS. The jihadists have lost all their territorial positions in Syria, but are still active in the form of sleeper cells. They blend in with the population and launch attacks whenever they find the opportunity. This year alone ISIS sleeper cells in Raqqa claim to have killed 126 people in 32 attacks. We went on patrol with the internal security forces of Raqqa, to find out what it’s like trying to keep ISIS out of the former capital of their Caliphate.
Hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters have been clashing with police and rebelling against the Chinese system in Hong Kong every week since June 9th. To get an idea of who these people are, and what they're fighting for, we spent time with them on the frontlines of the protests.
Since October 1st 2019, protests in Iraq have spread across the country. Young men and women have come to the streets to protest against government corruption and the meddling of both America and Iran inside their country. US troops have been around since the 2003 invasion, and now Iran-backed militias have been given free reign across #Iraq. This, coupled with unemployment and corruption, have left the protesters desperate to make a change. The Iraqi government has been cracking down hard on the protests. Nearly 600 people have been killed since October, many of them unarmed protesters who were shot with live ammunition. Cameraman Luke Pierce spent time on the frontlines with the Iraqi protesters for Popular Front to get an on the ground perspective of what they’re fighting for.
Throughout June, the Captiol Hill area of Seattle became a battleground between anti-police-brutality protesters and the cops. After several nights of fighting, the police pulled out and the protesters took over the area. What followed was a no-police protest zone that spanned six blocks. This became know as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP). Initially, the CHOP was intended to be a peaceful co-op that aimed to bring attention to black activism. What followed was a controversial few weeks that ended with the deadly shootings of three people. Popular Front was on the ground to witness it all. This is the rise and fall of the Seattle CHOP, a documenatry by Johnny LeFlare and Max Curtis.
Belarus is considered by many to be Europe’s last dictatorship. The president, Alexander Lukashenko, has been in power since 1994. He rules the country with authoritarian laws that have stifled free speech, political activism, and press freedom. On August 9th 2020 a presidential election was held in #Belarus. Despite there being a strong democratic opposition for the first time in years—with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya—Lukashenko somehow won with 80% of the vote. Almost immediately evidence of vote rigging was shared online. That same night, the people of Belarus took to the streets to protest. Thousands flooded into the country’s capital of Minsk. As this was happening, the government shut down the internet and blocked all the exits to the city. Thousands of riot police were deployed all over Belarus to stop the protest marches. They attacked protesters viciously.
PLASTIC DEFENCE is a documentary about illegal 3D printed firearms in Europe and the decentralised network behind them. These guns are robust, they don't blow up in your hands, and they're untraceable. What's more, they're being made in people's bedrooms. [NOTE: Sorry gun fans, I interchangeably used the term "assault rifle" incorrectly I think. Forgive me, I'm Bri'ish - @Jake_Hanrahan]
In just 44 days of fighting, more than 5000 soldiers and at least 143 civilians were killed in the recent war for Nagorno Karabakh / Artsakh. Tens of thousands have been displaced, many people are still missing, and bodies are still being found. The war has been active on and off for decades. It's a territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We went to the frontlines in Karabakh to see how the war has affected the people and to see if the ceasefire is really holding.
In 2021, more than 25,000 people were killed by drug cartels in Mexico according to official statistics. The true number is likely much higher. One of the most violent and brutal cartels is the Sinaloa Cartel. In collaboration with 550BC, we got access to footage recently filmed by a Sinaloa Cartel foot soldier. The result is this short documentary—an unflinching look inside the lives of Sinaloa Cartel militiamen as they advance to launch attacks on rival cartels. The cartels make billions of dollars a year from drug trafficking, and have a presence in every state in Mexico. They now have equipment similar to that of the Mexican military and are often considered to be narco-militias. This documentary shows you the harsh realities of their lifestyle. Sinaloa Foot Soldier accompanies a book by 550BC that documents the lives of the Sicarios in more intimate detail.
On March 13th we were on the ground in Bastia, Corsica, to document the violent youth protests against the French state. These historic clashes have gone largely under-reported. Corsica is under the control of #France, but many on the idyllic island want to be independent, or at least have better autonomy. A Corsican prisoner, Yvan Colonna, was recently attacked in a French prison. This sparked the ongoing youth revolt. Yesterday, Colonna died from his injuries. This will likely cause a new wave of violence in Corsica.
In February 2022, less than a week before the Russian invasion, we were filming in #Ukraine. We spent time with the citizen militia forces of the Territorial Defence as they prepared for the then uncertain possibility of war with Russia. Of course, Russia did invade. Now, the Territorial Defence, along with many other militias, have been deployed all over Ukraine. They're fighting Russian forces on the frontline of many different areas. What we filmed quickly became less relevant once the invasion began, but we're publishing some of the interviews we did with the Ukrainian citizens that were preparing for the now active war with Russia. All of this was filmed five days before the invasion. This is a preview. There's much more on the Patreon, for just $5 a month.
In the midst of the Ukraine war, there’s an armed unit of anti-fascist football hooligans who are fighting Russia’s forces on the frontlines. They’re called Hoods Hoods Klan. They made a name for themselves across Europe for beating up far-right ultras. Now though, they’re fighting a bigger enemy: Putin. At Popular Front we spent time with Hoods Hoods Klan as they prepared to head to the east, where the war is still raging. This documentary is about friendship, conflict, and a side of Ukraine often unreported.
When Russia invaded #Ukraine in February 2022, anti-Putin Russian partisans began to launch sabotage operations against Kremlin infrastructure inside their country. After almost one year of war, these cells in Russia have grown exponentially. From Moscow to Vladivostok, there have been more than 80 confirmed anti-government attacks in the past 12 months. To document Russia's anti-Putin underground first hand, we met with two members of one of the most well organised Russian partisan groups.
The current protests in France are the biggest in decades, with up to a million people gathering across the country. Things kicked off in January, when president Macron increased France’s pension age by two years and cancelled retirement benefits for many different sectors, including rail workers, farmers, and electricians. Macron used his constitutional power to bypass parliament and push through the reform without a vote. This caused outrage, acting as the straw that broke the camel’s back. After years of discontent with Macron, and the leading opposition party being far-right, people took to the streets to protest. We tagged along with protesters in Paris on May Day, as some of the biggest riots in the country broke out.
We’ve been on the ground in Syria, as the fall of dictator Bashar Al Assad brings an end to his family’s 54 years of authoritarian rule. We ventured inside Sednaya Prison, a place known as "the Human Slaughterhouse" due to the horrific torture and murder that took place there. Enemies of the regime were sent to Sednaya and often never heard from again. It’s estimated that 30,000 people were killed in the prison since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011. This dispatch is a look inside Sednaya Prison and the aftermath, as Syrians try desperately to search for their missing loved ones.
We spent months on the ground in Lebanon covering the brutal conflict between the Israeli military and Hezbollah’s Shia paramilitary forces. Airstrikes pounded the region, mortar rounds crossed the border, and entire apartment blocks were reduced to rubble. The war claimed countless civilian lives, caught in the crossfire of indiscriminate warfare. Watch our coverage of the devastation, the key players, and the impact on those trapped in the chaos.