War Photographer follows photographer James Nachtwey on assignments around the world, including the aftermath of bloodshed in Kosovo, Palestinian uprising in Ramallah and surrealistic labour conditions in a Jakarta sulphur mine (Indonesia). A tiny video camera attached to Nachtwey’s own camera enables the viewer to get a good idea of what Nachtwey is looking at while shooting.

Aside from being an extraordinary photographer, James Nachtwey strikes me as a most honorable human being. Take for instance these words:

The worst thing is to feel that as a photographer I am benefiting from someone else’s tragedy. This idea haunts me. It’s something I have to reckon with every day because I know that if I ever allowed genuine compassion to be overtaken by personal ambition, I will have sold my soul. The only way I can justify my role is to have respect for the other person’s predicament. The extent to which I do that is the extent to which I become accepted by the other; and to that extent, I can accept myself.

James Nachtwey

The film was produced, directed and edited by Christian Frei who has since created an equally interesting feature about the destruction of the Giant Buddhas in Afghanistan.

More Info

• Official website of War Photographer
• James Nachtwey’s website
• vii website (the agency Nachtwey works for)
• Buy the DVD from Amazon

What other manufacturers release a product with such silly warnings every time you use it? Start your car? You’d have to listen to this:

You must not drive this vehicle faster than the legal speed limit set by your local government and enforced by your local police department. You must not alter this vehicle in ways that do not comply with local legislation. You must not operate this vehicle under the influence of mind altering substances, other than those prescribed by your doctor. You must not use this vehicle for illegal purposes, such as armed robbery, drag racing, drug dealing, transporting more than 342 chickens…

Please comply with fore-mentioned rules and regulations to start the vehicle, and remember to drive safely.

C’mon… my wife is due any moment now—start the car already!

I can empathize with the difficult position Hollywood is in: it is seeing a long running multi billion dollar virtual monopoly potentially disappear like snow under the sun. But surely this is the wrong way to approach the issue. It lacks original thought (just like many of its products), shows little class (just like…) and has a very predictable ending(…).

This Hollywood knee-jerk reaction to a changing world seems rather silly when you take into consideration that the town has been run down by corporate giants:

It’s only in relatively recent years that Hollywood became the playground of multinational corporations which regard movies and TV shows as a minor irritant to their overall activity.

Peter Bart, editor in chief of Variety

A lot of people are getting seriously crapped off; it appears movie moguls are shitting in the corner while entertaining guests (and while some guests might be entertained, most wouldn’t be). This sort of behaviour makes little business sense: don’t bedevil your customers! Dare I say, more people will move towards downloading/copying movies that do not include these messages?

Now, can we get back to enjoying our movies again? If the industry insists on includig these messages, at least give us back our control: don’t freeze our remotes during these messages. Please? Give us a break…

Suggested Reading

• PBS Frontline: The monster that ate Hollywood
• Ars Technica: no balance between the threat of piracy and solutions to it