All language subtitles for The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington

You know,
what's interesting

about war
is that there's

lots of generalizations
made up about it.

But in going to these
extremities, that what's

interesting
is that you see

that even
in these terrible

times, in these
terrible moments,

in these terrible
extremities,

that people
are still human.

I think that
that for me is

like the redeeming
factor

of the human experience.

No, that sounds
too fucking bullshit.

INTERVIEWER: Well,
I think it was good.

I think we're
almost there.

You know, there's a lot
of people who make

kind of generic--

No, I don't want to say,

"There's a lot of
people, you know.

I think the important
thing for me is

to make work that is
connected to people,

you know.

Uh, I like to--Oh, shit.
Sorry, man.

Ha ha ha!

Blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah.

Start over.
Yeah.

[Clears throat]

How can I get it--I just
kind of, like, bloop!

Ah...

I think the important
thing for me is

to connect with
real people, you know,

to document them
in these extreme

circumstances,
you know,

where there aren't
any kind of neat

solutions
or where you can't put

any kind of neat
guidelines

and say, "This
is what it's about..."

or, "This is
what it's about..."

It's not.

I hope that my work
kind of shows that.

INTERVIEWER: Yeah,
that was strong.

Yeah?

INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

♪

[Radio playing
American pop music]

TIM: So which way is the--
which way is the front line

from here?

MAN: That way.

♪

DIFFERENT MAN:
Jesus, Guillermo.

You got to stay down.

Fuck. Look at that,
nice little shooter.

TIM: If we got shot at,
just jump on it.

[Laughter in truck]

[Gunfire]

[Shouting in foreign language]

[Shouting commands
in foreign language]

[Man laughing off-camera]

Good.

TIM: Crazy.

Yes, it's crazy.

[Men talking and shouting
in foreign language]

[Gunfire]

♪

[Men talking and shouting
in foreign language]

[Gunshots]

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
I risk my life

for a lot of
different things.

As a documentary
photographer,

I probe this idea
the whole time,

of what am I doing
and why am I doing it.

You know, a single photo
isn't necessarily a story,

so you have to ask yourself
the question, "Why do you

put yourself in that position?"

And I do it for lots
of different reasons.

I do it also for
personal reasons, you know,

as much as I do it
for the objective truth.

In war, you see so many
crazy things happening.

You see all sorts of
different human emotions

crystallized.

Reporting on these things
that are very complex

and political gives you

an insight into
human behavior that imbues

your reporting with a sense
of meaning and significance.

It's addictive
in that way, yeah.

[Crows cawing]

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
As a photographer, you need

to develop a way of working
that suits your personality

but also allows
you to bring out

the sort of subject matter
that you think is important.

[Kids talking
in foreign language]

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
At the root of my work is

really this kind
of whole idea of intimacy.

I become deeply embedded
emotionally

in all the work I do.

[Speaking Tamil]

Wow! She's really
a bright character, eh?

How old are you?

[Speaks Tamil]

TRANSLATOR:
9 years old.

TIM: 9 years old?

What's her favorite
time at school?

[Girl speaks Tamil]

[Translator speaks Tamil]

TIM: You seem very
intelligent for 9, huh?

Just keep looking
in here and don't move.

[Translator speaks Tamil]

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
It's necessary, I think,

in raising sort of
consciousness

of serious political
or social events

to create something
that works on a more

imaginative level, something
that will allow the viewer

to engage creatively
with the subject.

[Speaking
foreign language]

TIM: Can you see me?

Hello, Britad!

OK, we're going
to swap now,

and you're going to
come and sit here.

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
For me, it's all

about personalization.

Often, we see scenes
of disaster,

and it's almost
like we forget

that the people imaged
are individuals,

with individual
stories and lives.

TIM: You're done,
OK, no problem.

Ask him,
"Was that painful?"

[Translator laughs]

"Yeah."

TIM: It was painful.

[Laughs]

Yeah, that's the sad
truth about photography.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER: I got into
photography because I got

into travel.

I lived in 12 different
places in Britain;

I never had a community
that I lived with.

And what I do now
is a reflection of that.

Because of my work, we moved
around quite--quite a lot.

I don't say that we were--
the family was gypsies,

but Tim certainly
was brought up in a family

that were used to living

in different parts
of the country.

WOMAN: He was always very
comfortable and confident

with people,
and I think that was

one of his great gifts,

that he could communicate
at whatever level,

whether it was
children or adults,

and in whatever condition.

ALISTAIR: As an undergraduate
at Oxford, Tim had a very wide

and enquiring mind
and was intensely interested

in everything
that took his attention.

He finished his degree,
and he went to India.

After a year,
we couldn't get him back.

Had three faxes
in over two years from him

from odd places.

He was a person
who seldom became a tourist.

His mind
and the interest led him

really to immerse himself.

That sort of
commonplace impulse was

of the foundation of really
the rest of his life.

♪

TIM: It kind of occurred to
me that we were living

in an image-based world

and that that would be
kind of a really

interesting way
to communicate with people.

Eventually a friend
of mine said,

"You know, if you really
want to do this properly,

you should go back
to college,"

and there was a course in
Cardiff that he pointed out,

and it was about
photojournalism.

And he said, "Well, that's

telling stories with
pictures," and I thought,

well, that's a pretty--

that's kind of
what I want to do.

MAN: Well, as I remember
Tim in '96, he was a big,

rangy fellow.

Tall, thin, very affable,

and he had a nice laugh

and a relaxed manner

about him, but he was
also, obviously, very bright

and he was also warm.

My whole belief--about
photography is that it's

about engaging with people,
and Tim engaged with people

with knobs on.

DIFFERENT MAN: I think he
was willing to put himself

in difficult situations.

He did a piece
about a hospital,

and as it turned out, he
had spent sort of 24 hours

at A & E, which most of
us wouldn't, you know,

dream of doing at the time.

It's a lot of dedication

to spend 24 hours
in that situation.

♪

ROSE: It was a pointer
to the sort of way he worked

and what he did later on.

♪

MEADOWS: Tim embraced--

and he was
the only student that year

who really got into it--
he embraced multi-media.

I think of him as probably
my first genuinely

modern student.

He saw right
from the word go

that the future wasn't going
to be just about print.

♪

The future is about learning
to work across many

different platforms, for
many different audiences,

in many different ways.

It's about having a subject
matter that you've immersed

yourself in completely.

And he had a way of being
able to do that

that was remarkable,
and not many people

have been able to do that.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
Photography liberated me

from the workplace.

It made me free.

It would allow me
to express myself.

It channeled me.

It made me free

from a kind of
destructive tendency

that I guess
I had inside myself

so I could channel
my energy somewhere.

It made me free to move.

I need to move.

That's just how I am.

[Man speaking
foreign language]

TIM: It's OK?

Yeah.
You can--carry on.

No problem.

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
I love working with people.

I think that I can move
into diverse situations

as a stranger fairly easily.

I've spent the last--
you know, many years

doing that.

TIM: How do you say
"very good" in Tamil?

"Allam."

TIM: "Allam"
is good?

Yeah.
Very good?

Yeah, very good.
"Allam."

"Allam"?

"Allam."

TIM: OK, your
English--"allam."

Allam. Yeah.
Yeah.

I know about 5 words
of about 30 languages.

Yes.
Allam.

TIM, VOICE-OVER: I find
that instead of interaction

ruining the dynamic
of the images,

it actually breaks through
the ice straightaway

and allows you just to
get on and start working.

I mean it's really
obvious I'm there.

I'm a big white guy, I'm in
your country, and for me

to pretend otherwise
is just plain stupid.

It's nice to see.
Yeah.

TIM: How do I
say "good-bye?"

But not a good-bye.
"I'll see you again"?

FISHERMAN:
Foi du aarum. Tamil.

TIM: Foi--

Foi du aarum.

[Foi DU AIR-um]
Foi du aarum.

Foi du aarum.

Aarum. Right!

Foi du aarum.
Yeah.

OK, because I'm
going to walk off.

I see. So,
"Foi du aarum"

and "nandry."

"Nandry."

[Laughter]

[All speaking Tamil]

"Nallam."
Nallam.

TIM, VOICE-OVER: The idea
of becoming a journalist

and illustrating my own
ideas came, you know,

about in '99.

And that was
when I found out

about a group of
footballers from Liberia

coming to the UK
on a football tour.

And they were ex-combatants
that had fought in the war

in Liberia.

Here they were from one
of the poorest countries

in the world visiting
one of the richest,

and I thought that was

a really interesting story
about worlds colliding.

And they said,
"You know what?

"We're looking for somebody
to go to Liberia.

Will you go for us?"

And that's how it all began.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
When I went to Liberia,

it just blew me away.

I'd never experienced
a country

like that before
in my life.

And it was two years after
the end of the civil war,

two years into the reign
of Charles Taylor,

and I went
to photograph football

as one of the more positive
things that was going on

in Liberia at the time.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
"Healing Sport" was

the first coherent project

that I made as
a photographer.

I made it under the idea
of "Trojan horses."

The idea was: can we talk
about things that people are

reluctant to talk about
by disguising them

in other vehicles?

And so basically "Healing
Sport" was about war,

but it was disguised
as sport.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
After working in Liberia,

I went to Sierra Leone
in '99.

A rebel army,

the Revolutionary
United Front, the RUF,

had invaded Freetown.

And I went with a surgeon
into the interior, and we

came across people that had
been blinded by the rebels,

so I made a series
of portraits of them.

[Students singing
in Sierra Leone dialect]

MAN: Many of
the children lost their parents;

We have to take care of them.

TEACHER: Are you
listening to me?

STUDENTS: Yes.

TEACHER: Hello...

CAMPBELL, VOICE-OVER:
There's one girl, Sophie,

who had a rebel beat up her
father and kill him

and rape the mother,

and then when she started
crying, they melted

this plastic and dropped
the thing in her eyes,

and that made her
to be blind.

[Students speaking
in Sierra Leone dialect]

MAN: Tim's work
at the Milton Margai School

for the Blind was really
pivotal to what happened

next in his career.

♪

BRABAZON, VOICE-OVER:
He became really invested

in those children's lives.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER: A lot
of photographers, I think,

are presenting their work
as if it's like, you know,

"You have to see this,

the world needs
to see this,"

this kind of,
you know, moral outrage.

And for me, you know, moral
outrage motivates me, but I

don't see it as a useful
tool to get people to engage

with the world.

I think that we need
to build bridges to people.

♪

BRABAZON, VOICE-OVER: He
didn't give a Western audience

the images that they expected
to see of the worst stereotypes

of what violence
in West Africa means.

What he came back with was
a really in-depth personal

profile, not just of
the horror that they've been

through, but of the hope
that they had of where they

were going.

What Tim saw
in the blind school were

the effects of war.

He wanted to understand
how it would be caused

in the first place.

And I think that what
he went on to do in West Africa,

when he came to Liberia with
me, when he stepped into

the middle of that war, was
to see very clearly who was

perpetrating these acts
of violence and why.

♪

BRABAZON, VOICE-OVER:
I first met Tim

because he rang me up
out of the blue and said,

"Hi. You don't know me. "My
name is Tim Hetherington.

"I'd really like to come to
Liberia with you and take

photographs of the rebels."

And I was kind of
taken aback,

the idea of just suddenly
taking Tim along

and, you know, throwing
that exclusive

out the window.

It was like, "Yeah, sure,
come along"--it's like,

Never going
to happen, right?

It was just one of those
meetings where things

just clicked and, you know,
he's the same height as me,

we had similar education.

He came along to shoot
video for the film that we

were making.

But part of the deal was
that he'd be able to shoot

entirely his own portfolio
of photographs.

SOLDIER: Liberia government
officials are not enemies.

Taylor is our only enemy.

[Soldiers chant in
foreign language]

BRABAZON, VOICE-OVER:
In a way, I felt sort of

quite guilty, you know.

I mean, Tim had
never been in combat.

He had never been
on a front line in war

like this before.

[Gunshots]

[People shouting
in foreign language]

I mean, he was totally
unfazed, but then he

didn't really know what
was about to happen next.

[Conversation in foreign
language]

No.

TIM: No...

Yes.

Wow.

You can see, eh?
Yeah.

There's all of us.

So you think he's
a good driver or rubbish?

No, he's a good driver.

[Conversations
in foreign language]

MAN, VOICE-OVER: The rebels,
from the North, the LURD,

who Tim was traveling with,
they were

largely ethnic Mandingo,

and they had felt
really cast aside

by Taylor's regime,

and so to join up
with the rebels would be

to throw your lot in
with a bunch of young men--

teenagers at best,

and you're going to walk
through some of the most

treacherous
jungle conditions

that you can find anywhere,

toward a regime that's one
of the most feared regimes

in West Africa.

Charles Taylor's regime
was considered the source

of instability for Guinea,

Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast.

[Chanting in foreign language]

BRABAZON, VOICE-OVER:
The nature of the fighting

in Liberia, it wasn't just two
armies facing each other off,

it was two groups of
young men absolutely enamored

with the theatrics of war.

They used the drama
to instill fear,

but they also used it
to give themselves courage,

and the effect that that
has on you is terrifying.

[Conversation
in foreign language]

TIM, VOICE-OVER: It's kind
of strange doing a job

where you're actually going
out and then you're looking

for fighting.

[Man speaking
foreign language]

TIM, VOICE-OVER: I remember
in Liberia going down a road

and it was like
this fucking heavy fighting

out there, man--
shouting and bombing,

and I'm like,
"We're walking that way?"

Like, "It's like,
too close up there

"and we're walking there?

Are we fucking insane?"

[Gunfire]

BRABAZON: Down, down,
down, down, down!

[Bombs exploding]

[Men shouting
in foreign language]

TIM, VOICE-OVER: You
really kind of think, "Man,

"you wanted this, and now
it's just gone too far."

Like, "You've really
fucked it now.

"You're going
to end up dead of..."

You know, "You've let
everybody down, and you've--

just for what, for
a picture, you know?"

[Gunfire, conversations
in foreign language]

TIM, VOICE-OVER: And that's
very frightening.

That's the ultimate
loss of control.

Tim was just in it.

There comes a point where
that just is your reality.

That stops becoming
weird and different.

It's just
what you're living

and breathing
at that moment.

[Men shouting in
foreign language]

TIM: Fuck! Fucking talk...

[speaking foreign
language]

TIM, VOICE-OVER: You really
don't know how you're going

to react in a combat zone,
and luckily I kind of

reacted OK, when it
first happened to me.

And I kind of keep
my head together.

[Conversations
in foreign language]

And I just think I have
the ability to, like,

"OK, "I got to do
this fucking shit.

I hate this shit, OK." Click
that side of the brain off.

I can just do that.

[Camera turns off]

And I looked at Tim, and I
thought, you know,

he's cool.

And I'd spent so long
working there alone,

and suddenly I was there
with someone

who really had
his shit together,

who really knew what he
was doing, who was filming

great stuff, taking
amazing pictures.

And to get both video
and stills, but really good,

you know--that's hard.

That's hard.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER: Not being
so much interested in action

or traditional war
photography, what I've tried

to do in the work was bring
a quieter kind of reflection

to images of conflict,
and I've done that by using

a medium format Rolleiflex.

It's a square-based format,
which is

suited to portraiture.

♪

The great thing about
using those kinds of camera

in war, apart from the fact
that no one else was--

the fact that you
had to slow down

and look for the moment,
it's almost like

he saw a different layer
visually to the conflict.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
It changes the dynamic

of my relationship
to people.

I look down into the camera
at them, and I'm very tall.

If I put a camera to my
face, it's like an object,

in a war zone
it's like I stand out,

I'm very threatening,

so I changed
the way that I worked.

It also means that I can
talk to people

whilst I photograph them.

So you hear some
photographers that will say

that they never talk
to people,

that it's this
objectivity thing.

TIM: No, no, no, no, no,
no, Stay, stay.

What is it, what is it?

[Translator speaking
foreign language]

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
You know what?

I got to talk to people.

♪

MAN: Tim's work
was not about war.

Tim's work was
about human nature.

There's this picture of
a fighter about to head

off to the battle, and you
recognize immediately--

exactly for what it is,

this moment of
saying good-bye.

It's this moment that
speaks such a greater truth

about what war does
to people

than seeing the action.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER: I was
documenting different things

at different times,
but one consistent thing

that I saw as I traveled
around the country

during the war was
this wall graffiti

that had been painted
by armed factions in houses

that they'd taken over.

And I started
to document this.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
The names of people

became very important,

being able to trace where
certain fighters were.

Taylor perfected a system
of inversion in Liberia,

you know, where kids became
killers, where women were

carrying ammunition,

and so that the graffiti,
it sort of for me has

all of that loaded into it.

It was like these
psychic scars of the war.

TIM, VOICE-OVER: And I think
they have far more power

for me than some
of the more gory images

that were taken
by press photographers.

[Vehicle engine running]

Well, we just come in
from--we walked

yesterday about,
how far?

BRABAZON:
About 35 miles.

About 35 miles.
Nothing to eat.

We slept at Po River
Bridge, about ten of us

in a fucking sentry
post,

and then we
just endured--

fucking, I don't know--

5, 10 kilometers
of firefights

to make it here
to the beer factory,

and I'm pretty fucked.

BRABAZON: And did you just
have a refreshing drink

at least?

I did. The beer factory
is over there!

BRABAZON: And how good
was that refreshing drink?

It was fucking awesome,

but I can't wait
for my first beer

in the Mamba Point
Hotel.

We got to the beer factory,
which the rebels had turned

into their sort of
headquarters,

and they'd also converted
the interior

into a makeshift clinic.

And after about
an hour or so, Iron Jacket--

deputy chief of staff,
he decided

that this doctor,
a paramedic from Monrovia

was a government spy.

[Men shouting
in foreign language]

BRABAZON, VOICE-OVER:
I turned around,

and I can see
this happening.

