Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Lebanon

July 2006 Beirut. We arrived into the unknown. Parts of The City had been completely destroyed and other parts left untouched. There is always a great sense of uncertainty when you are posted into such a situation. I would consider myself a cautious person, it's important to calculate the risk as correctly as you can. There was a crew of two, myself and Mark Little working for Prime Time, Ireland's flagship current affairs programme. The local Hezbollah took us on a tour of the Southern Suburbs. The destruction was complete. Picture wise, it's in the little detail where you find the story. Amongst the rubble the discarded items of lives ruined, a children's toy, a flower which once stood proudly on a dinner table. If you can keep this eye for detail when the circumstances are so difficult then it is possible to produce really good stories which reflect humanity under such duress. In recent years it has become harder to see material on this level on our screens. The pressure of 'feeding the machine' has led to more and more meaning less.