“There’s always a threat surrounding the things you love” Don McCullin
Written by duckrabbitI watched the Jacqui Morris documentary McCullin tonight.
It’s a searingly great and troubling film. Memorable, frame by frame.
But I want to say this:
It’s not a film I’ve wanted to see. Mainly because I’ve become tired of the endless McCullin interviews where he seems to say the same things about war over and over again. Once you’ve read one, you’ve read them all. But the film revealed to me that the problem is not McCullin saying the same things, he has so many important stories to tell, but journalists reaching for the same story, the same quotes.
Journalism as an artform and as a profession, for something so mind numbingly formulaic, is massively over-rated (although mainly by journalists themselves!). Especially news. Bad journalism damages the way that we look out on the world and the way that we judge people. But every now and again someone brilliant in thought and deed gets centre stage. McCullin was one such journalist and in Morris he found a proper film-maker, sensitive and clever enough to tell his important story.
If you live in the UK McCullin is available on iplayer for 7 more days. If you don’t live in the UK then buy the DVD.
(thank you to the BBC for making the film available to everyone with broadband or a TV in the UK)
Author — duckrabbit
duckrabbit is a production company formed by radio producer/journalist Benjamin Chesterton and photographer David White. We specialize in digital storytelling.
Discussion (1 Comment)
Totally agree, I was riveted. There was a sensitivity and generosity of spirit revealed in McCullin that has been absent from much of what I’d previously read about him. The complexity of his character was eloquently revealed, but his humanity simply shone through. It was a well-judged piece.