IR Interview: Chai Vasarhelyi & Lynsey Addario For "Love + War" [National Geographic] - Part II - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Co-Director Chai Vasarhelyi & Pulitzer Prize winning photographer/subject Lynsey Addario talk to The Inside Reel about approach, mindset and the essence of stories in regards to their new documentary film from National Geographic: "Love + War", available on Disney+ and Hulu.

Transcript

00:00our nation needs to understand what the cost of war is what lindsey does it's critical it's

00:16almost a duty or a calling people have a tendency to move on it's my job to get people to continue

00:23paying attention something really has to get you to make you come out and make a film yeah you know

00:32and i always find you totally engaged by it but it takes a lot of time all this stuff takes so much

00:37time to do no yeah i'm i'm obsessive and maybe and it's kind of one of the things that lindsey and i

00:43share which is like we're uncompromising if we are going to commit and that was a real

00:46luxury in this project because lindsey is a journalist and she understood fully well the

00:52sort of commitment that was needed to do this the right way including opening up her personal life

00:57which i don't know if i could do you know i'd be like no way like like no way and you know but she

01:05also knew it's always this story it's like i trust you to trust me and she trusts me to trust her

01:11you know and that's the agreement we make um and so i will work my ass off to make do the best job i can

01:21if i commit to doing it and lindsey was very much the same where she was like if we're gonna do it

01:27we've got to do it and you know and watching lindsey watch the movie for the first time was

01:32like one of the most painful things for me and terrifying because i'm like i wouldn't wish this

01:38on anyone because it's hard and you know i do see my kids in every frame of lindsey's kids and i

01:44you know and at the same time like there are very few people who i feel completely comfortable

01:48with when i get the face time that someone's screaming at me on the other side and i'm like

01:52oh lindsey anyway just excuse me for a moment let me go deal with this shit show you know and um

01:58but that's life and i think that's what was it's special like this film is very personal and special

02:04because lindsey is singular and also her it's like timely like you know journalism is under attack

02:11feminism is under attack and it matters and i think that for me if you talk about choices like

02:18it was really important to include lindsey's return to afghanistan post-taliban post-taliban's return

02:24because i was like how can you like spend so much of your career and isn't this just too much isn't this

02:30just like so disenchanting and her point is like no it's the work you know and optimism is like a moral

02:37choice and that matters so i think in this moment when everything's so overwhelming climate change

02:44the rise of totalitarianism the rise of big tech ai we still have to do our work there's no other

02:51choice and we have to fight the good fight and lindsey's a good example of it

02:54mommy is working alfred she's in in another country but she's gonna come back soon

03:05it's the length of assignments that's always been the challenge in our relationship

03:21if it's one week two weeks it's not really a big deal but when it gets longer over three weeks

03:26it's always things tend to unravel at home

03:29in my heart all i want to be doing is shooting

03:40it's frustrating i'm constantly tortured like i'm not in the right place

03:46but i come back i'm supposed to be really happy and i feel like i should be there and i feel like

03:52about journalists because i'm not my head is always where i'm not but we recognize humanity

03:58despite anything we're talking about with ai you do recognize humanity and the thing is is that

04:04you know what you were just saying i found it very interesting you know with you lindsey is that

04:08you can find the calm and the chaos but the chaos and the calm and that's very interesting there was

04:14something i think you uh you said that you know whenever i'm at home i'm thinking about the field

04:18whenever i'm at the field i'm thinking about at home it's an interesting dichotomy it's an irony

04:23but it's human um could you talk about that because you have to make choices in an instant

04:27the whole thing with uh i think with uh jeffrey um when that happened you know or even when you

04:33were kidnapped i mean those are things where you have to decide how to act or the choices to be made

04:38can be life and death absolutely i mean all of those choices are life or death you know i think

04:44certainly uh when jeffrey and i were kidnapped in iraq i made the decision to jump out of the car

04:50after him because i thought i'm a woman and i can change the dynamic here and maybe soften the the

04:58the anger and the tone and kind of i i think you know but knowing the culture in which i'm working

05:05has a big effect on how i conduct myself you know i wouldn't do that in certain there are certain

05:11countries i would go to bat for any of my colleagues you know i think that that's just

05:15there's a an unspoken rule that we work as teams and that's like we stand up for each other but i

05:21think you know i think it's very important when working in conflict zones to understand the population

05:27to understand the mentality understand culturally how things roll into another and how people react to

05:34me you know and so i think for example in libya when we were captured it was me and three other

05:41new york times journalists all extremely incredibly experienced war correspondents and i think that's

05:49one of the reasons we're still alive anthony shadid before he passed away wrote me an email and said

05:55you know i i think they didn't kill us because you were there and you're a woman you know essentially

06:00but i also think that the fact that we were experienced and none of us kind of freaked out

06:07or started making demands or screaming or you know we were totally submissive and i think knowing that

06:14just our experience helped keep us alive but yes in war and and on all of these stories every single

06:22thing we do every response we have to an action determines the access we get whether we stay alive

06:29whether we move forward whether we pull back whether you know everything and so i think that

