‘Never Look Away’: Hot Docs Review

Dir: Lucy Lawless. New Zealand. 2023. 85mins

A stirring tribute to New Zealand photojournalist Margaret Moth, By no means Look Away leans into its topic’s complexities, presenting viewers with a layered, clever examine of a girl who lived unapologetically and ferociously, selecting to cowl struggle zones fairly than embrace a standard existence. Actor Lucy Lawless’ directorial debut makes the late Moth, who died in 2010 on the age of 59, really feel strikingly current by talking with colleagues and lovers, who paint her as somebody in thrall to the frenzy and ethical urgency of capturing fight in unadorned phrases.

 In dying, simply as in life, it’s unattainable to take your eyes off her

After premiering at Sundance, the documentary screens at Sizzling Docs, with Kaleidoscope Movies dealing with distribution for the UK and Greenwich Leisure releasing within the US. Former Xena: Warrior Princess actor Lawless’ title will assist appeal to audiences, as may the latest Civil Struggle, which affords a fictional tackle the tough realities of fight photographers. Notable on-camera commentators akin to information anchor Christiane Amanpour might additionally enhance visibility. 

As is talked about by a number of of By no means Look Away’s speaking heads, Moth was a hanging presence, her jet-black punk-rock hair indicative of her adventurous spirit. (In pictures and video, she resembles an arresting combination of Grace Slick and Joan Jett.) Born in New Zealand, she made her title after shifting to America within the early Eighties, the place she ultimately turned a CNN camerawoman. She flaunted a intercourse, medication and rock ‘n’ roll way of life, gravitating to open romantic relationships, skydiving and heroin. However masking struggle zones rapidly turned Moth’s best dependancy, whether or not it was the Gulf Struggle or different Nineteen Nineties conflicts in Sarajevo, Rwanda and Israel. Consumed by anger from a traumatic childhood she was determined to flee, Moth was not considering settling down, as a substitute focusing all her energies on documenting the horror of fight.

When Moth first began to ascertain herself as a photojournalist, few girls have been working behind the digicam — and this was again when she was masking native political tales in Houston, Texas, a number of years earlier than she joined CNN and began travelling the world. By no means Look Away makes clear that she wouldn’t let sexism maintain her again, but Lawless additionally does a powerful job of weighing Moth’s battlefield rush with the sober recognition of the hazards of her work. Very similar to troopers, struggle journalists discover it tough to return to civilian life after the preventing stops — nobody again residence can recognize the job’s intoxicating combination of exhilaration and worry — and Moth’s colleagues articulate these nuances in gripping phrases.

Moth could have craved the adrenaline jolt that struggle supplied however she was not silly or reckless. By no means Look Away persuasively argues that she by no means felt extra alive than being near dying — a cliche in fictional struggle movies, maybe, however true of Moth and lots of of her colleagues. 

Sadly, the inherent dangers of her occupation ultimately caught up along with her when, in Sarajevo in the summertime of 1992, she was struck by a sniper’s bullet. Her friends converse emotionally about their concern that she would die from her catastrophic facial accidents. (One of many movie’s interview topics, journalist Stefano Kotsonis, was in the identical car as Moth.) She survived, however her jaw needed to be reconstructed, and he or she misplaced most of her enamel and a part of her tongue, to the purpose that talking can be practically unattainable for the remainder of her life. Lawless celebrates Moth’s refusal to succumb to self-pity as this decided photojournalist ultimately began masking struggle zones once more, her fearlessness undiminished. 

Contributions from ex-boyfriends go away little doubt that Moth was a tough individual to like — she insisted on having open relationships however didn’t take kindly to her companions participating in the identical behaviour. She was her personal individual, refusing to be tamed, however she could possibly be needy and unreasonable when it got here to issues of the guts. And but, years after her dying from most cancers, Moth nonetheless evidently has a maintain on her former lovers.

Watching By no means Look Away, it’s obvious that she had that impact on everybody. Margaret Moth was not her precise title — she modified it from Margaret Wilson, alongside along with her hair color, when she reinvented herself after leaving residence — and the documentary acknowledges the unknowability of a blazing unique who went to extremes as a matter in fact. In dying, simply as in life, it’s unattainable to take your eyes off her.