One of the best resources for filmmakers in search of advice on advance preparation is the Community to Protect Journalists Survival Guide. The CPJ is a non-profit, non-partisan organization based in New York City with a full-time staff of 12 that researches, documents and protests abuses of press and documentary freedoms around the world.
During the Balkans conflict, the CPJ checked with news assignment desks responsible for orchestrating war coverage, and interviewed U.S. and European journalists who covered the story. The journalists' detailed responses, based on their own experiences, became the backbone of the guide, which was first published in 1992 after the tragic deaths of David Kaplan and more than 20 other journalists covering the Balkans strife.
While this survival guide is primarily tailored for war and conflict documentation, the information can easily be applied to situations in any other extreme environment. Topics include body armor and flak jackets, a first-aid equipment checklist, insurance, telecommunications, and armored vehicles and foreign transportation. Also covered are radio and field contacts, satellite transmissions and tips on such useful accessories as short-wave radios, batteries and extra-long video leads. There's also information on the use of currencies in negotiations and goods to bring along for barter.
The guide even defines and recommends a conflict-oriented dress code, which details how not to look like a soldier on assignment. It is replete with ideas on selecting custom body armor and flak jackets constructed with specially designed armor plates, tailored for the protection needs of cameramen and crew members. "When I first read this survival guide, I got a very real sense of the danger facing me on my upcoming project in the Balkans," explains Nettie Wilde. "I ended up canceling that particular film."
Still, Wilde is no stranger to danger, having filmed guerrilla insurgencies in the Philippines, as well as the Zapatista uprising and resultant village massacres by the Mexican Federales and their right-wing supporters in Mexico. The latter documentary, A Place Called Chiapas, recently debuted at the American Film Institute Festival in Los Angeles, where it earned high acclaim and an Audience Award for Best Documentary.
Wilde sums up her personal working philosophy by noting, "Research is your ultimate weapon — along with time, trust and money. Money buys you the time to be there, and time is the only real way to gain the trust of the people and fully comprehend the events that you are documenting. You can't just blast in there with your film crew and cameras and expect them to trust you with their story. On A Place Called Chiapas, I used a 50/50 combination of Mexican and Canadian crew members. We wanted to document all sides of the revolution. The subjects would see us go back and forth between the encampments, which, of course, made them very nervous and suspicious.
"We were also following a very cruel and hidden war that took place outside of the conflict zone. While the so-called cease-fire was in effect, people were being killed and forced out of their homes and villages. Any supporters of the Zapatistas were targeted, and I was determined to get these people to tell their stories on camera. While we were filming them, they would acknowledge the importance of us being there to document all sides of the story; as soon as I put my camera down and walked away, though, these same people would threaten to kill my Mexican cameraman and sound operator.
"I was relatively safe from these threats, because they knew that I had the Embassy behind me, and that there would be repercussions [if any harm came to me]. That was obviously not the case for my Mexican crew. Of course, the people who were most vulnerable were the villagers we were filming, who don't even have birth certificates. If they disappeared, there was no evidence to prove they even existed in the first place. The tension that creates is astounding. We got to the point where it was too dangerous for our Mexican crew to continue on to the north with us. We had to go on our own."
Cinematographer Ken Kelsch, ASC, whose many feature credits include The Impostors, Big Night and The Funeral, recalls his experience in the documentary trenches while in French Guiana: "We were in Suriname to see a live-fire artillery exercise directed by two American mercenaries for the Surinamese Liberation Movement, which entailed a lot of shooting with smuggled AR-14s. The noise drew the attention of the local gendarmes, and when they showed up, everyone else disappeared into the woods.
"I was shooting with a small VHS camera, which I left running on the top of a nearby vehicle," Kelsch continues. "I filmed the authorities harassing us, and then palmed the tape and tucked it inside my boot. I later substituted a blank cassette, and when they demanded our film, that was what we handed over. Two days later, our real tape was broadcast internationally on CNN — including in French Guyana and Suriname. We zipped on out of there like ghosts in the night. I now realize that we easily could have been caught and eliminated. Nobody would have known or cared.
"One of the most important things I learned on that kind of assignment is to take lots of cash and Rolex watches as emergency backup to buy your way out of testy situations. It really is the only way to get around in unstable situations. Our cab driver in Suriname freaked when we pulled out our camera inside his cab after a lot of journalists had just been killed. We solved the problem with a very large tip. It was still a huge risk for him — and us. I believe you are dealt a certain amount of luck in life, and no matter how much training and preparation you have, serendipity rules the situation. I have been in situations where I was very lucky to have walked away."
Former CBS News cameraman and filmmaker Lars Nelson, who has documented such risky assignments as narcotics smuggling in Third World countries, agrees. "If you don't take the risk, you won't get the shot," Nelson acknowledges. "On the other hand, if you take that risk, you might just get yourself shot, attacked or even arrested."
Nelson is not alone in his thinking. According to the 1998 Executive Summary and Survey prepared by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 26 journalists were murdered in 1997, and 10 other killings are under investigation. In addition, 129 journalists were imprisoned in 24 countries, with Turkey, Nigeria, Mexico and China responsible for most of the arrests. A 10-year chart tabulates the murders of 474 journalists by region and country.
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