And I'd already filmed
several executions

in Liberia, and I thought,

"It's going to be
another execution."

So I turn around
and got it in a wide shot.

[Conversations
in foreign language continue]

Next moment, Tim comes in,
he grabs the, um...

the gun hand of Iron Jacket
and starts negotiating

for the guy's life.

He just says,
"Look, you know,

this is the only doctor
you've got,"

and really just put
himself directly

in the path of this.

They let the guy off,
they didn't shoot him,

and very shortly he was
back treating wounded

at the hospital again.

Tim had this ability to...

just do
very surprising things.

You know, he didn't see
a division between being

a photographer
or a videographer

or a journalist

or a humanitarian
or a participant.

He was just Tim.

And that...

It's very hard to find that.

[Conversations
in foreign language]

ALISTAIR, VOICE-OVER:
Tim was almost immeasurably

affected
by what he had seen...

the horrors
that had been perpetrated.

It was something that
sort of sat on his shoulder

a bit, really,

and it reinforced
his attitude to...

to the world.

I remember him once
saying to me, you know,

"You're--very rich,"

And I said, "Well,
with what definition?"

He said, "You are very
rich because you are able to

"control and determine
your own life

"and avoid
the absolute devastation

that I have seen
overwhelm people."

[Gunfire]

He was very forceful
about it.

He said, "No, no, no,

you must understand,
we are all very privileged."

[Conversations
in foreign language]

You know, working at war,

myself, Tim,
other journalists

develop mechanisms to cope.

A lot of the time, I think
Tim looked for refuge

in his work...

[Gunfire]

striving always to be
the best

and to get it right
and to be different.

I think that brought him
a lot of comfort,

and it helped him

to assimilate
what he saw at war.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER: There were
a lot of atrocities

committed during
the war in Liberia.

I witnessed all sorts
of different things.

But more importantly, what
I witnessed were

the power relationships
that happened

between the guys
on the ground

and the people
directing them.

♪

I was interested
in young men and power,

young men and violence.

I think that war is
part of the hard wiring

of young men, how they're
really ultimately used

as tools for
political process

because of genetics
and chemistry.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
The interesting thing

that I've recently
come to understand

is that the role
of witnessing

carries a kind of
strong responsibility.

This is the only photograph
that exists of the mortaring

of Monrovia that killed
over a thousand people.

The leader of these rebels
denied that his men

had mortared the city
and everybody said, "No!

We've seen the picture,
we've seen the picture."

Suddenly you realize
that you're part and parcel

of this important
historic process

of coming to terms
with what happened.

♪

I decided at the end of
the war to stay on

in Liberia.

It seemed that although
the war had finished

that my job
was not finished.

I felt that what Liberia
needed was for people to

really take part in society,

and I lived and worked
in West Africa for 8 years--

3 or 4 of those in Liberia.

BRABAZON, VOICE-OVER:
It shows Tim's commitment.

He went in
and he stayed in,

and he worked
as a filmmaker,

as a photographer,
as a teacher, as a mentor,

as an investigator,
and as a humanitarian.

[Conversation
in foreign language]

They see...

It's you and me.

TIM, VOICE-OVER: I have
no desire to be a kind of

war fire fighter flying
from war zone to war zone.

I have no--really,
I don't really care

about photography.

I have no interest
in photography per se.

I'm interested
in reaching people

with ideas and engaging them
with views of the world.

Me--Tim. You?

Me? Jima.

Jima.
Yes.

So Tim...

[Explosion]

BRABAZON: All right.

TIM: Jesus Christ, man.
That was right--

MAN: What just happened?

TIM: Ah, we were fucking
walking down the hill and...

I think we were
their targets.

It was just right,
very close over our head,

incoming.

It looked like a kind of
sniper or something.

It was like maybe
about 5 rounds or so.

♪

MAN, VOICE-OVER: I had this
idea of following a platoon

for an entire deployment in
Afghanistan, and I realized

I needed to work with
a photographer who was

really comfortable
shooting video as well.

I needed someone who was
in shape, who could carry

a lot of gear,
and who had been

in a lot of combat.

Basically I needed
someone like Tim,

and then I met Tim.

[Helicopter]

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
In my work

as a photographer
or filmmaker,

I always look to be as close
to the subject as possible.

You're always looking
for those moments

when the machine
breaks down,

where there's cracks in it.

And I think what happened
to us in terms

of being given access
into this remote valley

in Afghanistan was

that people kind of
forgot about us.

And I think it was that
persistence of going back

and back that gave us
such unique access.

Hey, guys,
how you doing?

SOLDIER: Really
sucking there, buddy.

Oh, you know,
perfect day

for a stroll.

JUNGER, VOICE-OVER:
When Tim and I got

into the Korengal Valley,

the things that soldiers
evaluate are: are you going

to cause a problem,
are you going to freak out

during combat and need
to be taken care of,

and finally, are you
going to be sort of

nasty and political
about all this?

And Tim and I were
clearly not doing that.

All right. Listen up.

Today we're going to conduct
a movement to contact

in the village
of Obi Nauw.

All right. We got 11
U.S. personnel,

5 A and A,

one terp and Sebastian
and Tim.

Does anyone
have any questions?

Let's go.

TIM, VOICE-OVER: I think
what was interesting was

working with one platoon
of soldiers

in this valley
in Afghanistan,

and in some ways I could've
been anywhere--you know,

it could've been any war.

I was looking
at the experience

of the American soldiers.

I wasn't necessarily
trying to say

anything about a truth
of Afghanistan

or the truth of
the political realities

on the ground.

MAN, VOICE-OVER:
It was a very different

kind of project
for Tim to take on

to spend all of this time
with American soldiers

because Tim's instincts

would've been much more
to just spend time

with Afghan civilians.

But what comes through is
that war is difficult

for everybody.

[Man speaking Pashto]

All right. If there
was anything,

suspicious going on,

would he be willing
to tell us,

you know, come to OP
Restrepo at any time

to let us know?

INTERPRETER:
Yeah, all right.

