There were more laughs than tears as family, friends and colleagues gathered to remember photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 23 April.

Tim Hetherington’s mother, Judith Hetherington, was one of the people who spoke at the event.

The open discussion, Still Kicking – Tim Hetherington, Three Years On, included stories from Hetherington’s life and the influence he continues to have.

Hetherington – whose list of works includes the Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo – was killed by shrapnel from a mortar shell on 20 April 2011 while covering the Libyan civil war.

“The influence of Tim’s work is undoubtedly too early to judge, but there’s no doubt Tim’s arrow fell too soon,” said Hetherington’s father Alistair Hetherington, reading a letter written for the event by Art Blundell, who worked with Tim as a UN investigator.

Between the anecdotes and stories, the night was broken up by clips from films that Hetherington worked on and influenced.

James Brabazon, who was Hetherington’s friend and collaborator, produced the film Which Way is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington. Speaking at the event, he said:

“There were some things that Tim failed at, and they were glorious, spectacular failures – and we’re all very glad he failed, because after them came truly stunning success.”

The audience laughed when Brabazon mentioned a project Hetherington worked on, to produce a Braille photography book, and another about a narrative feature science fiction film to be set during the war in Afghanistan.

“I think one of the dangers of making films like Which Way is the Front Line From Here? is that in retrospect, someone’s career looks like an inexorable victory march. It looks like every success inevitably follows on from the last success, and you forget actually that that process of creating great, permanent and enduring work, in there, things don’t work out.”

Hetherington’s partner, Idil Ibrahim, spoke to the audience via Skype. She said that when she would often spend time organising and structuring how to potentially execute projects, Hetherington often told her to just get out there and do it.

https://twitter.com/I_Am_Idil/status/459043164699897856

“One of the key takeaways that he’s kind of left with me in terms of inspiring me and moving forward, is that now instead of saying ‘Why?’ I usually just say ‘Why not?’” she said. “And through the last three years, the journey that I’ve been on, you know, has kind of always started with that question, ‘Why not?’”

Judith Hetherington, Tim’s mother, also spoke at the event. She said not an hour goes by without her thinking of her son. She noted that she has been navigating his business since he died, and she has learned a lot about him through it.

“In honour and in developing Tim’s legacy, we – Alistair and I – have been to many parts of the world, parts that we would not probably have gone to,” she said. “That’s enabled an enormous picture of Tim to open up to us, and we’ve seen a world, a perspective of life I think through Tim’s eyes, and that’s been extremely valuable, and it’s all going to live with me.”

In an interview after the event, Judith Hetherington said she thought it was a thought-provoking evening.

“I hope people have gone away thinking how they can be inspired by Tim’s work,” she said.

Donations can be made to the Tim Hetherington Trust through their website.

You can listen or watch the event here:

Producer James Brabazon talks about Tim Hetherington’s life and legacy

“Why do young men go to war?” was asked again and again at the Between the Lines follow-up screening of Which Way is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington on Thursday 17 October at the Lexi Cinema. It was a question that occupied Hetherington during his lifetime and a question that director Sebastian Junger and producer James Brabazon aimed to discover about Tim in this powerful and moving film.

A very candid Q&A with the producer Brabazon followed the film – which covered the late Tim Hetherington’s career as a war photographer – whose honest revelations added an extra dimension to the screening.

“The essential issue is that young men find comfort in war. One of the unspeakable truths is that it’s fun. You can see at the start of the film, every single man is laughing,” Brabazon points out, referring to the opening scene where amongst the heat of the fires burning in the Libyan corridors there is a sense that the men who run around with their AK-47s are doing something fun. “That’s uncomfortable,” he adds.

“Somehow water always finds its course and there is something about the theatre of war that bonds young men like you don’t see anywhere else. Tim was interested to see why young men go to war. . .   And did he need to be there? No.

 

“But yet he finds himself at the front line, having a good time. It’s that vortex of violence.”

When an audience member asked Brabazon if Tim’s death compelled him to leave war reporting, we were even given a glimpse of his reasons for going. Contrasting himself to director Sebastian Junger, who decided to stop going in to report conflict, he confessed he felt he had a duty to show people what was going on.

“The way that [Junger] feels is that when you’re working in war, you think you’re putting yourself at risk, but in fact what you’re doing is endangering and putting at risk the lives of those people around you, that love and care for you.

