“Restrepo” Director Tim Hetherington Killed in Libya

Tim Hetherington, Director and Producer of Restrepo, which screened at our 2010 festival, was killed in Libya Wednesday.

“We are deeply saddened by this lost. Tim was a remarkable photographer and a terrific filmmaker and we were looking forward to playing his experimental short film diary at this year’s festival, but we had very much hoped to do so with him in attendance. That there is one less person out there striving to tell the truth about some of the most difficult stories of our time is a loss for all of us,” said Festival Director David Holbrooke.

From The New York Times:

Tim Hetherington, the conflict photographer who was a director and producer of the film “Restrepo,” was killed in the besieged city of Misurata on Wednesday, and three photographers working beside him were wounded.

The wounds to two of the photographers — Chris Hondros and Guy Martin — were severe, according to Andre Liohn, a colleague at the triage center where they were being treated Wednesday night.

Mr. Hondros, an American working for the Getty photo agency, suffered a severe brain injury and was in extremely critical condition, according to Mr. Liohn. He had been revived and was clinging to life in the evening. A later update from Mr. Liohn said that Mr. Hondros was in a coma at the medical center, which is located near the front lines.

Read the full article here.

There is a also a good memoriam for Hehterington on The New Yorker blog, in which he is quoted:

“I was aware that my pictures were being used to illustrate others’ ideas, so I started making stories to express my own ideas about the world.”

Walking 120 Miles in the Gulf of Mexico: 2011 Special Guest Drew Ludwig

Drew Ludwig, a photographer and expedition leader, is one of our special guests this year, presenting an exhibit of photos shot last summer during a solo walk of 120 miles from the Ninth Ward of New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana.

What Drew says about his show:

During August of 2010, I walked 120 miles from the Ninth Ward of New Orleans to the Gulf Of Mexico in Louisiana. It was the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the oil spill in the Gulf was about to be capped.

I came to help. I came to work. I held lofty goals of an activist, and I wanted to use my hands. What transpired was far more etherial and bordering upon obscurity. I walked, I listened and I came to pick up the work gloves of others rather than my own.

I believe gloves connect a hand with purpose and as I walked, I began to see the story of Louisiana between the marks, the scars and the holes of the discarded gloves I found beside the highway. I became a collector of these gloves.

My eye quickly turned to the strangers I met along those roads; towards the helping hands that invited me into their homes and fed me after those twelve hour days of walking. These are the faces that came to gaze into my camera, and it was their gloves that I carried across the state of Louisiana.

The show will be a sampling of the gloves and photos I collected along the way.

On the one year anniversary of the BP oil spill, his experiences bring him back to thinking about the people of the region:

On the eve of the anniversary I am thinking about the people I met along the way. I am wondering if they found that place to live, upped their quotas, found their water’s clean and had a good football season? I am lucky enough to call a few Louisianan locals friends and I am sending them all my best on a somber day.

Remembering The Gulf: Terry Tempest Williams

I AM ANGRY. I AM OUTRAGED. And I am in love with this beautiful, blue planet we call home.

This story in the Gulf of Mexico is not a new story. Living in the American West, I understand the oil and gas industry, both its political power in a state like Wyoming and its lack of regard for the safety of workers. Broken necks and backs are commonplace injuries. So are lost fingers. Occasional blowouts occur on land as well, resulting in fatalities. Production is paramount at the expense of almost everything else.

And I have seen the environmental degradation that is left in the wake of collusion between government agencies and oil companies. Federal regulations are relaxed or ignored, putting the integrity of our public lands at risk. Ecological health is sacrificed for financial gain. This sense of entitlement among oil companies is supported by the U.S. Congress. It has direct results on the ground: burning slag pools; ozone warnings; contaminated water wells flushed with benzene; and loss of habitat for sage grouse, prairie dogs, and pronghorn antelope. The scars on the fragile desert of southeastern Utah, from endless road cuts to the sheared oil patches themselves, will take decades to heal. These are self-inflicted wounds made by a lethal economic system running in overdrive.

After months of watching the news coverage on the blowout and subsequent oil spill, I had to see for myself what I felt from afar: this catastrophic moment belongs to all of us.

-2011 special guest Terry Tempest Williams, “The Gulf Between Us,” November/December 2010 Orion 

Orion has the full article on their website as well as a narrated slideshow.