[Translator speaking
foreign language]

TIM, VOICE-OVER: The world
was very much focused

on Iraq, and I thought
that we would be walking

around in the mountains,
we would be drinking

cups of tea with elders,

we'd occasionally
get shot at,

and it'd be
pretty uneventful,

but it was
completely the opposite.

[Gunfire]

SOLDIER: You guys see it?

DIFFERENT SOLDIER:
He's right over the top

of that fucking
ridge, man.

TIM, VOICE-OVER: I was
completely surprised by

the amount of fighting
that was going on.

These guys were
in a lot of combat.

Give me one.

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
People really hadn't raised

their heads up to what was
happening in Afghanistan.

DIFFERENT SOLDIER:
Oh, shit!

SOLDIER: You up?
You good?

Man, I'm good,
I'm good, I'm good.

SOLDIER: He's
back there, right?

Yeah, he's right
fucking there.

Hey, he's still in there!

[Gunfire]

SOLDIER: Shit, man!

[Gunfire]

You got your...

TIM, VOICE-OVER: During that
time, what was interesting

was that--not to belittle
the kind of--

the fighting but I got
kind of tired of it.

For me whilst there is
a certain amount

of adrenaline to do
with combat

and filming that,
I mean, for me the really

important stories were
being close to these men.

You know, that's
what it's about.

That's what really
I'm there for.

Oh...

OK.

TIM: Welcome
to Aron's beauty parlor.

ARON: Yup.

Good morning!

So, here we are in the...

we've come to
the barbershop in Korengal.

It's the compare
for the day.

JUNGER: What's about
to happen, Tim?

I'm going to let
this lunatic at me

with a pair of clippers.

I don't know why, but, uh...

[Laughs]

I mean,
take one look at him.

Would you trust this man?

What's the name of
this particular haircut?

MAN: It's called
the high and tight.

But for English purposes

it will be called
the "high and mighty."

[Laughter]

[Laughing]
High and mighty.

DIFFERENT MAN: This
is what they do to you

when you first join
the military.

Oh, no. You want
to see what they do?

[Laughter]

JUNGER: Here he is,
ladies and gentlemen.

TIM: How's it look?
Pretty sexy, eh?

[Deadpan]
Pretty sexy? Yeah.

[Laughter]

SOLDIER: My grandpa--
fucking, he'll sit there

and he'd tell
stories about,

like, World War II
and shit like that.

He doesn't
tell stories
about the war;

he tells stories
about

the whorehouses in
different countries.

[Laughter]

"When I was in Calcutta,
India, Jesus Christ,

"craziest
fucking broads

"there you
ever fucking met.

"They'd do things
that would just--

they'd blow
your mind."

[Laughter]

DIFFERENT SOLDIER: So, while
you're in Amsterdam, Tim,

you going to go to see
the Red Light District?

TIM: It depends
if my girlfriend comes

with me or not.

[Laughter]

[Laughing]

Oh, my...ha ha!

Oh...

JUNGER, VOICE-OVER: The lure
of a place like Restrepo

inhabits a much more
profound place in young men

than just, "Oh, I need
some adrenaline."

Tim called it

"the man Eden."

It was just sort of for
the young male psyche

this easy place to be.

TIM: Mac, what are we doing?

Well, we found a new
hole to dig in.

You know,
you'd think

after so many months

of being here, we'd
be fucking done

with this shit,
but we're not, so...

DIFFERENT MAN: Filling
sandbags on the side

of a mountain,
waiting to get shot at,

while making fun of each
other and eating bad food

and telling bad jokes.

It was a great place
to be if you're a man.

[Laughs]

O'BYRNE, VOICE-OVER:
There was no social norms.

I think that doesn't happen
a lot in our society.

Out there, it didn't
matter how you were dressed

and it didn't matter
how you looked,

how much money you made.

It didn't matter how hot
your girlfriend was.

If you weren't filling
sandbags, you were

fucking wrong.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER: One of
the pictures that I really

like is what I call my kind
of "man Eden" picture.

It really isn't like
a kind of war photograph.

It's a very
pastoral scene to it.

It kind of brings up ideas
of medieval paintings,

and it kind of indicated
that the work was going

in another direction.

As I stayed on,
then I started to make

these more
kind of nuanced pictures

about men and war
and these kind of--

the relationships,
the boredom.

♪

[Laughter]

[Punches being thrown]

O'BYRNE: Welcome back!

SOLDIER: He's like
a wild animal, guys!

PATTERSON:
Fuck, dude! Ow!

O'BYRNE:
They're just family.

They're the best guys
that you could ever be with.

You know, even the guys
you don't like,

you love them, you know.

Even the guys
you fight with,

you argue with,
you'd still die for them,

so how much
can you hate them?

Talk about dudes that,
you know, work together

and you think 13 months,
you start to fall apart.

But the truth is,
it's only brought us closer.

[Overlapping conversations]

Come on, Tim!

Let's go get burgers.

DIFFERENT SOLDIER:
...intel operation.

O'BYRNE: Hey, Sebastian,
grab these two ammo cans

and bring them down.

[Laughter]

JUNGER, VOICE-OVER: Tim
had been in a lot of combat

in Liberia, and I think one
of the things he was looking

for after that experience
wasn't the truth

about combat as a form
of conflict,

but the truth about combat
as a form of bonding.

And what he saw with his
camera in this environment

of killing and fear and
hardness was connection.

BRABAZON, VOICE-OVER:
My grandfather was

a professional soldier.

he fought right through
the Burma campaign.

He lost all of his friends,
and I said to him, you know,

"Do you regret any of this?
Would you change any of it?"

[Guitar strumming
in background]

And he explained
it to me like this.

He said, "War is the only
opportunity that men have

in society to love
each other unconditionally."

And it's understanding
the depth of emotion at war

that Tim
was fascinated with.

SOLDIER: Hey, buddy,
get your numbers.

You don't want me
to die, right?

Eh! Meh, hmm. Cool.

[Music playing]

DIFFERENT SOLDIER:
We got this.

[Soldier singing with radio]

♪

TIM: What's going on?