 

“I felt that after Tim died, I really couldn’t stop. I felt somehow stopping would constitute a betrayal of our friendship,” he admitted.

 

“I’m not really very good at much,” he said after a searching pause. “There are lots of things that I can’t do. There is this one thing I can do, and when I get it right, I’m not bad at it. But I feel all we do after all is tell other people’s stories, and if you can tell people’s stories who live at the ragged, violent margins of society and you give those people a voice in a way that is translated so that other people can understand it – if you don’t do it, then who will? Because someone needs to, and I feel I can.”

His admission is something also seen in Hetherington throughout the film and you witness the intensity with which he interacts with the people he photographs and brings out the truth. “He made work to be seen,” said Brabazon, when asked about Hetherington’s legacy. “And he wanted to affect change.”

Sebastian Junger has gone on to found RISC Training – “Reporters instructed in saving colleagues” – as a response to a lack of medical knowledge among frontline reporters.

Between the Lines was a three-day festival that took place at Rich Mix from 1 to 3 March co-organised by DocHouse and the Frontline Club. In a series of follow up events we continue to explore the challenges facing documentary makers, investigative journalists and citizen reporters in the new media landscape.

Director Sebastian Junger and producer James Brabazon screened Which Way is the Front from Here – The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington, on the 7th October 2013 at the Frontline Club. Tim Hetherington was not only a close friend to both Junger  and Brabazon, but also one of the Club’s founding members and a former speaker. The screening was followed by an emotional and heartfelt Q&A.

Director Sebastian Junger (left) with James Brabazon. Photo: Pete Ford

According to the HBO synopsis, the film ‘traces Hetherington’s work across the world’s battlefields, to reveal how he transcended the boundaries of image-making to become a luminary in his profession.’

Covering his life from childhood, to self-discovery in India, to finding his photo-journalistic focus in Liberia, to his last moments in Libya, the film is a moving and loving tribute to a close friend of Junger and Brabazon. Using Hetherington’s own footage, it offers an not only an insight into his progression as a journalist, but also into the reasons why did he what he did. As he put it:

“I probe this idea: the who am I, what am I doing?”

In the Q&A session that followed the screening the question of the film’s focus was asked, with Junger replying that:

“I didn’t want it to be a film about Tim’s death. I wanted it primarily to be a film about his incredible life.”

Brabzon said that he saw there being a legacy for this film:

“I have lost count of the number of young photographers who say they got into this because they saw Tim’s work. If the work in this film inspires other people to approach their work in the same way, and the same spirit as Tim did, then for us that is a small success.”

The harrowing footage of Hetherington stepping in to save the life of a suspected spy in Liberia raised the debate on whether a journalist can ever justify participating in the events they are reporting.

Hetherington’s attitude to this is clear throughout the film, with him at one point stating that: “I’m a big white guy, I’m in your country, and for me to pretend otherwise is just stupid”. Brabazon added:

“The point is not whether you are being objective, but whether your work is credible and authentic.”

While Junger has stopped filming in war zones as a direct result of Hetherington’s death, Brabazon reached a “diametrically opposed conclusion…[feeling] somehow that it would be a betrayal of what Tim and I did together, to stop.”

Junger has gone on to found Risc Training – “Reporters instructed in saving colleagues” – as a response to a lack of medical knowledge among frontline reporters.

The film will be released in cinema’s across the UK on 11 October. More information about the film or details about upcoming screenings can be found the Facebook page, and you can view the trailer here:

Salma 
Thursday 26 September 2013, 8:00 PM Rich Mix London
Growing up in South India, Salma spent most of her childhood under house arrest. She poured out her anguish writing poetry which she sneaked out of the house. Against the odds she became one of the best known Tamil poets and her newfound fame helped her start on the path to freedom. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Kim Longinotto’s long-term editor Ollie Huddleston.

Which Way is the Front Line from Here – The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington + Q&A
Thursday 17 October 2013, 8.30 PM Lexi Cinema

Colleague and co-director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Restrepo, Sebastian Junger, thoughtfully portrays Tim Hetherington’s life and work. At a time when greater numbers of journalists are losing their lives covering conflict, the film also addresses the high risks taken by war journalists. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with producer James Brabazon.

