WASHINGTON, DC, Day 10 of 40 — Still asleep, the War Room is strewn with remnants of our struggle to fund post-production of our documentary series, “FREELANCERS.” Computers, charts, calendars listing goals and deadlines, strategy, offensive and counter-offensive. It all takes place here. We scored a significant victory yesterday: We hit the 25 percent mark […]
WASHINGTON, DC, Day 9 of 40 — As this article points out, the craft of conflict coverage is more dangerous than ever before. Despite this, into the fray go many freelancers who, like myself four decades ago, seek to take part in the broad conversation that is journalism — and to establish themselves as protagonists […]
WASHINGTON, DC, Day 8 of 40 — This is what “freelancing” looked like in the 1980s. No body armor. No helmet. And moving with great freedom among combatants on each side of the conflict. We enjoyed relative immunity from intentional violence. I stress “relative immunity” from “intentional” violence. Too many of my friends and colleagues […]
WASHINGTON, DC, Day 7 of 40 – I’ve never served in the military. But since my earliest days of freelancing in Central America to more recent days of freelancing in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’ve shared the experience of soldiering with countless members of numerous armed forces in many countries around the world. On this, Veteran’s […]
WASHINGTON, DC, Day 4 of 40 – They warned me about this stage of my FREELANCERS project. Post-production. Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. It’s a full-time job that keeps me running from predawn to late at night. But I want to get this story out, so I’m OK with the long hours. My story – my documentary […]
WASHINGTON, DC, Day 3 of 40 — Look closely at the caption on this photo. Toward the end you will see “lg/William Gentile” The “lg” are the initials of the person who wrote this caption. The “William Gentile” is, of course, is my real, formal, name. Now I use the abbreviated form of “Bill” on […]