August 20, 2013 "Information
Clearing House
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Immediately after the September 11 attacks, the then 24-year-old
photographer Kate Brooks set out to document the impact of war
on civilians. Since then, she has covered major conflicts
throughout the Middle East and Afghanistan, including the
American invasion of Iraq, the 2006 Lebanon War, and more
recently the Libyan revolution. “When it comes to military force
and going into conflicts, people are very short sighted about
what it’s actually going to mean,” says Brooks. “Civilians are
always the ones who pay the biggest price in any conflict.”
In this
short film, producers Leandro Badalotti and Simon Schorno
powerfully weave together an interview with the photographer and
images from over the course of her career. Brooks discusses the
motivation behind her work, the moral dilemmas photojournalists
face, and the importance of documenting the non-military lives
that are affected by these wars. “One of the things that I love
about the greater Middle East is that it’s the birthplace of
ancient civilizations and world religions", says Brooks, "but
over the past decade it’s become a region of rubble and broken
lives.” While many of the photographs can be difficult to view,
the film serves as an ever-important reminder of the
consequences of war, and the accompanying cycle of violence that
many politicians seem to forget.
Kate
Brooks is currently working on a documentary about the poaching
of rhinoceroses and elephants. Visit her
website to see more of her
work.
To see
more work from Leandro Badalloti visit
http://www.badalotti.com/.
