Aging in the U.S. (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

As Barack Obama was sworn in for his second term, FRONTLINE took a probing look at the first four years of his presidency. (Aired 2013) From President Barack Obama’s battles with Republican opponents over health care and the economy, to his dramatic expansion of targeted killings of enemies abroad, “Inside Obama’s Presidency” examined the 44th U.S. president’s key decisions and experiences during his first term — and how they might inform his second. “Inside Obama’s Presidency” was a FRONTLINE Production with the Kirk Documentary Group. The director was Michael Kirk. The writers were Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser. The producers were Michael Kirk, Jim Gilmore and Mike Wiser. The reporter was Jim Gilmore. The deputy executive producer of FRONTLINE was Raney Aronson-Rath. The executive producer of FRONTLINE was David Fanning. Explore additional reporting related to "Inside Obama’s Presidency" on our website: FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation

Inside a counterterrorism police unit in Karachi, Pakistan, dedicated to tracking down suspected members of the Pakistani Taliban. (Aired 2015) In the nearly five years since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, there’s been a dramatic increase in attacks within neighboring Pakistan by the militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, commonly called the Pakistani Taliban or TTP. Pakistan has accused Taliban-controlled Afghanistan of harboring the group and enabling it to launch cross-border attacks, which the Afghan government denies — and in recent weeks, the fight between the two countries escalated into what Pakistan’s government called “open war.” Against this volatile backdrop, FRONTLINE’s 2015 documentary “Taliban Hunters” offers relevant history on TTP and Pakistani security forces’ fight against it. This short documentary went inside a Karachi-based counterterrorism police unit dedicated to tracking down Taliban suspects. As the documentary reported, TTP first emerged in 2007 and used to have only a small, underground presence in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. But by the time the documentary aired, the group had been gaining ground in the city of over 20 million people, and carrying out suicide

It’s been 15 years since the rebellion in Syria against Bashar al-Assad’s government began. “The Regime” examined how the uprising started and the brutal crackdown that followed. (Aired 2011) On March 6, 2011, young boys painted messages on the walls of a school 60 miles south of Syria’s capital, Damascus. “Freedom, freedom and freedom, only,” read one message. “Down with the corrupt Assad,” read another. Soon after, the boys were rounded up by the government’s secret police. Their fathers went to see the police chief, a cousin of Syria’s then-president, Bashar al-Assad, and begged him to release their children. Airing later that year, “The Regime” examined what happened to the boys, and how outrage over their fate helped to fuel the Syrian uprising. “That very instance of repression, of torture, seemed to galvanize the town itself,” the late reporter Anthony Shadid said in the documentary. “And almost from that moment, the uprising seemed to gain momentum.” As Syrians took to the streets to protest and to call for more freedoms, the swift and brutal response by Assad’s security forces followed

In 2011, FRONTLINE investigated a growing trend of airlines outsourcing their heavy aircraft maintenance from in-house to independent repair facilities. (Aired 2011) In the 2011 documentary “Flying Cheaper,” FRONTLINE examined the outsourcing of major airline repair work to U.S.-based contractors who kept costs low by using unlicensed mechanics and to foreign-based maintenance operations, from China to El Salvador. FRONTLINE correspondent Miles O’Brien investigated reports of undertrained mechanics, foreign workers who couldn’t read English language repair manuals, inadequate FAA oversight and the use of unauthorized airline parts. “Flying Cheaper” was a co-production with the Investigative Reporting Workshop that was produced by Rick Young and Catherine Rentz. Miles O’Brien was the correspondent. Rick Young was the writer. Leslie Atkins was the editor. Raney Aronson-Rath was series senior producer. David Fanning was executive producer. Explore additional reporting on "Flying Cheaper" on our website: FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; Park

FRONTLINE and NPR followed the trail of one of the final detainees released by the Obama administration from the prison at Guantanamo Bay. (Aired 2017) When President Barack Obama first took office, he signed an executive order to close the controversial military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — where the U.S. has held terror suspects for years without charges. Though he didn’t succeed in closing Gitmo, a symbol of the post-9/11 “war on terror,” Obama made a final push to clear out the camp before President Donald Trump took over. The documentary “Out of Gitmo” examines the challenges and complexities of releasing men who were once deemed “indefinite detainees” — those never charged with a crime but considered too great a risk to let go. “Out of Gitmo” was a collaboration with NPR and WGBH News. The writer and producer was James Jacoby. The correspondent was NPR/WGBH News reporter Arun Rath. The senior producer was Frank Koughan. The senior investigations editor for NPR was Robert Little. “Out of Gitmo” was a production with Left/Right Docs. The executive producers for Left/Right

As new questions arise about Boeing’s troubled 737 Max jet, FRONTLINE and The New York Times update an award-winning investigation into the design, oversight and production of a plane that was involved in two crashes that killed 346 people. In October 2018, a Boeing 737 Max passenger jet crashed shortly after takeoff off the coast of Indonesia. Five months later, following an eerily similar flight pattern, another 737 Max 8 went down in Ethiopia. Everyone on board the flights died. "Boeing's Fatal Flaw" tells the inside story of what led up to the crashes — revealing how intense market pressure and failed oversight contributed to tragic deaths and a catastrophic crisis for one of the world’s most iconic industrial names. This updated documentary also examines what’s happened since the original film first aired in 2021, including the January 2024 Alaska Airlines incident where a panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max jet’s body midair, and how Boeing has responded. Explore additional reporting related to "Boeing’s Fatal Flaw" on our website: FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast