WHEN I GROW UP

Bowling for Columbine

October 2002 •English

This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.

Acts of Violence

January 1985 •English

A riveting expose about the personalities of murderers and their motives. This 72 minute film covers the McDonalds' restaurant massacre, President Reagan's assassination attempt, serial murderer Henry Lee Lucas and others.

Murder: No Apparent Motive

April 1984 •English

This documentary about serial killers and FBI Behavioral Sciences profilers features interviews with Ed Kemper and Ted Bundy as well as crime victims and law enforcement officials. The film includes some dramatic recreations.

Ricochet

May 2021 •English

When a young woman is shot by an undocumented immigrant on Pier 14 in San Francisco, the incident ignites a political and media furor that culminates in Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States. In the eye of this storm, two public defenders fight to reveal the truth.

Shots Fired

October 2021 •English

Amid record police shootings in Utah, an investigation into the use of deadly force in the state with Frontline's local journalism partner The Salt Lake Tribune.

The US and Their Guns: An American Story

February 2019 •French

Tracing the story of a student uprising this documentary explores how the NRA manages to keep a permissive gun law alive, and why it has such a strong hold over American society.

A Wolfpack Called Ernesto

February 2024 •Spanish

World-renowned Mexican filmmaker Everardo González brings us inside the chilling world of Ernesto, an amalgam of various teenage boys, who, in choosing a gun and a life of organized crime, becomes both victim and perpetrator.

23 Seconds: A Louisville Mass Shooting

March 2024 •English

It was the first mass shooting in Louisville in nearly 40 years. This is the story of the tragedy at Old National Bank told directly by the survivors, the heroes and the loved ones of those who lost their lives in the most senseless way

Chicago at the Crossroad

June 2019 •English

While gun violence was on the decline in most major US cities, why did it continue to increase in Chicago's segregated communities? What is known about the systems that created the problem, the laws that isolated it, and the policies that abandoned it? Using dramatic footage, including interviews with residents on the front lines over the last 15 years, this documentary opens a rare historical window into the systematic creation of poverty stricken communities plagued by gun violence. 

Black Thoughts

August 2020 •English

A man that is a stranger, is an incredibly easy man to hate. However, walking in a stranger’s shoes, even for a short while, can transform a perceived adversary into an ally. Power is found in coming to know our neighbor’s hearts. For in the darkness of ignorance, enemies are made and wars are waged, but in the light of understanding, family extends beyond blood lines and legacies of hatred crumble.

One of us

May 2019 •Russian

A documentary about the Kerch shooter Vladislav Roslyakov.

The Killing of America

September 1981 •English

A documentary of the decline of America. Featuring footage (most exclusive to this film) from race riots to serial killers and much, much more.

Is It Worth Your Life?

January 1992 •English

This video shows ways to prevent or defuse violent situations in retail stores, particularly during an armed robbery.

Un crime à Abidjan

November 2000 •French

The Plymouth Shootings

June 2024 •English

On 12 August 2021, Jake Davison shot and killed five people before turning the gun on himself. How did a seemingly normal young man turn into one of Britain’s most lethal killers?

Fake Blood

October 2017 •English

Rob Grant and Mike Kovac receive a disturbing fan video inspired by their previous horror movie Mon Ami, motivating them to investigate the responsibility of filmmakers in portraying violence in movies. In their pursuit of the truth they are unwittingly introduced to the real world of violent criminals and their victims.

The Killer at Thurston High

January 2000 •English

In May 1998, a year before the massacre at Columbine High, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his mother and father, and then opened fire at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, killing two fellow students and wounding 25 others. In this first in-depth television examination of a school shooter, FRONTLINE reveals the intimate inside story of how the “shy and likeable” Kip Kinkel from a solid middle-class family became the boy police call “a cold-hearted killer.”

G is for Gun: The Arming of Teachers in America

September 2018 •English

A growing program in Ohio is training school staff to respond to active shooter situations with guns. Often reflecting a multitude of social issues, explore what both sides have to say about the issue, and the divide it has created in the town of Sidney, Ohio.

MOVE

December 2017 •English

This documentary explores the aftermath of a 2015 mass shooting that took place during an anti-violence community basketball tournament at the Boys and Girls Club in Rochester, New York. Members of the Community along with family members of the victims join together to speak out against the needless violence that took the lives of multiple children and young adults and injured many others.

Down in Dallas Town

November 2023 •English

Through interviews with people on the street and songs recorded to memorialize JFK in the mid-1960s, the film explores the impact of the November 22, 1963 assassination on issues in today’s world, from lingering conspiracy theories to the proliferation of gun violence, homelessness, and the scourge of K-2.