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LEGENDARY AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY FILM MAKER CONDUCTS A MASTER CLASS FOR MEDIAMAX'S JOURNALISTS
Mediamax
Oct 18 2011
Armenia
Yerevan/Mediamax/. Legendary American journalist and documentary film
maker Jon Alpert conducted a master class for Mediamax's journalists
in Yerevan on October 17.
A winner of several Emmy Awards, Jon Alpert, who had visited numerous
hotspots on the globe and interviewed Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein
during his 40-year career path, spoke about his life demonstrating
fragments from his documentaries and answered the journalists'
questions.
"I don't have a journalism degree. I started my career in New York,
worked as a taxi driver for 2 years and one of my first films was
one about a taxi", the TV reporter recalls.
"Iraq was one of my greatest shocks as I saw soldiers having arm and
leg amputations several times in the U.S. hospital in Iraq over a
few days", Jon Alpert said. As a result of his stay in Iraq, he shot
"Baghdad Emergency Room" which won 4 Emmy Awards.
Jon Alpert was an Oscar nominee for one of his recent films, China's
Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province. The film features
the situation in the Chinese Sichuan province which was greatly damaged
after the destructive earthquake in 2008. The reporter managed to
show the protest actions and convey the grief of parents who had lost
their children as the majority of the schools in the province were
destroyed whereas other neighboring buildings were undamaged. As Jon
Alpert shows in his film, this resulted from low-quality materials
used for building the schools. Due to this film, the TV reporter was
declared a persona non grata in China.
"Yes, I had to break the law more than once to shoot my films. I
think if I didn't do that I wouldn't manage to shoot the majority of
my films, those about China in particular", confessed the reporter.
Jon Alpert has long been the only American journalist to have had
the opportunity to visit Cuba and meet with Fidel Castro.
"Once I spent a whole week with Fidel. I would talk to him about
politics, fishing and cigars, many different things", the reporter
recalls showing some frames with legendary Comandante while sipping
beer, smoking cigars, speaking at the UN and writing an explanatory
note to his daughter's teacher for missing the lessons at school.
Is it difficult to work as an independent journalist, as Alpert,
in the U.S? "I was twice blacklisted, for my report on the Gulf
War including. But the situation has changed and now the military
servicemen like me", jokes Jon Alpert.
Jon Alpert arrived in Armenia on the invitation of Alternative
Resources in Media project headed by Manana Aslamazyan who has
long been the head of Internews in Russia and made a significant
contribution to the development of regional TV in Russia.
Mediamax
Oct 18 2011
Armenia
Yerevan/Mediamax/. Legendary American journalist and documentary film
maker Jon Alpert conducted a master class for Mediamax's journalists
in Yerevan on October 17.
A winner of several Emmy Awards, Jon Alpert, who had visited numerous
hotspots on the globe and interviewed Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein
during his 40-year career path, spoke about his life demonstrating
fragments from his documentaries and answered the journalists'
questions.
"I don't have a journalism degree. I started my career in New York,
worked as a taxi driver for 2 years and one of my first films was
one about a taxi", the TV reporter recalls.
"Iraq was one of my greatest shocks as I saw soldiers having arm and
leg amputations several times in the U.S. hospital in Iraq over a
few days", Jon Alpert said. As a result of his stay in Iraq, he shot
"Baghdad Emergency Room" which won 4 Emmy Awards.
Jon Alpert was an Oscar nominee for one of his recent films, China's
Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province. The film features
the situation in the Chinese Sichuan province which was greatly damaged
after the destructive earthquake in 2008. The reporter managed to
show the protest actions and convey the grief of parents who had lost
their children as the majority of the schools in the province were
destroyed whereas other neighboring buildings were undamaged. As Jon
Alpert shows in his film, this resulted from low-quality materials
used for building the schools. Due to this film, the TV reporter was
declared a persona non grata in China.
"Yes, I had to break the law more than once to shoot my films. I
think if I didn't do that I wouldn't manage to shoot the majority of
my films, those about China in particular", confessed the reporter.
Jon Alpert has long been the only American journalist to have had
the opportunity to visit Cuba and meet with Fidel Castro.
"Once I spent a whole week with Fidel. I would talk to him about
politics, fishing and cigars, many different things", the reporter
recalls showing some frames with legendary Comandante while sipping
beer, smoking cigars, speaking at the UN and writing an explanatory
note to his daughter's teacher for missing the lessons at school.
Is it difficult to work as an independent journalist, as Alpert,
in the U.S? "I was twice blacklisted, for my report on the Gulf
War including. But the situation has changed and now the military
servicemen like me", jokes Jon Alpert.
Jon Alpert arrived in Armenia on the invitation of Alternative
Resources in Media project headed by Manana Aslamazyan who has
long been the head of Internews in Russia and made a significant
contribution to the development of regional TV in Russia.