DIFFERENT SOLDIER:
Well, we were down

at the Aliabad cemetery,

and a round hit me
right in the head.

Knocked,
knocked the shit out of me.

Knocked me out
for a minute.

I heard somebody say,
"We got a WIA.

Steiner's
been shot in the head,"

Then I heard somebody
say, "He's fucked up."

That's when I came to
and told them I wasn't.

Just flashing blue spots
in your eyes.

It's pretty good
to be alive. Good day.

Come here, man.

That ain't very
nice to look
at right there.

That almost went
through, you know.

Then I'd be floating around
with a halo and some wings

just drinking beers
with the Almighty!

[Laughter]

DIFFERENT SOLDIER: High
as giraffe ass, too!

[Laughter]

You know,
you're going to hell.

We're all going to hell.

We commit premeditated
murder on a daily basis.

I mean, come on, man!

[Laughter]

It's not murder.
It's war.

There's
a difference.

JUNGER, VOICE-OVER: War is
very confusing to soldiers.

It's so terrible
when it's happening,

and then you miss it
so terribly

when it's over.

The experience of being part
of a group like that is

not reproducible in society.

♪

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
"Restrepo" is a distillation

of what Sebastian and I have
really come to understand

about young men and war.

The war machine isn't
just technology and bombs

and missiles and systems
in this kind of CNN TV

mediated world.

The war machine is,
put a group of men together

in extreme circumstances

and get them to bond
together, and they

will kill and be killed
for each other.

At the end of
the day, you realize

they were all young men
just put together

on the side of this
mountain, and all they

were trying to do was
to survive and look

after each other
so that they

all got back home alive.

That was it, really.
Nothing to do with war.

Nothing to do with
the politics.

♪

[Helicopter]

JUNGER, VOICE-OVER: One day
it was this incredibly hot,

boring day, and everyone's
asleep except the guys

on guard duty.

I mean, this is
the ultimate situation

where nothing is going on

and you can just switch
your brain off

because there's no work
to do as a journalist.

And I see Tim scuttling
around with his camera,

and he's photographing
the soldiers who are asleep.

I said, "Tim, man,
what are you doing?"

He said, "Don't you get it?"

Of course I didn't,
I never did--ha ha!--

often with Tim.

"Don't you get it?"

And he said, "This is
what the American public

"never gets to see
because any nation is

"self-selecting
in the images it presents,

"and we want to see
our soldiers as strong.

"We don't want to know
that they're

also these vulnerable boys."

♪

ANDERSON: There's something

about those sleeping
soldiers pictures

that get at the sense of,
of these are just kids,

you know?

And to see them
stripped down

and asleep in wartime
conveys

this sense of sending
off young men to die.

SOLDIER: Hey!

DIFFERENT SOLDIER:
Is he hurt?

DIFFERENT SOLDIER:
We're good!

[Heavy gunfire]

DIFFERENT SOLDIER:
...this in...

TIM, VOICE-OVER: I returned
to the Korengal Valley to go

on an offensive combat
operation, and during

this time we saw some
very close fighting

where actually the American
lines were overrun.

SOLDIER: I need immediate
suppression on 2-2-5-1.

The enemy is pushed up
on the high ground.

TIM, VOICE-OVER: I was
with the machine gun crew

that managed
to hold off one area,

and then we ran up
to a point where we thought

the scouts
were under attack.

[Crying]
Over here.

OK.

Over there, too...
Come here.

[Crying]

DIFFERENT SOLDIER:
Damn it, man.

SOLDIER:
It's not your fault, dude.

There's nothing we can do.

TIM: Sergeant,
what happened?

Our guys just got overrun,
and, uh...we lost one,

got two wounded right now.

We're about to try
and get them air-medevaced

out of here.

I don't know
what else to say.

TIM, VOICE-OVER: What for
me was the real tragedy was

seeing a young man who sees
his best friend get killed.

Seeing that young man
go through that was

really upsetting.

I mean, I knew
it was going to happen

because I've been in a war
before. I know what it's

like to see somebody
die in front of you.

But for them to see that

and then that's
something you know

that they will forever
live with.

SOLDIER: We're going to take
those two wounded in action

out here.

I want you getting them
back to fucking LZ Eagles,

all right? Do you know
where that's at?

SECOND SOLDIER: Roger.

Where we fucking
drop over there.

TIM, VOICE-OVER: At one
point during the ambush,

I was filming, and one
of the colleagues

of Sergeant Rougle,
who had been killed,

he came up to me and started
swearing at me

and told me to stop filming.

Go that way.

SOLDIER:
What's up?

SECOND SOLDIER:
It's over that way where we
got the body bags.

THIRD SOLDIER:
They got his weapon, nods,

and, fucking, the 240.

The bad guys?

Got a good picture?

I'm going to fucking smash

that camera off
your fucking face!

Get the fuck out of here!

All right. Hey!
Let's fucking go!

TIM, VOICE-OVER: But
later on, he came up to me

and he said,
"Look I'm really sorry

"for shouting at you,
you know? I kind of

understand that
you got a job to do."

But it was really strange
to kind of film people,

you know, who
I got close to,

in such a kind of
moment of trauma.

SOLDIER: Fuck!

[Helicopter in distance]

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
And I remember at one point

the Afghan army tried to
drag away Larry's body,

and one of his friends
started shouting at them,

like, "You can't
drag off his body.

"I'm not seeing them--

you drag his body off
like that," and...

[Tim crying]

You know, those were very
traumatic events for me,

and, you know, you try
to kind of digest them,

but it takes time
to work over them.

[Vehicle approaching]

It's not that traumatic
almost getting killed,

being in danger.

It really isn't.

It makes you
jumpy for a while,

but I wouldn't call it
"deep trauma."

Deep trauma comes
from the pain of others...

♪

and the sense of being
part of the thing

that's hurting people.

And as a journalist,
you are part of the machine

that's hurting people.

You're in a war shooting
images of people who are

dead or dying
or wounded or grieving.

You're part of it, and it
leaves you in some ways

quite ashamed.

♪

[Gunfire]

[Sirens in distance]

TIM, VOICE-OVER:
I just finished

a 20-minute documentary
short called "Diary."

