Michael Kirk

The inside story of Biden’s rise to the presidency, and the personal and political forces that shaped him and led to his dramatic decision to step aside.

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FRONTLINE investigates the roots of the criminal cases against former President Trump stemming from his 2020 election loss. With the presidential race for 2024 underway, veteran political filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team examine the House Jan. 6 committee’s evidence, the historic charges against Trump and the threat to democracy.

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As controversy erupts around Clarence and Ginni Thomas, FRONTLINE tells the inside story of their path to power. 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 and politics.

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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.

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Frontline’s season premiere investigates American political leaders and choices they’ve made that have undermined and threatened democracy in the U.S. In a two-hour documentary special premiering ahead of the 2022 midterms, Frontline examines how officials fed the public lies about the 2020 presidential election and embraced rhetoric that led to political violence.

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An examination of the powerful and polarizing Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, from veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker and chronicler of U.S. politics Michael Kirk and his team. Pelosi’s Power traces Pelosi’s life and legacy, how she has gained and wielded power across three decades, and how she has faced grave challenges to her leadership and to American democracy from Trump and his allies.

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The Taliban take over Afghanistan, and the threat of ISIS and Al Qaeda intensifies. On the ground, reporter Najibullah Quraishi (Leaving Afghanistan, Taliban Country) investigates uncertainty and fear among the Afghan people and revisits the lead-up to the U.S. defeat and the Taliban’s return.

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From veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker and chronicler of U.S. politics Michael Kirk and his team, this documentary traces the U.S. response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the devastating consequences that unfolded across four presidencies. Drawing on both new interviews and those from the dozens of documentaries Kirk and his award-winning team made in the years after 9/11, this two-hour special offers an epic re-examination of the decisions that changed the world and transformed America. From the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the January 6 insurrection, America After 9/11 exposes the legacy of September 11 — and the ongoing challenge it poses for the president and the country.

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From his first days as president to his last, how Trump stoked division, violence and insurrection. FRONTLINE investigates Trump’s siege on his enemies, the media and even the leaders of his own party, who for years ignored the warning signs of what was to come.

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FRONTLINE tells the story of how crisis and tragedy prepared Joe Biden to become America’s next president. Those who know him best describe the searing moments that shaped President-elect Biden and what those challenges reveal about how he will govern.

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With Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court days before the 2020 presidential election, Sen. Mitch McConnell solidified the conservative majority he had been seeking for decades. FRONTLINE tells the inside story of McConnell’s hard-fought effort to transform the nation’s highest court in “Supreme Revenge: Battle for the Court,” an updated version of our 2019 film.

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A look into what has shaped President Donald Trump and presidential candidate Joe Biden, where they came from and how they lead.

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How trafficking in conspiracy theories went from the fringes of U.S. politics into the White House.

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A deep look into the growing divide in America from the Barack Obama era through the presidency of Donald Trump.

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"Zero Tolerance" - FRONTLINE investigates how President Trump turned immigration into a powerful political weapon that fueled division and violence. The documentary goes inside the efforts of three political insurgents to tap into populist anger, transform the Republican Party and crack down on immigration.

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Senator John McCain's complicated relationship with President Trump and his own Republican party. A look at McCain's life and politics, from POW in Vietnam, to choosing Sarah Palin as running mate, to his dramatic vote against the GOP's health care bill.

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A bombastic figure on the far right who rose to prominence as a policy adviser and speech writer, Steven Bannon entered the White House determined to implement Trump’s campaign promises. “Bannon’s War” details how the former Breitbart News editor also engineered the sweeping executive order that restricted Muslims from entering the United States, and held such sway over the former president that Time magazine dubbed him “Manipulator in Chief.” He left the White House in August 2017 amid fallout from Trump’s remarks about the violence that erupted during protests in Charlottesville, Va. but continued to promote the president and his agenda.

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Review the partisanship that gridlocked Washington and charged the 2016 presidential campaign.

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The key moments that helped shape President-elect Donald Trump.

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An interwoven investigative biography of U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that draws on dozens of interviews from those who know them best—friends and family, advisers and adversaries—as well as authors, journalists and political insiders.

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Recently released top secret files from the early 2000's expose the lies told to the American people by senior US government in this PBS documentary, which outlines the real creators of ISIS.

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The inside story of the bitter clash between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Amid violence in the Middle East, the film traces Netanyahu's rise to power and his high-stakes fight with the president over Iran's nuclear program.

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“Secrets, Politics and Torture” unspools the dueling versions of history laid out by the CIA, which maintains that its now officially-shuttered program was effective in combating terrorism, and the massive Senate torture report released in December of 2014, which found that the program was brutal, mismanaged and — most importantly — didn’t work

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FRONTLINE investigates how the NRA uses its unrivaled political power to stop gun regulation in America. With first-hand accounts of school killings in Newtown and Columbine, and the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, "Gunned Down" examines why, despite the national trauma over gun violence, Washington hasn't acted.

