Dangerous Inquiries: Docs Featuring High-Risk Journalism

Still from film, ReporterSome journalists cover stories in hostile environments, putting their lives at risk on a daily basis. How do they carry out their jobs in such dangerous locales, and how does their journalism help society? Check out these docs featuring reporters doing high-risk journalism.

Reporter DVD coverReporter” (2009)

This is a documentary about Nicholas D. Kristof, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times, who helped bring the crisis in Darfur onto the international radar. In the summer of 2007, Kristof traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to shine his light into the darkest pockets of conflict, in hopes of making the rest of the world take notice.

Burma VJ DVD coverBurma VJ” (2010)

Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country. Armed with small handycams the Burma VJs stop at nothing to make their reportages from the streets of Rangoon.

Reportero DVD cover

Reportero” (2014)

This film follows a veteran reporter and his colleagues at Zeta, a Tijuana-based independent newsweekly, as they stubbornly ply their trade in one of the deadliest places in the world for members of the media. As the drug war intensifies and the risks to journalists become greater, will the free press be silenced?