By Robert Goldrich

NEW YORK --

While being in the trenches and chronicling combat seems part and parcel of the job description for a war photographer, Eros Hoagland notes that it’s not so much the combat “but the conflict that I’m interested in.” Hoagland’s still photo coverage of the brutal drug war raging between Mexico and the cartels in Ciudad Juarez captures not just the violence but also the everyday residents of that city who are often caught in the crossfire. Hoagland explains that he talks to the cab driver, the guy in the sandwich shop, the person in the street to get a handle on the people and the situation they live in. This dialogue, says Hoagland, provides information that can help lead him in the right direction to take a picture. His goal is simply to turn out “one good picture a day.”

Hoagland shares these observations in a documentary short, Witness: Juarez, directed by David Frankham. As Hoagland tries to capture the essence of a town and its people being impacted by conflict, so in turn does Frankham capture the creative and personal essence of Hoagland.

Witness: Juarez went on to become one of eight short subject documentaries on the 2011 Oscar shortlist. And now that short has spawned a four-part documentary series, Witness, which covers photojournalists chronicling conflicts and strife. The series debuts Nov. 5 on HBO at 9 p.m.

Best known to our readership for his directorial endeavors in commercials and branded content at Smuggler, Frankham has teamed with filmmaker Michael Mann to executive produce the HBO series, with Frankham directing three of the episodes–the pilot which is his short subject documentary on Hoagland in Juarez, and installments in South Sudan and Rio de Janeiro focused, respectively, on photojournalists Veronique de Viguerie and Hoagland. The remaining episode–directed by Abdallah Omeish–takes place in Libya and chronicles the efforts of still shooter Michael Christopher Brown.

Brown was injured in a mortar explosion in the Libyan city of Misrata which claimed the lives of photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondos in April of 2011. Hetherington, a heralded photo journalist and the Oscar-nominated co-director of the documentary Restrepo, was originally on board to be the subject of one of Frankham’s planned Witness shorts. His and Kontos’ passing during the civil unrest initially caused pause on the part of Frankham to bring Witness to Libya given the high degree of danger there. But ultimately it was because of the unsettled conditions there that Frankham and Brown decided to go ahead with plans to make a documentary, paying tribute to Hetherington and Kontos.

Witness: Juarez was produced independently and self-financed by Frankham, with support from Smuggler. “I wouldn’t have been able to make it without Smuggler’s commitment,” noted Frankham. The short subject documentary caught the eyes not only of Motion Picture Academy judges who placed it on the shortlist, but also of lauded director and producer Mann. Frankham said he sent the short to Mann because “he’s one of the great filmmakers of our time and I knew how obsessed he is with journalism.” Frankham cited one of Mann’s first films, Insurrection, as reflecting that care and concern for journalism as it contained interviews with leaders of the Paris riots in 1968. Insurrection won a Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1971.

Based on Witness: Juarez, Frankham connected with Mann. “We met, hit it off and shared many of the same ideas and a passion for these photojournalists as they strive to get to some layer of the truth,” said Frankham. “Within a week we had a partnership. Michael has a relationship with and reached out to HBO, which resulted in the series. He has been a great collaborator and champion of this project.”

Witness: Juarez also gained recent exposure at the Venice Film Festival where it was well received.

The four-part HBO series–with each episode debuting on Mondays throughout November–was produced by Mann’s Blue Light Media and Frankham’s Little Puppet.

Frustrating motivation
Frankham said that his idea for the original short subject documentary and series “grew out of my frustration with the news, particularly television news. I remember seeing anchors, some of whom are bad actors, talking about Somalia and trying in one minute to sum up what’s going on there. I knew a couple of photographers who had been there and wondered why they weren’t called upon for their ground-level version of the story. The newscast wasn’t engaging but these guys could have made the story relevant and engaging for audiences. So I decided to seek out photojournalists in different parts of the world–we spent two weeks with Eros [Hoagland] in Juarez, 30 days with each of the other still photographers in the series. It’s quite intense. You get up in the morning and go where the story takes you, to the people who are being affected. You don’t go in with a set story to tell. You let the story unfold as you experience it.”

Frankham hopes that the Witness series will prompt more questions from people about these hot spots throughout the world. “You can’t sum up the drug wars in Mexico and provide all the answers. But you can engage viewers in that situation so they are more interested, concerned and can formulate their own questions. The documentaries serve two purposes–to shine a light on different areas and situations, and to shine a light on these still photographers who have their own struggles. These journalists are quite principled and committed, putting their lives on the line every day to show a bit of the truth of what’s being experienced in some part of the world you wouldn’t think of otherwise. None of the documentaries end on a happy note in terms of the conflicts themselves. But there is hope tied to these journalists with cameras who are trying to show what’s going on and in the process make it harder for people to behave badly.”

The photojournalists themselves make for fascinating subjects in Witness. Consider Eros Hoagland who is told by a Juarez resident to “respect the pain” of a family who has just lost a child to violence. That “respect” means not snapping pictures of a grieving woman. Hoagland says that he knows what such pain is like, at which point we learn that his father, photojournalist John Hoagland, was killed in 1984 while on assignment for Newsweek in the outskirts of San Salvador when gunfire erupted between the government and rebel fighters. Eros was a youngster at the time, wondering why his father had to leave him. Now the younger Hoagland has the same impassioned commitment which takes him away from home to photograph people and capture stories in parts of the world–such as Latin America, Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti–ravaged by conflict.

Commercial pedigree
Director Frankham’s filmography includes assorted commercials for such clients as Adidas, American Express, Volkswagen, ESPN, Sony, Fox Sports, T-Mobile and The Wall Street Journal. He also has to his credit the Net 10 “Microwave” viral hit for Droga5, which featured a cell phone transforming into a grotesque alien-like creature while being heated in a microwave. The viral went on to spark a heated debate online about its authenticity.

Other notable ad endeavors include the HTC “Quietly Brilliant You” campaign for Deutsch LA, which features innovative visuals set to the rhythm of Nina Simone and Felix da Housecat’s “Sinnerman.”  Frankham most recently wrapped a Citi campaign for Publicis New York.

“I love making commercials,” affirmed Frankham. “Each one is a puzzle really that keeps me engaged as a problem solver and storyteller, having me continually looking at and questioning things in order to best realize the concept. This has informed my work in documentaries as I’m always trying to find the conceptual heart of the matter, the best and most compelling way to tell a story or fulfill an idea.”

Frankham conjectured that his documentary experience on Witness might also down the road inform his commercialmaking. “I was able to shrink down a crew for Witness–myself [directing], a DIT, a field producer, another cameraman, and a subject.” That lean crew could make sense for the right ad project, he noted.

Spot connection
The aforementioned Oscar shortlist for short subject documentaries found half of the eight films coming from directors with commercialmaking ties, including Daniel Junge who directed (with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy) Saving Face, which won the Academy Award earlier this year. Documentarian Junge is repped by Futuristic Films for spots and brand content.

Lucy Walker has been an Oscar nominee each of the past two years–first for the feature documentary Wasteland followed by the short The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, the latter produced by Supply&Demand Integrated, which also handles Walker for commercials and branded fare.

And Robin Fryday, Oscar-nominated in the same category for co-directing (with the late Gail Dolgin) The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, is on the commercials/ad project roster of Nonfiction Unlimited. Fryday earned inclusion into this year’s SHOOT New Directors Showcase.

MySHOOT Profiles