Shorts at the Frontline Club – Between the Lines Special – BOOK NOW
Friday 25 October 2013, 7:00 PM Frontline Club 

Join us for an evening of short documentaries, showcasing films from different parts of the world, covering a wide range of topics. As part of Between the Lines the selection will focus on ‘filming the unfilmable’, followed by a discussion on how to document events that that are difficult to access.

The Bombing of al-Bara + Q&A – BOOK NOW
Tuesday 29 October 8.30 PM Ritzy Picture House

2012, a government jet dropped a large bomb on the village of al-Bara. Only 300 meters away, Olly Lambert was filming a meeting of rebel soldiers. While keeping his camera rolling, Lambert documented the shocking impact of regime air strikes on a civilian population. The result is a rare, immersive portrait of the reality of civil war.

No Fire Zone + Q&A – BOK NOW

No Fire Zone : The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, chronicles the final 138 days of the 26 year Sri Lankan civil war, told by the people who lived through it. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Callum Macrae.

Presented by:

Supported by:

On 20 April 2011, photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was killed by mortar fire in the city of Misrata, Libya. He bled out in the back of a pick-up truck on his way to the hospital.

In his work Hetherington focused on the experience of war from the perspective of the individual. Through his photographs, writing and films, he offered new ways to think about human suffering as a result of war. He captured the perspective of the soldiers and the civilians, caught up in the many conflicts he reported. The work he did throughout his ten-year career has established him as one of the most important photojournalists of his generation.

Colleague and co-director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Restrepo, Sebastian Junger thoughtfully portrays Hetherington’s life and work. At a time when greater numbers of journalists are losing their lives covering conflict, the film also addresses the high risks taken by war journalists.

Directed by Sebastian Junger
Produced by James Brabazon
Duration: 79′
Year: 2013

Between the Lines was a three-day festival that took place at Rich Mix from 1 to 3 March. In a series of follow up events we continue to explore the challenges facing documentary makers, investigative journalists and citizen reporters in the new media landscape.

Presented by:

Supported by:

On 20 April 2011, photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was killed by mortar fire in the city of Misrata, Libya. He bled out in the back of a pick-up truck on his way to the hospital.

In his work Hetherington focused on the experience of war from the perspective of the individual. Through his photographs, writing and films, he offered new ways to think about human suffering as a result of war. He captured the perspective of the soldiers and the civilians, caught up in the many conflicts he reported. The work he did throughout his ten-year career has established him as one of the most important photojournalists of his generation.

Colleague and co-director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Restrepo, Sebastian Junger thoughtfully portrays Hetherington’s life and work. At a time when greater numbers of journalists are losing their lives covering conflict, the film also addresses the high risks taken by war journalists.

Directed by Sebastian Junger
Produced by James Brabazon
Duration: 79′
Year: 2013

[acf field=”Tickets”]

On 20 April, 2011 photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were tragically killed while covering the civil war in Libya.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, Benjamin J. Spatz and the American literary magazine Alaska Quarterly Review brought together 68 of the world’s leading photographers to proactively honor Tim and Chris. The result,  Liberty and Justice (for All): A Global Photo Mosaic, is an exploration of the many facets of liberty and justice through images and personal narrative.

Join Spatz and Giles Duley in the final event in Photo Week 2012 for a presentation of the proactive tribute and to discuss the challenges to interpret and depict these universal themes in a dangerous and changing world.

Chaired by filmmaker and journalist James Brabazon.

Giles Duley worked for 10 years as a fashion and music photographer before becoming accomplished humanitarian photographer. His work has been exhibited and published worldwide in many respected publications including Vogue, GQ, Rolling Stone, The Sunday Times and The Observer. In February 2011 Duley was severely injured while working in Afghanistan.

Benjamin J. Spatz is Guest Editor of the Alaska Quarterly Review and is a Truman National Security Fellow. He recently served as Special Advisor to the Government of Liberia and has worked with a relief and development NGO in Darfur, the global political risk advisory firm Eurasia Group, and the United Nations Mission in Liberia. Saptz‘s photography has been recognized by Pictures of the Year International and the National Press Photographers Association.

Sponsored by:

On 20 April, 2011 photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were tragically killed while covering the civil war in Libya.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, Benjamin J. Spatz and the American literary magazine Alaska Quarterly Review brought together 68 of the world’s leading photographers to proactively honor Tim and Chris. The result,  Liberty and Justice (for All): A Global Photo Mosaic, is an exploration of the many facets of liberty and justice through images and personal narrative.