It's the first time
where I've located myself

in my work.

It's an artistic rendering
of what it feels like

to do my job.

It's kind of very
disconcerting sometimes

to feel you've lost
the needle

of what is graphic

What is--you know,
what is too far.

[Device beeping]

ANNOUNCER ON RADIO:
You're listening

to the BBC World Service
for Africa.

♪

This is
Tovan Doro in London.

TIM, VOICE-OVER: So the film
is a stream of consciousness

where you flip between
my personal life

and my work life,

and so you kind of
understand

that this multiplicity of--

these kind of
different realities

that I flip between.

[Overlapping background
chatter]

WOMAN: Um, we'll find

a place where it's playing
at a reasonable time.

BOUCKAERT, VOICE-OVER:
He has all of these scenes

being back in his home life

where he is talking
to people, talking to

his girlfriend,
walking around in a field,

but you can see
that his mind is

actually in another place.

Daddy...

They've got it
at the house...

[Child chattering]

[Birds chirping]

BOUCKAERT, VOICE-OVER:
After a while,

war becomes normality,

and the hard part
isn't about going to war,

it's about coming back home.

MAN: This is England,
early autumn.

I mean, look at it.

ALISTAIR, VOICE-OVER:
I think in the end,

he drove himself
into a welter of indecision.

I remember he once said
to Judith and me, he was

bemoaning the fact that he
wasn't married and really

couldn't understand why not.

[Radio announcer speaking
foreign language]

And when we said, "Well,
when you're not here, you're

"in Liberia or you're in
the Korengal Valley or

"you're in somewhere equally
dangerous, and you come home

"and you are by degrees
damaged or undamaged,

"and then you're

"here for a month at most
and then you're back

"somewhere else again
for another 3 months.

"I mean,
why are you surprised

that you're not married?"

♪

JUNGER, VOICE-OVER: One of
his deepest fears, I think,

was that he didn't
want to be alone.

Nobody wants to be alone.

He wanted to have a family.

He was trying to establish
some kind of finality

with violence, with combat,
so that he could then

move on to the complicated
challenge of

a really deep, committed
relationship with a woman.

Hi.

TIM: This is
the queen of Somalia.

The president.

It's the president
of Somalia.

The president
of Somalia.

TIM: Are we going
on a state--

is this an official
state visit?

Yes.

Yeah?
How you find America?

It is--it is nice.

[Laughs]

IBRAHIM, VOICE-OVER: I knew
from the first day that

I met Tim that
I was in love with him.

You know, I couldn't
recognize it right away,

but I knew it,

and I think he
knew it as well.

Walking around with him
was almost like walking

around with a set of,
you know, 10 eyes.

He was always
so inspired, you know.

I think that if you--
we could go to McDonald's

and he'd probably
find some kind of

creative inspiration there.

It was never-ending.

And when I met him, he told
me he was done with war.

I don't know at the time
if I believed him, knowing,

you know, slowly knowing
his body of work,

but he was so clear, you
know: "I'm done with war."

He was ready to almost start
a new chapter in New York.

But whether he was done
or not, I supported him.

I don't know if I

want to stay covering
conflict anymore.

It's a very
destructive thing

to carry on
beyond a certain age,

not least because if you
look at the ages by which

conflict photographers
get hurt,

it's usually
as they get older

because you're inured
to the risks more.

I know when a story is good,
and I know where a story

is good and where that is

is usually in the most
dangerous area,

and I won't do
any of the other stuff.

I'll just go straight to
where I think it should be.

I don't know.

You got me at a low point.

[Laughs]

I'll have a drink later.
Ha ha! Cheer up.

JUNGER, VOICE-OVER: I think
Tim came out of Afghanistan

and out of our
close calls out there

very much with the sense
that it was time

to stop the combat
reporting, and he couldn't

quite get himself to do it.

He was on a cycle that,
you know, eventually,

I mean, weirdly, ironically,
landed us at the Oscars.

This is our first
time doing all this.

You know, we're
first-time filmmakers.

It's all a surprise for us.

We're absolutely
delighted and honored.

The most important thing
for us is that the film is

played wide across
America, that people have

responded to it...

Our Oscar experience
was quite surreal.

I think most of the time
we were there, we

couldn't believe
that we were there.

You know, I'm not
wearing my body armor today,

but I think I should be

judging by the crowds and
the amount of press here.

JUNGER, VOICE-OVER: I think
it was very intoxicating

to him and kind of alarming.

TIM: It's been
very personal...

JUNGER, VOICE-OVER:
And, you know, we're working

journalists, right?

So while this is going on,
the Arab world's in flames.

[Crowd chanting
in foreign language]

IBRAHIM, VOICE-OVER:
By the time Libya came,

Tim felt a need to get
close to the stories,

you know, to get close
to the current events.

You know, the world was
changing, and we were on

a red carpet so far removed
from, you know, reality.

All of his colleagues were
there, you know, and he was

in a tuxedo in Los Angeles.

It just--it just
didn't feel right.

MAN: Yes, you told
me just here.

He wanted a project, but I
also think he wanted

to understand something.

This sort of
self-referential idea

about war where soldiers in
war see themselves in ways

that are informed by images
of other soldiers in war,

and there is
a conscious cycle

of imitation going on.

He just started to realize
it was a feedback loop.

BRABAZON, VOICE-OVER:
The theater of war

in Liberia, the theater
of war in Libya,

at opposite ends
of Tim's career,

are fundamentally
connected by one really

important question that Tim
was trying to answer,

which is, "How do young
men see themselves

at war and why?"

♪

ALISTAIR: When he told me
that he was going to Libya,

I was incredibly
apprehensive,

and I said to him, "I have
a very bad feeling about it.

"I just have a bad feeling
about the whole thing.

"It's a dangerous
sort of situation

"in a dangerous part
of the world

at a dangerous time."

And he said,
"Well, you know,

I've been in danger before,"

and I said,
"Yes, I know,

but you're going to be
on your own in Misrata."

