Coming in August on FRONTLINE: Guns, Retirement and Chicken

This month on FRONTLINE, we’ll bring you encore presentations of three popular documentaries — the first exploring the power and politics of the National Rifle Association, the second raising troubling questions about how America’s financial institutions protect our retirement savings, and the third investigating why the U.S. food safety system isn’t stopping the threat of dangerous pathogens in our poultry.

Here’s a closer look at our August lineup:

August 4 | Gunned Down: The Power of the NRA

How did the NRA evolve from a group of gun enthusiasts and sportsmen with minimal political focus, to a powerful lobbying force opposing any perceived infringement of the constitutional right to bear arms? In Gunned Down, veteran filmmaker Michael Kirk investigates the NRA, its political evolution and influence, and how it has consistently succeeded in defeating new gun control legislation.

August 18 | The Retirement Gamble

Will your IRA or 401(k) accounts ensure a safe retirement? Using his own retirement fund as a case study, correspondent Martin Smith explores the mutual fund industry and reveals how annual and hidden fees can potentially add years to your working life.

August 25 | The Trouble with Chicken

One day after FRONTLINE first aired The Trouble with Chicken in May, lawmakers in Congress pushed for two separate bills aimed at making the food we eat safer. The documentary looks closely at the largest Salmonella poultry outbreak on record, when public health officials say that chicken from one of the nation’s biggest producers, Foster Farms, sickened more than 600 people over 16 months.

Check your local PBS listings here.