Join Spatz and Giles Duley in the final event in Photo Week 2012 for a presentation of the proactive tribute and to discuss the challenges to interpret and depict these universal themes in a dangerous and changing world.

Chaired by filmmaker and journalist James Brabazon.

Giles Duley worked for 10 years as a fashion and music photographer before becoming accomplished humanitarian photographer. His work has been exhibited and published worldwide in many respected publications including Vogue, GQ, Rolling Stone, The Sunday Times and The Observer. In February 2011 Duley was severely injured while working in Afghanistan.

Benjamin J. Spatz is Guest Editor of the Alaska Quarterly Review and is a Truman National Security Fellow. He recently served as Special Advisor to the Government of Liberia and has worked with a relief and development NGO in Darfur, the global political risk advisory firm Eurasia Group, and the United Nations Mission in Liberia. Saptz‘s photography has been recognized by Pictures of the Year International and the National Press Photographers Association.

Sponsored by:

By Sarah Gibbons

Few people can say that they were involved in one of the most infamous coup attempts in recent history, the foiled attempt to overthrow the government of Equitorial Guinea of 2004, let alone experienced civil war in Libera, marched for miles alongside its rebel leaders – and even formed an extraordinary friendship with a “gun-for-hire” arms dealer and mercenary – Nick du Toit. Yet, for James Brabazon, frontline journalist and documentary film-maker, these experiences are very real memories and an integral part of who he is today.

James Brabazon was at the Frontline Club to discuss his new book My Friend the Mercenary – an insider’s account of his unlikey friendship with Nick du Toit, and the events that led up to the mercenary’s inprisonment in the notorious Black Beach Prison.  He was joined by Andrew Mueller – rock critic, travel writer and foreign correspondent, who described James Brabazon‘s account as “beggaring belief”.

James Brabazon began by reading an exceprt from his book, which described Nick du Toit’s horrific prison experience. The planned coup d’etat failed spectacularly, largely due, as James Brabazon explained, to the comprehensive infiltration among the coup-plotters by the South African Intelligence Service; it was a “foregone conclusion of failure”.

Astonishingly, James Brabazon was meant to have been there filming the coup attempt, but pulled out at the last minute due to his Grandfather’s death. He too could have been arrested and suffered alongside his friend in prison.

This led to Andrew Mueller asking the question “at that point…was there still an extent that you felt like you should have been there?”

James Brabazon answered that he had conflicting emotions. During their time together, filming the Liberian civil war, Nick du Toit had saved his life countless times. He had even nursed him back to health after a bout of dysentry, which nearly killed him. He had gone above and beyond his role as bodyguard and even stayed with James Brabazon after he had to inform him that his production company had folded and he couldn’t be paid.

This time, Nick du Toit was alone and James Brabazon said that he felt a sense of survivor’s guilt. In a professional capacity, he had also missed a big opportunity of capturing the coup attempt on film.

Much of the discussion focused around moral questions and dilemmas. For example, James Brabazon had become good friends with rebel leaders who committed horrific acts of violence and felt genuinely sad at their deaths.

He compared working in Africa as like holding a “pig- iron” to your moral compass, leaving you unsure of right and wrong. In his view, people should not be categorised as “good” or “evil”,but rather that people did good and bad things.

One member of the audience asked whether he got de-sensitised after witnessing so many acts of violence and executions. James Brabazon re-counted the time when he was filming an execution, only to find himself adjusting th camera to get the best shot. He claimed “when you find yourself composing murder…you know you are so lost.”

Mercenaries, gunships and a foiled coup, it reads like a Hollywood script but is in fact the real life story that frontline journalist, documentary filmmaker and long standing Frontline Club member James Brabazon became embroiled in. He will be joining us to recount the inside story of the most infamous coup attempt in recent history; from his journey into the Liberian war to the imprisonment of his friend, body guard and mercenary Nick du Toit in Black Beach Prison, Africa’s most notorious jail.

As in his book My Friend the Mercenary Brabazon will be recalling how his unlikely friendship with Nick du Toit came into being on the bloody battlefields of the Liberian civil war and how this led to him becoming involved in the 2004 attempted overthrow of the government of Equatorial Guinea.

James Brabazon will be in conversation with Andrew Mueller, rock critic, travel writer, foreign correspondent, columnist and author.