Documentary overview

About Supreme Revenge (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

Inside the no-holds-barred war for control of the Supreme Court. From Brett Kavanaugh to Robert Bork, an investigation of how a 30-year-old grievance transformed the court and turned confirmations into bitter, partisan conflicts. The battle that played out during Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings reflected deep divisions in Washington that may seem unique to the moment. But as FRONTLINE reveals, the intense politicization on display during the Supreme Court confirmation process — and the transformation of the Court itself — has been a shift decades in the making. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation, the Park Foundation, The John and Helen Glessner Family Trust, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation.

Supreme Revenge (full documentary) | FRONTLINE is presented by FRONTLINE PBS | Official. Its listed runtime is 53 minutes. The source link and publisher attribution are provided with the embedded film.

As a society documentary, Supreme Revenge (full documentary) | FRONTLINE uses supreme, revenge, frontline as its central frame. Social documentaries work best as invitations to examine systems through lived experience. Distinguish individual testimony from wider claims, and consider which institutions, incentives and inequalities shape the choices shown.

Viewing context

What to consider before watching

  1. What evidence, testimony or observation does the film use to explain supreme, revenge, frontline?
  2. Which people, institutions or historical conditions most influence the story told in Supreme Revenge (full documentary) | FRONTLINE?
  3. How does FRONTLINE PBS | Official's framing affect the documentary's emphasis, and which perspectives may deserve further research?
Subjects

Topics covered in this documentary

Societysupremerevengefrontline
Film information

Documentary details and original source

Title
Supreme Revenge (full documentary) | FRONTLINE
Category
Society
Runtime
53 minutes
Language
English

Free Documentary Vault provides independent discovery, organization and editorial context. The film remains hosted by its original publisher, who controls availability and playback.

Continue exploring
(UPDATE) Supreme Revenge: Battle for the Supreme Court | FRONTLINE documentary thumbnailEN53 min
(UPDATE) Supreme Revenge: Battle for the Supreme Court | FRONTLINE

How a partisan war for the Supreme Court culminated in Amy Coney Barrett’s controversial confirmation days before the 2020 presidential election. With the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett days before the 2020 presidential election, conservatives solidified a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court — and the chance to shape American life and policy for a generation. Behind it all was a powerful Republican from Kentucky: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for whom Barrett’s confirmation was a crowning achievement in a hard-fought, decades-long effort to transform the nation’s highest court. “Supreme Revenge: Battle for the Court” tells the inside story of that effort, and how it was sparked in part by a 30-year-old grievance. With McConnell elected to another six year term and President-elect Joe Biden preparing to take office in January, the film offers both a gripping political narrative and critical context on the state of America’s judiciary at the dawning of the Biden administration. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided

FRONTLINE PBS | Official

(UPDATE) Supreme Revenge: Battle for the Supreme Court | FRONTLINE

53 minSociety
Massacre in El Salvador (full documentary) | FRONTLINE + ProPublica + RetroReport (Aired 2021) documentary thumbnailEN27 min
Massacre in El Salvador (full documentary) | FRONTLINE + ProPublica + RetroReport (Aired 2021)

An investigation into the fight for justice after a deadly 1981 attack on the village of El Mozote and surrounding areas, and how the case against high-ranking military officials faltered. (Aired 2021) This short documentary from FRONTLINE, Retro Report and ProPublica examined the horrors of what happened when U.S.-trained and equipped Salvadoran soldiers killed some 1,000 civilians, many of them children, in an attack more than 40 years ago. In the documentary, Raymond Bonner — who was one of the first journalists to bear witness to the aftermath of the massacre — recounted the experience of reporting the story and spoke with survivors of the attack. This on-the-ground investigation detailed how, for decades following the tragedy, there was little movement towards holding anyone accountable, and how the case against high-ranking military officials faltered under Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. “Massacre in El Salvador” laid bare the nation’s grisly past and the decades-long struggle for justice. “Massacre in El Salvador” is a FRONTLINE and Retro Report production with ProPublica. The producer and writer is Kit R. Roane. The senior producers are Frank

