Saturday, September 14, 2002

War Photographer (IMDB) (Netflix)--na
Robert Capa, perhaps the most famous combat photographer ever, said "if your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." It wasn't an empty aphorism; a landmine in Vietnam killed him in 1954.

This Oscar-nominated documentary of today's version of Capa, James Nachtwey, adopts his credo, using tiny video cameras attached to Nachtwey's still camera as he documents the aftermath of Kosovo and Rwanda, the workers' hell-on-earth in the sulphur mines of Indonesia, the continuing tragedy in Ramallah. It's tough viewing, not from poor execution, but from its unflinching images of the worst aspects of humanity, and Nachtwey's compassionate dedication to bringing them back to the rest of the world.