Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer-winning Times columnist, wants us to care. And he knows what he’s up against.
The Sundance documentary Reporter follows Nick through life-risking trips in Afghanistan, Darfur and, most breathtakingly, the Congo, searching for the story that can differentiate the human element from the bullet point. He knows what happens to one person is a tragedy, but what happens to four million is a statistic. We watch him travel through village after village to find the right individual to humanize the unthinkable, before interviewing a disturbingly charismatic warlord who transformed Kristof’s subject into collateral damage. Kristof’s goal is to engage readers to the point that their inaction becomes complicit in events unfolding on the other side of the world. He wants to help us help ourselves help the world.
Kristof comes from the school of reporters who believe that journalism can make an impact. What the film only briefly addresses is that he is fast becoming an endangered species. As the resources, content and readership of serious journalism shrink, this type of real reporting is quickly becoming unsustainable.
There’s something perfect in the film showing at Sundance, a media echo chamber of flashing lights and white noise. Somewhere in this chatter there are important stories to tell. But the media here perfectly encapsulates the rapids that Kristof is shooting against.
Nick has become a master at moving his audience to empathy, whether they want to be moved or not. But where will the next generation of Kristofs come from? And will anyone still be reading if they come?
Check out more Sundance coverage from Michael Liss.
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