FRONTLINE PBS | Official

Massacre in El Salvador (full documentary) | FRONTLINE + ProPublica + RetroReport (Aired 2021)

27 minSociety
Boeing's Troubled 737 Max Plane | “Boeing’s Fatal Flaw" Update (full documentary) | FRONTLINE documentary thumbnailEN53 min
Boeing's Troubled 737 Max Plane | “Boeing’s Fatal Flaw" Update (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

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

FRONTLINE PBS | Official

Boeing's Troubled 737 Max Plane | “Boeing’s Fatal Flaw" Update (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

53 minSociety
Caught in India’s AIDS Crisis | India: The Sex Workers (full documentary) | FRONTLINE/World documentary thumbnailEN21 min
Caught in India’s AIDS Crisis | India: The Sex Workers (full documentary) | FRONTLINE/World

A 2004 examination of India’s AIDS crisis through the eyes of girls and young women sold into sex work, originally aired as part of the FRONTLINE/World series. (Aired 2004) Starting with “India: The Sex Workers,” we are making episodes from FRONTLINE/World’s archive newly available here on the original video platform and on pbs.org as part of an effort to make our past reporting widely accessible. Originally developed by FRONTLINE producers in conjunction with public television stations KQED San Francisco and WGBH Boston, FRONTLINE/World launched in 2002 as a national public TV series that turned its lens on the global community, covering countries and cultures rarely seen on American television. The series completed its final broadcast season in 2010. At the time this FRONTLINE/World documentary was filmed, more than two million women and girls were working in India’s sex trade, and being forced to navigate their country’s AIDS crisis. With more than 4.5 million HIV infections across India at the time, often, the women and girls’ only defense against HIV was convincing men to wear condoms. But frequently, the documentary revealed

FRONTLINE PBS | Official

Caught in India’s AIDS Crisis | India: The Sex Workers (full documentary) | FRONTLINE/World

21 minSociety
Separated: Children at the Border (full documentary) | FRONTLINE documentary thumbnailEN53 min
Separated: Children at the Border (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

FRONTLINE’s 2018 documentary tells the inside story of what happened to immigrant children separated from their parents at the border under the "zero tolerance" policy. What’s happened to the more than 2,000 families who were separated after crossing the U.S. border unlawfully in 2018? And how did immigration policy in America reach this point? In this special FRONTLINE report, acclaimed producer Marcela Gaviria and correspondent Martin Smith examine immigration policy under both Trump and Obama, investigate the origins of “zero tolerance” — and reveal the journeys and voices of children who were separated from their parents. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation, the Park Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation.

FRONTLINE PBS | Official

Separated: Children at the Border (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

53 minSociety
Opioids, Inc. (full documentary) | FRONTLINE documentary thumbnailEN53 min
Opioids, Inc. (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

Pushing opioids. Bribing doctors. Making millions. FRONTLINE and the Financial Times investigate how Insys Therapeutics profited from a fentanyl-based painkiller up to 100 times stronger than morphine — and how some Wall Street investors looked the other way. This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Support your local PBS station here: “Opioids, Inc.” tells the inside story of how Insys profited from Subsys, a fast-acting fentanyl-based spray that's been linked to hundreds of deaths. Tactics included targeting high-prescribing doctors and nurse practitioners known as “whales,” misleading insurers, and holding contests for the sales team: the higher the prescription doses they got doctors to write, the larger the cash prize — despite the dangers to patients. But as the documentary traces in unprecedented detail, the scheme fell apart: With federal prosecutors using anti-racketeering laws designed to fight organized crime, Insys became the first pharmaceutical company to have its CEO sentenced to prison time in federal court in connection with the opioid crisis. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public

FRONTLINE PBS | Official

Opioids, Inc. (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

53 minSociety