Being an ambitious working woman with her children has many challenges. But being a female war photographer with children is a difficult effort for Oscar winners Chai Vasalheli and Jimmy Chin to make an effort.
Captured in the documentary “Love + War.”
National Geographic Films records Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lindsay Adario’s rise in conflict photography in the male-dominated world. The 96-minute document, which premieres on Sunday at TIFF, juxtaposes Adalio’s real-time camerawork on Ukraine’s ground alongside home life in London.
“Love + War” begins in Ukraine. When Russia invaded the country, Adalio was there. After slightly avoiding the missile strike, Adario took a picture of his family who had been killed by Russian mortars, and they tried to escape from the country. The image appeared on the New York Times front page and attracted international attention.
A few days later, Adario is in London, trying to adjust to his family life during the deadline. Adario’s husband asks her to read her young son’s story at bedtime. Adario, exhausted from her weeks of taxable Ukraine trip, says, “Children are much more difficult than war.”
Addario has filmed almost every major conflict and humanitarian crises of the past 20 years. She took strong images from war zones and unrest regions of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. In addition to witnessing countless atrocities, she lost friends and colleagues like “Restrepo” director Tim Hetherington and was invited twice.
“People do this because they believe in the freedom of the press, the need to document what is happening in the war zone, and the need to make the public recognize injustice,” says Adalio. “People can easily dismiss anything they don’t want to believe as ‘fake news’. Part of our job is to say, “It’s not a fake – I was there.”
While her work and the risks she will encounter are more extreme than most, “Love + War” reveals that, like many women, Addario struggles to balance his ambition, responsibility and identity.
Variety spoke with Adario and Vasalheli ahead of their “Love + War” TIFF debut.
Lindsay, why do you want to create this document now?
Addario: I’ve come close to a fair amount since I was invited in Libya (in 2011). I hesitated for a variety of reasons. One is that I felt very narcissistic. I then continued to watch films made by war photographers, both fictional and documentaries, and they often focused on men. At one point I felt it was important to have women in the role, allowing young women and, in general, women to do this too.
Chai, watching the movie “Having Everything” is refreshing. Was it part of the reason you wanted to make this movie?
Vasarhelyi: I wanted to make a film that was faithful to Lindsay. It examined life experiences that not only respected the extraordinary work she did in her long career, but also informed her perspective. There was definitely a very strong perception of gender stereotypes during play, and there were challenges gender traditionally presented over many different careers, especially those traditionally dominated by men, and judgements that also revolve around. We were also trying to keep life experiences in that position in mind.
Lindsay says in the film that veteran correspondent Dexter Filkins is getting obsessed with the adrenaline of being in the war zone, as is the case with the war correspondent just as you do. He says no, I think they’re hooked on the enormousness of it. Do you agree to that?
Addario: That question about adrenaline makes me plague hell. Because it really minimizes us as war correspondents and as journalists who put ourselves there for a much bigger purpose. When I was young, when I first began documenting, for example the collapse of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq, I began to realize how basic the role of journalists in such situations was. That is a great responsibility. Suddenly I realized it was an incredible privilege. It also cannot imagine that I would do anything else with similar weight and meaning, as long as I have the ability to do this work.
New York Times Pulitzer award-winning photographer Tyler Hicks has worked with Lynsey throughout her career. They were both taken hostages in Libya in 2011, but he is not in the documentation. Chai, did you ask him to interview you?
Vasarhelyi: We asked him several times and respected his decision not to participate.
Lindsay, what was it like to watch this film, especially when your husband is struggling as a single parent?
Addario: Watching the movie is very difficult. I think seeing it for me is like seeing fallout for all the people I love throughout my life. I’m just overwhelmed by guilt and I’m suffering every day. The scene with my child and my husband is difficult. I’ll probably be able to watch for 20 minutes and have to leave because I’m sobbing. I think that’s a testament to the film’s integrity, and that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want a beautiful photo. I didn’t want anything unrealistic. You don’t need one more movie about a war photographer walking through invincible fire. It is important to show how difficult this life is, and it is selfless in the work we do, but it is very selfish in the impact it has on all the people we love.
Joanne Woodward once said, “I wasn’t a very good mother. I was always running off to do a movie or something. If I had to do that, I would have a career or a child. I didn’t do both unless I could work at home. Lindsay, does that resonate with you?
Addario: I’d add a warning to it and if you have a supportive partner or someone to help with it, that’s possible. It’s not beautiful, it’s not easy. Getting that balance is hardly in control. But I think that’s possible.
The following exclusive clips for “Love + War”:
