The making of history

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

You may have never heard of him, but you've probably seen his work. Israeli photojournalist Ziv Koren has taken some of the most famous images of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the documentary More than 1,000 Words, filmmaker Solo Avital gives us a glimpse into the life and motivations of this intense, compassionate and risk-taking man.

"I feel I'm creating a mosaic out of fragments," says Koren about his photographs. "Building a vessel from shards that eventually could be used as an archeological record."

Koren is highly driven by the desire to capture history in the making. While he speaks with seeming insensitivity about the need to be at, for example, the site of a terror attack within the first 10 minutes, he is close to tears when he describes the first suicide bombing he covered – that of the No. 5 bus in Tel-Aviv in 1994. To this day, he cannot walk by the site without seeing the bodies, smelling the death all around him.

Ironically, it is this haunting event that put him on the photojournalism map, accruing him honors, as well as the cover of Time magazine. And Koren is determined to bring such disturbing images to as many people as possible; people who, he admits, don't want to see them. He says that his obsession with documenting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began as people's interest in it started to decline.

Koren is married and has a daughter. Avital interviews Koren's wife, who describes herself as a single parent and appears reconciled to the fact that she is second to photography in her husband's life.

For his part, Koren does have the sense to be afraid at times, when photographing terrorist leaders or rushing into a war zone, but, as he tells a class of young students, "photojournalism is a way of life, not just a job."

More than 1,000 Words is as interesting as it is visually stunning. Sponsored by the Jewish Independent, the film screens at Granville 7 Cinemas at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 5; 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 9; and 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 13.

For Vancouver International Film Festival tickets and information, visit www.viff.org.

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