Marcela Gaviria

Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline's goal is to extend the impact of the documentary beyond its initial broadcast by serving as a catalyst for change.

Tracing Xi Jinping's defining moments, how he's exercising his power and the impact on China and relations with the U.S.

How did the U.S. lose the war in Afghanistan? Who bears responsibility? And what has been the human cost? Drawing on decades of on-the-ground reporting and interviews with Taliban and U.S. officials, this epic three-part investigation traces how America’s 20-year investment in Afghanistan culminated in Taliban victory and examines the missteps and consequences.

Events that led to the largest government bailout in U.S. history.

FRONTLINE examines the rise of Xi Jinping, his vision for China and the global implications. Correspondent Martin Smith traces the defining moments for President Xi, how he’s exercising power and his impact on China, and relations with the U.S. and the world.

Did America rush into a war in Iraq for which it was unprepared? FRONTLINE examines why the U.S. went to war in Iraq, what went wrong in the planning for the postwar occupation, and what was at stake for both the U.S. and for Iraqis.

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.

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.

The untold story of The Firestone Tire Company, Charles Taylor, and the forgotten tragedy of Liberia.

The “Chinese Dream”: a return to former greatness – that is Xi’s goal. He challenges Hong Kong’s special status just as he pushes for the reunification of Taiwan with the mainland. Military force and confrontation with the United States are not off the table.

Over most of two decades, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani’s life has been a roadmap of Islamist militancy in Iraq and Syria. Designated a terrorist by the United States, the powerful Syrian militant now seeks a new relationship with the West.

Privileged, yet shaped by oppression during Mao’s Cultural Revolution – this is how China’s President Xi Jinping grew up. A childhood and youth that would leave lasting marks on the world. Xi was molded early on for the role of leading a global superpower. But just how deeply he internalized Mao’s ideas only became clear over time, as authoritarian traits emerged that no one had quite anticipated – especially considering that Xi’s own father was a victim of the Cultural Revolution.

Day after day scores of bodies litter the streets of Baghdad. To staunch the violence, the U.S. has spent billions to “stand up” the Iraqi forces. In Gangs of Iraq, a joint production of FRONTLINE and the “America at a Crossroads” series, FRONTLINE takes a hard look at how the four-year training effort has fared and how the coalition-trained forces have themselves been infiltrated by various sectarian militias. Now, with President Bush sending new U.S. troops to Iraq, it remains to be seen if America and its allies can build a national Iraqi army and police and restore order.

In December 2001, as American forces blasted mountain hideouts in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, hundreds of Al Qaeda soldiers fled seemingly disappearing into thin air.

Tens of thousands of fresh American troops are now on the move in Afghanistan, led by a new commander and armed with a counterinsurgency plan that builds on the lessons of Iraq. But can U.S. forces succeed in a land long known as the “graveyard of empires”? FRONTLINE producers Martin Smith (Beyond Baghdad, Return of the Taliban) and Marcela Gaviria (In Search of Al Qaeda, The War Briefing) once again make the dangerous journey to the front lines of America’s biggest fight. Through interviews with the top U.S. commanders on the ground, embeds with U.S. forces and fresh reporting from Washington, Smith and Gaviria examine U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan — a fight that promises to be longer and more costly than most Americans understand. [Explore more stories on the original website for Obama’s War.]

The next president of the United States will inherit some of the greatest foreign policy challenges in American history — an overstretched military, frayed alliances, and wars on two fronts. FRONTLINE gives viewers a hard, inside look at the real policy choices the next president will face. The report features strategists and diplomats giving their best advice about how to correct past failures and how to shape a realistic foreign policy approach in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The inside story of what happened to immigrant children separated from their parents at the border. The film explores the impact of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, and how both Trump and Obama dealt with minors at the border.

America’s heroin and opioid crisis has been called the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history. FRONTLINE goes inside the crisis and places it in a fresh and provocative light — telling individual stories of addiction, but also investigating how the heroin epidemic as we know it came to be.

In the summer of 2003, violence against the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq spiked alarmingly. Traveling across Iraq, FRONTLINE reporters went to see how the U.S. plan to turn the country into a showcase for democracy in the Middle East was faring.

Ten years ago, stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall were the drugs of choice to treat behavioral issues in children. Today children as young as four years old are being prescribed more powerful anti-psychotic medications that are much less understood. The drugs can cause serious side effects and virtually nothing is known about their long-term impact. As the debate over medicating children continues to grow, FRONTLINE confronts psychiatrists, researchers, and big pharma about the risks and benefits of prescription drugs for troubled children.