06:35it's really we we do not move through these stories and it like without ripples and i think we have to

06:43understand kind of the the impact we make on a micro level and a macro level

06:49since the war she's been gone quite a lot

06:53you know one month in ukraine then maybe back two weeks then maybe speak engagement or an exhibition

07:02and then back a little bit

07:04your name is mommy yeah my name is mommy

07:07then ukraine and then something else

07:10if you want to stay relevant you've got to be available all the time

07:18she's worried about it gets older you know if she doesn't do these things even if she's an amazing

07:24photographer you know they won't assign her well and also that we're a consequence of our choices and

07:30our truth i mean uh i talked to sebastian younger you know obviously for restrepo and the whole thing

07:35was he told he has a certain point of view because of what tim went through and obviously you knew tim

07:40but you were there at the same time and the way you interacted and your point of view was completely

07:46different and it's all about voice i mean chai and i've talked about this i think as well is that

07:51you know it's how do you purvey your voice and has your voice evolved i know chai's voice is evolved

07:57and she's talked about that too but can you talk about how that's evolved in turn not just of the

08:01instinct but of understanding what you do and how you do it absolutely and i think my voice has evolved

08:09in that i've i now now i i now focus more on stories rather than just kind of responding to

08:16news i think look in the beginning of the the full-scale invasion of ukraine of course the first

08:22like six months you're always responding to news because that's what shapes a story and then you dig

08:28deeper and so for me the longer i'm covering war the more i'm looking for those stories that can

08:35really like encapsulate what's happening on in the bigger picture but with one family or one character

08:43so that the reader can really identify or people at home can really sort of find a window into the

08:49conflict and so i've evolved not only as a woman and i've become a mother and and you know a lot has

08:56changed in my own life but i've also evolved in the way i approach people in the way i tell stories

09:01and i think that i'm i'm more emotional now the older i am you know i think that i definitely

09:08empathize i have like an insane amount of empathy that that causes me to become very emotional sometimes

09:14and sometimes it's embarrassing you know i don't want to feel bad but i and i don't want to show people

09:20that i feel emotional or vulnerable because their situation is much worse than mine i'm just feeling for

09:27them you know and so i think it's um i've definitely changed over time but i try to to really focus in

09:36on specific stories more than anything because i think that ultimately they have the most impact

09:42one of us has to be a constant in the kids lives paul left reuters he started doing consulting

09:51that enabled us to have a family nice you like it he's the one the school calls he's the one who

09:58goes to all the pta meetings he's the one who takes him to school in the morning

10:01i've set it up so that if something does happen to me they have paul

10:07and my last question for you chai is you know because we're talking a lot of what lindsay does is

10:14instill images but we also get to see obviously that you took lindsay over there a lot of the video

10:19and it's encapsulating that with the video and the interviews uh of paul and obviously of uh of

10:27alfred and your other son um could you talk about finding sort of that balance chai and understanding

10:34sort of the ebb and flow that needed to happen it's hard i mean this film really is like it's so

10:42finely crafted and it's not rational like if that makes sense like the way the best way i can

10:49describe it is it's probably an essay but an emotional essay because like

10:57the work the work is fact right like her work in the field is fact but there's an artistry to it

11:05but each segment and each beat has to serve a purpose in trying to speak to the larger whole

11:14or the argument which is really an argument for humanity and connection at the end of the day and

11:20that's what lindsay's career is you know and also her family like it's it's just what it all is and

11:26like i get a little like i don't like it when people just like ask lindsay these questions about

11:31like her fracturedness or like just two different people or like the ptsd and i'm like no it's like

11:38the herd magic is that she's entirely herself in all of these situations it's probably the reason why

11:43she can still go to sleep at night and and like i've learned from that like just the comfort in

11:49your own skin in a way that like being comfortable with like the other moms being like where were you

11:56like you know like i mean i it happens to me too and so well because they can never understand like

12:03what you do what lindsay do a lot of people can't understand what that is men or women sometimes you

12:09know but i think it's also that we can't understand their experience either and who knows what's

12:13hiding behind the door and i think that lindsay's compassion and that is very much illustrated by

12:19returning to afghanistan and finding a common humanity even with these dads who are selling

12:24their daughters because it's the only thing they have left because of climate change in this drought

12:30and because of the return of the taliban and because of american politics like that's something that

12:34really gives me hope and it's about the human condition and this sounds very vague but like

12:40it's just more there is a compassion and commonality to like to every frame that lindsay takes and i we

12:47tried our best to kind of allow audiences ability to feel the the different environments she has to

12:57move between and understand how they inform one another and how they inform the the the photographs

13:03and how they're really in service of us no word from four new york times journalists lindsay adario

13:08is among the missing we didn't know if they were alive or if they were dead for six days it's the

13:13compromise she wants to do all of the things and be at home as well it's my mission my responsibility

13:19you

13:34you

13:38you

13:40you

13:42you

IR Interview: Chai Vasarhelyi & Lynsey Addario For "Love + War" [National Geographic] - Part II

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