Reporter
REPORTER is a visual found footage portrait of a writer and reporter. It explores the life of Ryszard Kapuściński, an icon of journalism and non-fiction literature. It is an essay about the writer’s creative process, his failures and accomplishments. It is a cinematic collage of images covering his journalistic assignments of postcolonial Africa, the South American coup d'états, the Iranian religious revolution, the Solidarity movements and the collapsing Soviet Union. The film recalls the significance of journalistic personal engagement. It presents the figure of the Polish writer whose reflections guide many today, in the era of information chaos, excess and superfluity.We follow the reporter’s path trough archival interviews while his voice recordings lead the film towards his personal reflections. The audiocassettes discovered in his studio’s drawers several years after his death, enable us to understand his writing process and travel difficulties as well as his dealings with the communist regime. We can hear Kapuściński’s notes taken on the airplane on his departure for Africa. We follow his impressions during a night boat trip to a Senegalese island. We can imagine his desperation in Siberia and the loneliness of being far from home. The archival scratches and grains give the film the feel of journalistic authenticity and at the same time give the images the traits of a nostalgic fable. The first person narration, archival footage along with contemporary images, composes a self-portrait diary of a man and his times.