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Examines the unfolding chaos in Iraq and how the U.S. is being pulled back into the conflict. Drawing on interviews with policymakers and military leaders, the film traces the U.S. role from the 2003 invasion to the current violence, showing how Iraq itself is coming undone, how we got here, what went wrong, and what happens next.

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FRONTLINE reveals the dramatic inside story of how the U.S. government came to monitor and collect the communications of millions of people around the world, and the lengths they went to as they tried to hide this massive surveillance program from the public. The series is gripping viewing for those who want to understand the context of the Snowden affair—and what it means for all Americans.

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Drawing on the book of the same name, League of Denial crafts a searing two-hour indictment of the National Football League’s decades-long concealment of the link between football related head injuries and brain disorders.

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Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have crafted their campaign narratives, telling you who they are, what they’ve done, and how they would lead America. But there’s more to their stories. The Choice 2012 journeys to the places, people and decisive moments that made the men who are competing for the presidency. Hundreds of hours of research and dozens of original interviews reveal new details and fresh insights about the two candidates — and our choice this November.

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In the fall of 2001 envelopes carrying deadly Anthrax were delivered to U.S. Senate offices, network news divisions, and a tabloid newspaper. Five people were killed, many more infected and the nation was terrorized. Seven years later, after mistakenly pursuing one suspect, the most expensive and complex investigation ever undertaken by the FBI ended when they identified Army scientist Dr. Bruce Ivins as the sole perpetrator of the attacks — after Ivins had taken his own life. Now, new questions are being raised about the FBI’s investigative methods and whether Ivins really did it. FRONTLINE, in a co-production with ProPublica, and McClatchy Newspapers, takes a hard look at the FBI’s investigation of the country’s most notorious act of bioterrorism.

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Journalist Dana Priest traces the battle against terrorism in the United States, from Sept. 11 to the April 15, 2013 bombings at the Boston Marathon.

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The inside story of Biden’s rise to the presidency, and the personal and political forces that shaped him and led to his dramatic decision to step aside.

Open details →

FRONTLINE investigates the roots of the criminal cases against former President Trump stemming from his 2020 election loss. With the presidential race for 2024 underway, veteran political filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team examine the House Jan. 6 committee’s evidence, the historic charges against Trump and the threat to democracy.

Open details →

As controversy erupts around Clarence and Ginni Thomas, FRONTLINE tells the inside story of their path to power. 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 and politics.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

Frontline’s season premiere investigates American political leaders and choices they’ve made that have undermined and threatened democracy in the U.S. In a two-hour documentary special premiering ahead of the 2022 midterms, Frontline examines how officials fed the public lies about the 2020 presidential election and embraced rhetoric that led to political violence.

Open details →

An examination of the powerful and polarizing Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, from veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker and chronicler of U.S. politics Michael Kirk and his team. Pelosi’s Power traces Pelosi’s life and legacy, how she has gained and wielded power across three decades, and how she has faced grave challenges to her leadership and to American democracy from Trump and his allies.

Open details →

From veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker and chronicler of U.S. politics Michael Kirk and his team, this documentary traces the U.S. response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the devastating consequences that unfolded across four presidencies. Drawing on both new interviews and those from the dozens of documentaries Kirk and his award-winning team made in the years after 9/11, this two-hour special offers an epic re-examination of the decisions that changed the world and transformed America. From the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the January 6 insurrection, America After 9/11 exposes the legacy of September 11 — and the ongoing challenge it poses for the president and the country.

Open details →

From his first days as president to his last, how Trump stoked division, violence and insurrection. FRONTLINE investigates Trump’s siege on his enemies, the media and even the leaders of his own party, who for years ignored the warning signs of what was to come.

Open details →

FRONTLINE tells the story of how crisis and tragedy prepared Joe Biden to become America’s next president. Those who know him best describe the searing moments that shaped President-elect Biden and what those challenges reveal about how he will govern.

Open details →

With Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court days before the 2020 presidential election, Sen. Mitch McConnell solidified the conservative majority he had been seeking for decades. FRONTLINE tells the inside story of McConnell’s hard-fought effort to transform the nation’s highest court in “Supreme Revenge: Battle for the Court,” an updated version of our 2019 film.

Open details →

A look into what has shaped President Donald Trump and presidential candidate Joe Biden, where they came from and how they lead.

Open details →

How trafficking in conspiracy theories went from the fringes of U.S. politics into the White House.

Open details →

A deep look into the growing divide in America from the Barack Obama era through the presidency of Donald Trump.

