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

The Inside Reel

Co-Director Chai Vasarhelyi & Pulitzer Prize winning photographer/subject Lynsey Addario  talk to The Inside Reel about psychology, subjects and structure 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 it's interesting being in that reflection um could you talk about sort of the

00:32existential element of that you know uh because chai and i have talked about that in terms of other

00:38things but can you talk about that then i'll go into uh chai circling in and doing this with you

00:43yeah i mean i think the first question i asked myself is you know am i a worthy subject you know

00:50there are so many incredible war photographers and photographers doing amazing work around the

00:56world and when chai and jimmy came to me it's sort of like i i asked myself why me you know am i it felt

01:05like a bit of a narcissistic process like the subject my camera is always spotlighting someone else who

01:11i'm providing a platform to and so it just felt weird to be the subject but i did feel like it

01:19was the right time like we've seen so many depictions now of war photographers and they're

01:25very often men and i you know to be to be quite candid i felt like it was time to to focus on a

01:32woman um to show that there are women doing this job often throughout history they've been overlooked

01:39like gerta taro lee miller i mean the list goes on and on and i think that it's time you know it was

01:46time to profile a woman and and it was yeah it was a strange process but i did decide that in

01:53accepting this like accepting to go along with the documentary that i would open my life and i would

02:01be kind of the subject that i always ask of my subjects so that is you know transparent and

02:06vulnerable and open and honest daddy where's my mom mommy is working alpha god

02:14she's in another country but she's gonna come back soon this is lindsay dario we're being shelled

02:26i'm a conflict photographer very few people understand why we do what we do she'd go where

02:40most people wouldn't go in a million years and captures the human drama

02:44there's a narrative that the profession has been dominated by men lindsay has a very distinct ability

02:51to make memorable images but also to be able to go out and find the story she's really good at

02:56that the proof is in her pictures and that she's still alive chai could you talk about the entry

03:00point because there's so many different things from obviously your work in india lindsay but

03:05afghanistan but the libya thing and all the way obviously into what's going on in the ukraine

03:10can you talk about looking at sort of the both narrative and visual input because there's so much

03:15footage obviously that you both had to share to think what would serve the story the best

03:20well i think it was imperative given that we were going against the grain of the expectation of

03:29the male war photographer and that trope that we've seen over and over again in fiction and non-fiction

03:34and some great films to throw the audience into a visceral experience of lindsay's life in the field

03:42and the work you know what you couldn't have bet on was the absurdity of like a grandma and her

03:50son and her grandson stopping and yelling at lindsay about you know why are you hiding like

03:57this is our life we've lived through bombing for 14 like since 2014 and then the flip side of it when

04:03she lands in london of the london cabbie being like and how are you today and she's like i'm trying to

04:09make it to my son's recital and like yes i was just in ukraine like it's somehow like that scene

04:15even though it necessitated a quite unconventional like you know our credits come at minute 12

04:20um and it's kind of like schizophrenic in a way but like you need we needed that anchor and i often

04:28when i'm asking this film would have been like i realized at first that i had a great bias because

04:34i had i was very protective of lindsay because like she is you know i see myself in her in a much

04:40lesser way but like you know it was harder for me than most films let's say to work with the material

04:47of lindsay with her children because i saw my kids in that experience um but then it would necessitate

04:54us saying well actually we've got to be as hard on lindsay as we would be on anyone because that's a

05:01disservice to her if we aren't so it's kind of like so the structure was hard um the the career is

05:08spans 25 years all of it's important um and so it just kept on coming back to what's in service of

05:16this narrative and what's the center of it was the strength of character in her and the humanity

05:22and moral courage that kind of is present in both at home and in the field for her which has to do

05:29with her family has to do with her kids has to do with her sisters and has to do with like the great

05:35price of bearing witness so it's all kind of like a hot mess in some way but then it kind of worked

05:40you know and i didn't know if it would work i knew i would work as hard as i could to get it to work

05:45but just it suddenly one day clicked and it's like held together by a wing like a wing and a prayer

05:50uh this is lindsay dario in the village of nova luhansk

06:20we're being shilled

06:21why is the woman just standing there they're outgoing now or incoming that was incoming

06:33it's incoming yeah okay yeah boy oh my god are they like

06:38she's not worried about her child

06:41where's the front line where i am

06:49well this probably isn't the best place is it

06:53lindsay can you talk thank you chai uh lindsay can you talk about instinct because obviously

06:58your instinct in your eye i love the fact i think one of your editors at the your editor at the new york

