The Rory Peck Awards 2003
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Kirkuk - A Town Divided

Finalist: The Rory Peck Award for Features

Matthew Carney was commissioned by SBS Television Australia to find a feature story. He entered Northern Iraq from Iran at the end of March 2003 and worked without backup.

The situation was very dangerous as frontlines were changing rapidly and several of his colleagues were killed including Australian cameraman Paul Moran. Matthew was among the first journalists to enter Kirkuk after it fell. He chose to stay there, documenting the chaos that followed for the next 10 days.

Cameraman’s Comment

“It was just me and my camera and my brief was to find a feature story and get it to air as quickly as possible. This was very difficult as the situation was changing fast so finding a story that would last 2 or 3 weeks was a real challenge.

All research was done “on the run”. The advantage of covering the conflict from the North was that there was no American or Iraqi censorship. ...I found Kirkuk to be a telling microcosm for the rest of Iraq with competing ethnic groups vying for control of this oil rich city.”

Biography

Since 1990, Matthew Carney has worked both as a full-time employee and independent journalist/filmmaker, mostly for the two public broadcasters in Australia: ABC and SBS. As producer/reporter/researcher/camera/sound Matthew has combined these skills to work as a “one man band”, producing top quality feature stories from some of the world’s most difficult and dangerous locations. He has won the highest honors and awards and in 1997 was reporter/producer for “Inside East Timor” where with camerawoman Chantal Abouchar was finalist for the Rory Peck Awards.

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