Open details →

"Zero Tolerance" - FRONTLINE investigates how President Trump turned immigration into a powerful political weapon that fueled division and violence. The documentary goes inside the efforts of three political insurgents to tap into populist anger, transform the Republican Party and crack down on immigration.

Open details →

Senator John McCain's complicated relationship with President Trump and his own Republican party. A look at McCain's life and politics, from POW in Vietnam, to choosing Sarah Palin as running mate, to his dramatic vote against the GOP's health care bill.

Open details →

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A bombastic figure on the far right who rose to prominence as a policy adviser and speech writer, Steven Bannon entered the White House determined to implement Trump’s campaign promises. “Bannon’s War” details how the former Breitbart News editor also engineered the sweeping executive order that restricted Muslims from entering the United States, and held such sway over the former president that Time magazine dubbed him “Manipulator in Chief.” He left the White House in August 2017 amid fallout from Trump’s remarks about the violence that erupted during protests in Charlottesville, Va. but continued to promote the president and his agenda.

Open details →

Review the partisanship that gridlocked Washington and charged the 2016 presidential campaign.

Open details →

The key moments that helped shape President-elect Donald Trump.

Open details →

An interwoven investigative biography of U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that draws on dozens of interviews from those who know them best—friends and family, advisers and adversaries—as well as authors, journalists and political insiders.

Open details →

“Secrets, Politics and Torture” unspools the dueling versions of history laid out by the CIA, which maintains that its now officially-shuttered program was effective in combating terrorism, and the massive Senate torture report released in December of 2014, which found that the program was brutal, mismanaged and — most importantly — didn’t work

Open details →

Examines the unfolding chaos in Iraq and how the U.S. is being pulled back into the conflict. Drawing on interviews with policymakers and military leaders, the film traces the U.S. role from the 2003 invasion to the current violence, showing how Iraq itself is coming undone, how we got here, what went wrong, and what happens next.

Open details →

Drawing on the book of the same name, League of Denial crafts a searing two-hour indictment of the National Football League’s decades-long concealment of the link between football related head injuries and brain disorders.

Open details →

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have crafted their campaign narratives, telling you who they are, what they’ve done, and how they would lead America. But there’s more to their stories. The Choice 2012 journeys to the places, people and decisive moments that made the men who are competing for the presidency. Hundreds of hours of research and dozens of original interviews reveal new details and fresh insights about the two candidates — and our choice this November.

Open details →

Journalist Dana Priest traces the battle against terrorism in the United States, from Sept. 11 to the April 15, 2013 bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Open details →

This two-hour program examines the rich personal and political biographies of John McCain and Barack Obama and goes behind the headlines to discover how they arrived at this moment and what their very different candidacies say about America.

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Frontline examines the war in Iraq and offers an inside look at a number controversies surrounding the war including September 11, al-Qaida, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraid, WMDs, and Fallujah.

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Frontline examines the war in Iraq and offers an inside look at a number controversies surrounding the war including September 11, al-Qaida, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraid, WMDs, and Fallujah.

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As the United States begins one final effort to secure victory through a “surge” of troops, FRONTLINE investigates how strategic and tactical mistakes brought Iraq to civil war. The film recounts how the early mandate to create the conditions for a quick exit of the American military led to chaos, failure, and sectarian strife. In Endgame, producer Michael Kirk (Rumsfeld’s War, The Torture Question, The Dark Side, and The Lost Year in Iraq) traces why the president decided to risk what military planners once warned could be the worst way to fight in Iraq — door-to-door — and assesses the likelihood of its success. Top administration figures, military commanders, and journalists offer inside details about the new strategy.

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On Sept. 11, 2001, deep inside a White House bunker, Vice President Dick Cheney was ordering U.S. fighter planes to shoot down any commercial airliner still in the air above America. At that moment, CIA Director George Tenet was meeting with his counter-terrorism team in Langley, Virginia. Both leaders acted fast, to prepare their country for a new kind of war. But soon a debate would grow over the goals of the war on terror, and the decision to go to war in Iraq. Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and others saw Iraq as an important part of a broader plan to remake the Middle East and project American power worldwide. Meanwhile Tenet, facing division in his own organization, saw non-state actors such as Al Qaeda as the highest priority. FRONTLINE’s investigation of the ensuing conflict includes more than 40 interviews, thousands of pages of documentary evidence, and a substantial photographic archive.

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FRONTLINE examines the hidden story of what is really driving the Bush administration to war with Iraq. The investigation asks whether the publicly reported reasons — fear of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction or a desire to insure and protect America’s access to oil — are only masking the real reason for the war. Through interviews with well-placed sources in and outside of the administration, FRONTLINE unravels a story known only to the Washington insiders.

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