The Rory Peck Awards 2003
Sponsored by Sony

James Brabazon

A Journey Without Maps

Winner: The Sony International Impact Award

At the end of May 2002, freelance cameraman James Brabazon, together with cameraman Dudley Saunders and sound engineer Mandla Mlambo entered the Republic of Guinea, where they spent five days before entering Liberia undercover. After two weeks, Saunders and Mlambo returned to South Africa and Brabazon continued to the frontline where he began his extraordinary and exclusive chronicle of Africa's most ruthless – and undocumented – conflict.

Travelling for two months with the LURD rebels and walking over 300 miles through primary jungle, Brabazon filmed alone, witnessing close combat on a near daily basis, and documenting severe human rights abuses by the rebels – who allowed him to film unhindered.

Cameraman’s Comment

“My feelings while filming were complicated and changed as the shoot progressed... I felt that it was necessary to film the atrocities as they occurred in order to present as complete and objective an image of the rebels’ war as possible. I found the nature of these incidents increasingly difficult to assimilate, and eventually impossible to document further. At the end of the trip I was so physically weakened from walking and lack of food, and so consumed by the relentless violence around me that I was unable and unwilling to continue filming.”

Biography

James Brabazon read history at Cambridge. As a frontline journalist filming, photographing, producing and directing in the world’s most hostile environments, Brabazon has worked in over 50 countries, including Afghanistan, China, the United States, Ecuador, Eritrea. For the last 10 years, James has travelled extensively through Africa and Asia for Camerapix. James’s work with Camerapix has appeared on, the SABC, BBC, TVNZ, SKY, CNN and The Discovery Channel, as well as in Newsweek, The Sunday Telegraph, and The Guardian. His international reportage has also been used extensively by Amnesty International and Save the Children.

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