[Conversations
in foreign language]

[Gunfire]

IBRAHIM, VOICE-OVER: It was
difficult to read the news

about Libya
all the while knowing

that Tim was there.

However, we were in such
constant contact, and we'd

created this vision,

a narrative
for the direction

we were going
into that, um...

death was not part of,
you know, the picture

despite the work.

[Heavy gunfire, explosions]

[Screams]

[Shouting in foreign language]

ANDERSON, VOICE-OVER: We had
a very explicit conversation

about how dangerous
Libya was,

where I said, you know,
"Come on, Tim.

"You know, you can do this
work without getting up

"to the front lines,
you know.

"Don't take the risk.

This is not your
story right now."

But somehow there's
the other journalists going,

and there's, you know,
3 other people going,

and you sort of forget

what your immediate
mission is and you want

to go closer and closer
to where the action is.

♪

♪

[Heavy gunfire, men shouting
in foreign language]

MAN, VOICE-OVER: In a war,
you lose a lot of things.

One of the things that you
lose can be the original

connection
that took you there.

I felt that they were not,
you know, paying the proper

attention
and the proper respect

to everything
that was happening around.

[Gunfire]

There were actually
trying to get

in front of the rebels.

[Shouting
in foreign language]

MAN, VOICE-OVER:
I think, me,

I didn't realize
well the danger,

where we were, you know.

Tim, I think he realized

because he was, like,
looking at everything

like, with a face like you
could tell, like,

he was aware of
what was going on really.

[Conversations
in foreign language]

[Gunfire in distance]

CERVERA, VOICE-OVER: Two
rebels that were with us,

suddenly one of them, like,
fell and it was like he was

shot in the head, you know,
and we took him out.

[Conversations in
foreign language]

And then at that point, we
look at each other,

all of us. Like, I mean,
like, I felt real danger

to be there.

And I think all of us,
because we all decided

to leave that place.

[Explosions]

[Men shouting commands
in foreign language]

WOMAN, VOICE-OVER:
And there was a side street,

and we all kind of
stopped at it,

and it was this
really eerie scene of

this open truck filled with
Gaddafi soldier uniforms,

and they were all over
the ground, and there was

a helmet, a green helmet,

with a bullet hole
right through the top of it.

Tim took a photo of it.

And I liked that spot,
too, because it was behind

a corner, and I didn't like
being on Tripoli street.

And then there was just
this--this huge blast.

[Explosion]

[Men shouting
in foreign language]

CERVERA, VOICE-OVER:
There was a lot of dust.

I saw 7, 10 bodies
lying at the same place,

and I thought
at that moment,

"Oh, my God.
They were there."

[Gunfire, shouting
in foreign language]

I thought Tim was OK.
He was holding his leg.

But, you know, he was,
he was shouting,

but Chris wasn't moving,
wasn't speaking.

[Shouting in
foreign language continues]

CERVERA, VOICE-OVER: I saw
a pickup car with two guys,

and I said "Please,
please come, come."

And the two helped me
to put their bodies

into the back of
the pickup--Chris and Tim.

Tim was still conscious
but getting dizzy,

getting--losing
consciousness.

so I took his hand
just to make him awake

and to say, "Tim, come on.
Don't fall asleep.

We are getting
to the hospital."

Whenever I talked to him,
he was like that, like when

you wake up someone
who is sleeping

and then
falling asleep again.

But each time he was
more like going away.

And at one point,
he wouldn't wake up again.

MAN: Give them space.
Give them space.

Give them space.

[Men saying commands
in foreign language]

♪

JUDITH, VOICE-OVER:
Something very unusual

happened to me on that day.

There were some beautiful
flowers outside the shop,

and I chose some red roses,
got back to the car, and I

lifted the boot to put
the red roses in,

and I just--I don't know,

I just felt
something incredibly...

I just felt I didn't want
to take the red roses home.

I just--and I--
and it's something

I've never, ever done
in my life before.

I took the red roses back,

and I went and chose
12 white roses

and took them home.

And when I got home, um...

they were in my arms
when I found out

that through the home office
that Tim had died,

and I just dropped
them on the floor.

♪

MAN, VOICE-OVER: The deaths
of two outstanding

photojournalists--
Tim Hetherington

and Chris Hondros--

have caused enormous
sadness, not only among

friends and family but also
within the entire community

of journalists.

Hetherington, aged 40, was
a consummate professional,

who took the job of
war reporting as seriously

as anyone in the history
of this business.

♪

No, I never thought that Tim
was going to be killed.

It sounds naive
to say that now.

TIM: This is my mom
and dad with my book.

What are you
looking at, Mom?

ALISTAIR, VOICE-OVER:
People don't assume

that family members
or people close to them

are going to be killed,
even though they do have

a very dangerous occupation.

[Laughing]

Now I'm crying.

No, it's good,
it's nice.

Really emotional.

Yeah, good, it's meant
to be emotional.

ALISTAIR, VOICE-OVER:
It was...

Yeah, it was
completely devastating.

IBRAHIM, VOICE-OVER:
I went to Sebastian's house,

and that's where I got
the news,

and I didn't
believe it at first.

I didn't believe it.

It was so worth it because
we didn't compromise

in our relationship,

so why would we compromise
our passion and our work

and aspects of our lives

that made us feel
fully alive

and fully realized
human beings.

I wouldn't compromise,
so I don't think he should.

♪

JUNGER, VOICE-OVER: I get
an email from a Vietnam vet

that we had both met
in Texas and he said,

"I'm so sorry about
your friend Tim."

He said, "You guys,
you know, with your

"movie and your books, like,
you really--you really came

close to understanding war."

We're going to war,
we're going to war.

JUNGER, VOICE-OVER: He said,
"I'm worried this is

"going to sound callous, but
you didn't get all the way.

"The core reality of war

"isn't that you
might get killed out there.

"That's obvious.

"The core truth about war
is that you're guaranteed

"to lose your brothers.

"And now you've lost
a brother

"and you know everything
you need to know about it."

And it wasn't
callous what he said.

I mean the truth
can't be callous.

It's the truth.

And finally, I got it.

[Tap tap tap]

[Laughs]

♪