Frontline: Season 31

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. In “The Choice 2012,” acclaimed FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk (“Money, Power and Wall Street,” “Top Secret America”) documents 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.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

Four years ago, climate change was hot. Politicians from both parties, pressed by an anxious public, seemed poised to act. But that was then. Today, public opinion about the climate issue has cooled, and politicians either ignore the issue or loudly proclaim their skepticism of scientific evidence that human activity is imperiling the planet. What’s behind this reversal? FRONTLINE correspondent John Hockenberry of PRI’s The Takeaway goes inside the organizations that fought the scientific establishment, environmental groups, and lawmakers to shift the direction of debate on climate issues and redefined the politics of global warming.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

In a special investigation in collaboration with Marketplace, FRONTLINE travels to the remote epicenter of the campaign finance debate for a tale of money, politics, and intrigue. How has the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision changed campaigns in America? Ask Montana, which has tried to challenge the ruling in court, is investigating alleged campaign abuses, and is playing host to a bitter race that could decide control of the U.S. Senate. FRONTLINE correspondent and Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal reports. Also this hour: PBS NewsHour correspondent Hari Sreenivasan reporting for FRONTLINE goes deep inside the Romney and Obama campaigns to uncover how data collected from millions of Americans is being used by both camps to target their messages, get out the vote, and shape the election.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

* Warning: This program contains graphic footage - Viewer Discretion is advised * You have an incurable illness, you want to die and you want help dying — what can you do? The terminally ill who live in Oregon or Washington can openly ask a doctor for help, but in the rest of country, where physician-assisted suicide is illegal, people who are suffering turn in secret to friends, family and even activist organizations. FRONTLINE explores this shadow world of assisted suicide, where the lines between legality and criminality are blurred, taking viewers inside one of the most polarizing social issues of our time — told by the people choosing to die, and by their “assisters,” individuals and right-to-die organizations at risk of prosecution for their actions.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

These are hard times in the Quad Cities, a great American crossroads along the border of Iowa and Illinois, where the Mississippi River intersects Interstate 80. Home to John Deere manufacturing and the nation’s breadbasket, it’s also an area deeply scarred by the recession. FRONTLINE follows three young girls growing up amidst their families’ struggles against financial ruin. This an intimate portrait of the economic crisis as it’s rarely seen, through the eyes of children. With one in five American children living below the poverty line, “Poor Kids” is an unflinching and revealing exploration of what poverty means to children — and to the country’s future.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of Washington, DC, public schools, is one of the most admired and reviled school reformers in America. FRONTLINE was granted unprecedented access to Rhee during her tumultuous three-year tenure as she attempted to fix a broken school system. As Rhee returns to the national stage, FRONTLINE examines her legacy in Washington, DC, including her battles with the teachers’ union and her handling of a cheating scandal in the District.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

As Barack Obama is sworn in for his second term, FRONTLINE takes a probing look at the first four years of his presidency. With inside accounts from his battles with his Republican opponents over health care and the economy to his dramatic expansion of targeted killings of enemies, FRONTLINE examines the president’s key decisions and the experiences that will inform his second term.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

Are the CEOs of mega-banks too big to jail? Though fraudulent practices at banks contributed to America’s financial meltdown, to date no Wall Street titan has been convicted of a crime connected to the crisis. FRONTLINE investigates why Wall Street’s leaders have escaped prosecution.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

This February, as the nation faces yet another round of fiscal crises, FRONTLINE investigates the inside story of Washington’s failure to solve the country’s debt and deficit problems. Drawing on interviews with key players in Congress and the White House, FRONTLINE goes behind the scenes to show how a clash of politics and personalities has taken the nation's economy to the edge of the “fiscal cliff,” and now to a second round of standoffs over the debt ceiling and sequestration. The film explores the deep ideological divide inside the Republican Party and the struggle between House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Speaker John Boehner as they take on President Obama and the Democrats.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

In the wake of the mass killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, FRONTLINE investigates a young man and the town he changed forever. Adam Lanza’s motives, and his life, remain largely a mystery. With The Hartford Courant, FRONTLINE looks for answers to the central — and so far elusive — question: Who was Adam Lanza? Also this hour: In the aftermath of the tragedy, President Obama called for a national conversation about guns. Nowhere is that conversation more intense than in Newtown, where FRONTLINE finds a town divided and explores how those closest to the tragedy are wrestling with our nation’s gun culture and laws.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

In the rural heartland of Syria's countryside, the bloody uprising against President Bashar Al Assad has taken a terrifying turn. In this highly charged documentary, award-winning filmmaker Olly Lambert lives on both sides of Syria's sectarian frontline, witnessing the devastating effect of a religious feud that, regardless of the outcome of the war, is shaping Syria's future. For generations, the many religions that live in Syria's Orontes River Valley have lived together peacefully. But as the conflict spirals into a contagious and sectarian blood feud, friends and neighbors of different faiths are taking up arms against each other, as Syrian society begins to collapse. And as each side seeks more and more revenge, shells, mortars, and air attacks only escalate the hatred and violence on both sides.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

Ten trillion dollars in Americans' retirement savings are invested in large and small accounts managed by banks, brokerages, mutual funds, and insurance companies. But whether your IRA or 401K will assure a safe retirement is largely a gamble. Building off reporting from the groundbreaking special Money, Power and Wall Street, FRONTLINE raises troubling questions about how America's financial institutions protect our savings. The Retirement Gamble reveals how fees, self-dealing, and kickbacks bring great profits to Wall Street while imperiling the prospects of a secure future for individuals. The film questions who has the consumer's best interests in mind, and whether there is a better way to manage our retirements.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, the threat of terrorism again confronts Americans. More than a decade after 9/11 and hundreds of billions of dollars later, there are pressing questions about whether America’s investment in its “terrorism industrial complex” has made us safer. In FRONTLINE’s "Top Secret America - 9/11 to the Boston Bombings," Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Dana Priest traces the journey from 9/11 to the Marathon bombings and investigates the secret history of the 12-year battle against terrorism.

Rating: NR  Languages: English 

In his latest film, Marian Marzynski (Return to Poland, Shtetl) returns to the Warsaw ghetto of his childhood. In Never Forget to Lie, Marzynski tells the extraordinary story of how he as a Jewish boy escaped the Holocaust, hiding from the Nazis, and surviving the war as an altar boy in a Catholic monastery. In a deeply moving and personal film he shares the poignant, painful recollections of other child survivors, many of whom are visiting scenes of their childhood for the last time.

Rating: NR  Languages: English