A capacity crowd packed the Jamestown Arts Center (JAC) for the newportFILM exclusive screening of “Love+War,” the National Geographic documentary chronicling Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario’s extraordinary work amidst the world’s war-torn zones. Newport film fans were offered a rare, behind-the-scenes perspective on the making of the documentary by hearing from the cinematographer Thorsten Thielow in a talk with newportFILM’s executive director Cathleen Carr.
Thielow’s work is probably familiar to audiences thanks to a previous screening of “Middletown,” which the cinematographer told the audience at JAC now has a new title, “Teenage Wasteland,” also announcing that it had been bought by a streamer. Thielow, an Emmy Award winner for the lauded “The First Wave” and “Girls State” documentaries, spoke with the audience about the intensity of filming “Love+War,” which covered warzones in Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, and most recently on the warfront of Ukraine. Thielow also serves as a mentor for newportFILM’s Cinematography Lab, which just had its immersive last month at the Norman Bird Sanctuary. A few other mentors were in the audience at JAC for the screening of Thielow’s work.
The German filmmaker recounted his first meeting with Lynsey Addario, which happened in the midst of war in Ukraine. He said they started filming right away, which Thielow said required immediate trust between him and his subject.
“I got a call from [Elizabeth] Chai [Vasarhelyi] and Jimmy [Chin, directors for “Love+War”], and they had me talking with Lynsey about making a movie, and they said, ‘Lynsey is in Ukraine, can you go there right now?’” Explained Thielow. “And so I packed a bag, and I flew to Poland, drove to the border in Ukraine, and met Lynsey. She was very close to leaving the country after she had been there since before the war even started, so there was no time. I literally just said hi, and I put a microphone on her and started filming, and that is now the entire opening sequence of the movie.”
He talked about Addario’s extraordinary ability to connect with people, especially in moments of intense suffering, that not only became central to the film, but also to Thielow’s own visual approach while documenting her.
“Lynsey is a master of going into situations and finding a way to connect with people and interpret ways and letting her photograph them in the most vulnerable moments. That’s what she’s been doing for 20 years. And so this particular relationship between a cinematographer and a subject was so unique because Lynsey fully understood what I was doing.
“People who have never had a camera in front of them, but then suddenly there’s a documentary cinematographer who doesn’t turn the camera off ever, and nothing is scripted. There is no handler, and there’s always this give and take. There’s a negotiation that happens constantly with most people, but with Lynsey, there wasn’t any of that.”
What makes “Love+War” even more compelling is the duality of storytelling. We catch glimpses of Addario’s homelife as she returns from these conflict zones and see the toll it takes on her two young children and husband, Paul de Bendern, a Reuters journalist. Both Addario and Thielow are parents and there’s a real understanding of the challenges of maintaining that delicate balance that shines through the film.
“Lynsey said, ‘Okay, I owe it to the world to show people at the most vulnerable in their lives, so I’m going to be that too.’ And we had this beautiful connection. She sometimes said, ‘I know exactly what you’re thinking right now’ when I was in the corner. So it was really a beautiful relationship. And we became very good friends. I spent many, many months in London in the house, getting to know their children and her husband.”
It wasn’t just Addario who experienced the stresses of filming in such conflict zones. Thielow talked about how he tried to cope afterwards.
“How do you mitigate responsibility, ambition and parenthood? In Lynsey’s case, motherhood particularly, and it’s a really tricky thing, and I think that’s what this film does so well.
“I have a civil life: I go out, I travel the world, and I come back, and suddenly there is an entirely different life that no one understands. My friends don’t understand when I come back from a war zone, even from hanging out with superstars. This is two lives that you live, and you have to compartmentalize them, like Lynsey is a big master at that. For me, it’s really, really hard to live those two lives as a father particularly, and Lynsey and I had many conversations where she talks about therapy and should she connect with her feelings.
“I do a lot of therapy, and then I do yoga and meditation, and just like Lynsey, that’s actually the best thing to do is to come home and work out to be active. And family therapy is important.”
The Brooklyn-based cinematographer said that he and the film’s Oscar-winning directors, Vasarhelyi and Chin (“Free Solo”), shared a deep respect for Addario’s work and the kind of high-risk storytelling the movie highlighted. What transpired is a complex documentary that shows the weight of bearing witness to humanity’s plights.
“Lynsey had been approached so many times by filmmakers to make a film, and when she heard from Jimmy and Chai, she said, ‘Yeah, there’s something there. They understand me.’ And so it was a beautiful collaboration with both of them. They had a really beautiful connection with Lynsey.”
For Thielow’s next venture, he will be directing his first film, set in his native Germany, exploring the life of a young artist and the effects his rise to fame has on his family.Next up for newportFILM is their big fundraiser at Rosecliff, with tickets having gone on sale this week. The evening will take place December 11 and will feature a screening of “The Queen of Versailles.” “Love+War,” which has a 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes score is now streaming on HULU.