07:03time said you know she she she looks in color and there's certain things that can be picked up

07:07because obviously black and white creates a more metaphorical can you talk about that instinct and

07:13how it's evolved because you know you've been in the field and you've seen all these things

07:18yeah i mean i started in black and white and so it wasn't until i went to digital that i started

07:27shooting more and more color and now i kind of just seeing color and i think my instinct is tied into

07:34a few things i'm thinking about like my instinct for a story and and when to sort of move in

07:41is really about what i think my readers and people will respond to and i think that that is

07:49when i'm covering a war that's worlds away and everyone in the u.s has their own problems they're

07:55grappling with how can i get people to care and and it's generally like what binds us as human beings

08:01you know the the parenting the women and children things that we can recognize like familiarities

08:09in the subject and so my instinct really hones in on like what affects me as a person when i'm out in

08:16the field you know what do i feel is a powerful moment and i think after so many years of covering war

08:23you know i could be jaded a lot of people say to me like how are you not jaded how are you not so

08:29negative and and miserable and i have to say that it's like the subjects themselves are so inspiring

08:35to me because for that like even in the darkest moments they still have strength and they still

08:41have like the determination and so i do think that like my subjects are what connect me and they're also

08:49like my instinct to be attracted to certain stories and certain subjects is what guides me

08:55and i can only hope that it works and that i pick things that you know i pick moments in time that do

09:01sort of convey the drama of a situation but it's i'm not always right you know sometimes i have a day

09:08and it's not as successful as other days but i the reality is i have to just keep going out and keep trying

09:14i want to have impact on policy and women's issues but the best stories are in the most dangerous

09:21places i have to constantly weigh what will i risk my life for

09:25you've never hugged me like that

09:29people think how can you still go to war as a mother i am constantly tortured like i'm not in the

09:36right place kids are so much harder than war it's frustrating my head is always where i'm not

09:44i suck as a parent i suck as a journalist where do you cut me back try going back to you thank you

09:50thank you lindsey the the aspect of finding the right stories the stories you want to tell because

09:54it is you know we're stuck in not necessarily but it's it's in an hour and a half hour and 40 minutes

10:00so there's so many stories you could tell but you have to have those perspectives this is about

10:04perspective and perception obviously i think the inclusion of like julia is a beautiful sort of thing

10:10but also the aspect with the uh the um the pregnancies i believe it was in sudan you know

10:16and how that sort of played out but then the structure allows it to come you come back to it

10:22and show the you know the the sort of for the foreshadowing or the you know the advanced thought

10:28process of how this would affect people and that probably lindsey didn't even know um could you talk

10:34about that looking both at the stories you want to do the discussions with lindsey but also structure

10:40talked about before i mean the structure was really hard i mean it's if you look at it like

10:46if you look at it on paper it doesn't make sense you know and it was very much a house of cards like

10:51you would urge enga tower like you move one thing but it was only when you change the form of another

10:56thing but i can tell you the purpose that all of those sequences serve you know there's something

11:02singular about lindsey where she keeps in touch with all her participants like a lot of them and she

11:07carries those stories with her for years you know be and it was shocking like i'd be like can we try to

11:13interview this person she's like oh yeah i just what's apt with them and the julia story is both

11:19a story of a young woman and and what happens you know how you change with war how war changes us but

11:25also an example of how lindsey's lindsey's commitment to understanding a story through time

11:31you know mama sise which was about um which which is set in um rwanda right am i right yeah yeah sorry

11:40sierra leone is again you know it was i it was so interesting like lindsey and i did a q a the other

11:49day when chelsea clinton was was moderating and she asked a question i really hadn't thought about

11:54which was lindsey like do you get feedback and lindsey's like not really because the the story just

12:00keeps on rolling like you know it's the next news cycle and that mama sise story is one of those

12:06examples where she actually did get feedback like it changed something palpable and i'm sure those

12:11photographs changed lots of people i know they've changed me but you know so yeah i mean it was it was

12:19how to make those choices it really was like how do we what like look at the whole and how does it do

12:25justice to service lindsey's story and how is it authentic and like even you know some people would

12:33be like why are you spending so time much time in the home it's because it's like the beating heart

12:37of the story and like it's the same humanity she brings in the field and it's hard and i haven't

12:42seen that in many films no word from four new york times journalists lindsey adario is among the

12:48missing we didn't know if they were alive or if they were dead for six days it's the compromise she

12:53wants to do all of the things and be at home as well it's my mission my responsibility

12:58you

12:59you

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

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