The Rory Peck Awards 2003
Sponsored by Sony

Phil Goodwin

Assassination Attempt on President Karzai / A Day in the Life

Finalist: The Sony International Impact Award

Any thoughts that the situation in Afghanistan was stable were dispelled by an attempt to kill the recently appointed President Karzai. Goodwin was three feet away when the firing began, and, as he describes it, ‘got as much of the attack as I could before a healthy sense of preservation saw me taking cover…’ He filmed the efforts of Azimullah - a well-wisher in the crowd - who leapt to defend the President before the Americans had a chance to react. His actions saved the President - but cost him his life.

Phil Goodwin, correspondent Lyse Doucet and producer Keith Morris were the only journalists travelling on the Presidential plane as President Karzai flew to Kandahar for a family wedding. That afternoon, Karzai decided to defy his bodyguards and go walkabout in the centre of Kandahar. A large crowd developed while he toured a new regional building. Goodwin, filming as Karzai returned to his car, found himself about three feet away from the President’s attacker. “My first thought was that it was a warning shot - a young man had gone right up to President Karzai’s car window - and I thought a bodyguard was warning people away.” Anxious not to miss anything, Goodwin carried on filming. This footage comes from an edit made 40 hours after the start of filming.

Cameraman’s comments

“We started at around 6 o’clock in the morning. By the time that the assassination attempt happened I’d already been filming Karzai for 12 hours. It was one of those rare times when everything fell into place... I felt as if all my experience of years of filming came together that day.

I got one shot of him [Karzai] waving from behind, then moved forward past him and swiveled round - still rolling - to see his face. When you’re working fast it’s often quicker to keep filming instead of switching the camera on and off, so that’s why I was rolling when I swung round and the attack happened... instinct took over. I got as much of the attack as I could before a huge amount of American fire began to pour down and a healthy sense of preservation saw me taking cover in a nearby doorway.

Biography

A freelancer since 2001, Phil Goodwin has worked for APTN as South Asia Senior Producer based in Delhi, and also in the Far East and Afghanistan where he recorded the Taliban period in the country, including executions - filmed secretly - in the capital Kabul.

As part of the BBC team who came into the Afghan capital with the permission of the Taliban, he filmed the last few days of the city under the Taliban and was in the thick of things when the city fell. He filmed the shot of BBC Correspondent William Reeve being blown off his chair during a live interview, when their office was bombed by the Americans on the night the city fell.

In 2002, he covered the suicide squads of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka - the Black Tigers, spent the Iraq war embedded with a British ship, and went on to work in Basra.

The Trust and Sony.

• Winners
• Finalists
• The Freelancers' Choice 2003
• Judging Panels
• List of Entrants
• Awards brochure 2003

  
  

The Trust | Awards | Training | The Free Lens | Links | Feedback | Home

Limited Company No. 35524586 Registered in England and Wales
Charity Reg. No. 1071844