“Love+War”, “Armed only with a camera” is the goal of conflict mast photographers
The headline in a UNESCO report from last December sums up a grim reality: “Journalists killed in 2024: heavy deaths in conflict zones for second year in a row.”
In Gaza, in Ukraine, and on other battlefields around the world, photographers and journalists continue to risk their lives to document the brutal impact of war on combatants and innocent civilians. What forces them to take on such dangerous missions? Two new Oscars documentaries provide insight into this important but troubling question.
On the latest episode of Dock Talk’s Deadline Podcast, we open the mic to Love + war Co-director E. Chai Vasarhelyi and the hero of her documentary, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lynsey Addario. We also speak with Craig Reno, Director Armed only with a cameraa documentary about his brother—the late director and photographer, Brent Reno—as well as producer Juan Arrindo, who went into the field with Brent at the start of Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine.
Addario has captured extraordinary images in Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of intense conflict. Outside Kyiv, she was injured in an attack by Russian forces, who killed civilians a few meters away from her. The National Geographic film reveals how Adario tries to balance her work with motherhood; She’s raising two children with her husband in London while regularly going into the field knowing she may not return home.
Brent Renault has paid the ultimate price for trying to appropriate the plight of the civilians he drives from their homes by the millions in the Ukraine war. Arindo, who was at Renault’s side when their car came under fire from a Russian soldier, takes us back to that fateful day in Irbin, Ukraine. Craig Reno shares the story of traveling to Ukraine to retrieve his brother’s body and bring him back to Arkansas.
Armed only with a camera It begins streaming on HBO Max on October 21. Love + war It opens theatrically on October 29 before arriving on National Geographic on November 6 and on Disney+ and Hulu on November 7.
The conversations with Vasarhelyi and Addario, and Renaud and Arredondo, are among the strongest we’ve recorded in Doc Talk.
Doc Talk is hosted by Academy Award winner John Ridley (12 years slaveand Shirley) and Matt Carey, senior documentary editor at Deadline. Doc Talk is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.
Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, IHEART and Apple.