image
“I’m coming to feel like a horse-and-buggy manufacturer watching those model-T’s rolling off the line,” said New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof about the experience of being a writer at the Sundance film festival.  Kristof was speaking on a panel at the Sundance Filmmakers Lodge with fellow journalist Samantha Power, moderated by Orlando Bagwell of the Ford Foundation. 

Kristof is attending Sundance as the subject of the documentary REPORTER.  Power is supporting the film SERGIO, based on her book “Chasing The Flame” about the U.N. maverick Sergio Vieira de Mello.  “There’s nothing like seeing a film with an audience,” Power said.  “Neither of us get the experience of seeing people read our work.”

Both writers shared engrossing stories about reporting from the world’s most dangerous places. In REPORTER we see Kristof traveling to the Congo and conducting a very delicate interview with the warlord accused of killing civilians. “When you write about warlords and are within their gun-range, you tend to be more careful about what you say,” explained Kristof.