News

Foreign Correspondence and Backpack Journalism

MEXICO CITY, 8 March 2017 — Gerardo Carrillo (L) is the founder of the Associated Press (AP) video unit in Mexico City. When I knew him while covering the conflicts raging through Central America in the 1980s, he was a freelance television cameraman. I caught up with Carrillo at a march protesting violence against women […]

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“Freelancers: The Open Road” and Where It Began

WASHINGTON, DC, 24 October 2017 — I’m working on the rough cut of my documentary, “Freelancers: The Open Road,” and can’t help but think of where it all began. It was 40 years ago that I finished course work in graduate school and went to Mexico for an internship at the Mexico City News, and […]

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Spanish-Language Course at AU School of Communication

WASHINGTON, DC, 20 October 2017 — I’m offering my “Backpack Documentary en Español” course — the first-ever, all-Spanish class offered by American University’s School of Communication — in Spring 2018. Registration for Spring semester begins next week. This is the second time I’m offering this course, which I’ve designed to help students engage and embrace […]

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Fire on the Mountain

HUAYTAPALLANA, Peru, 21 June 2017 – Peruvians gather on a ridge overlooking the glacier and lake below to celebrate the Andean New Year. In recent years the glacier has lost much of its mass, which scientists believe is the result of global climate change. The depletion of the ice means the depletion of an important […]

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Backpack Journalism, Religion and Climate Change

LIMA, Peru, 16 June 2017 — This morning’s view from my hotel window in the Peruvian capital where I arrived last night. I’m on assignment for American University’s (AU) Center for Latin American and Latino Studies (CLALS). I’ll be heading for Huancayo tomorrow, and then to the glacier at Huaytapallana to make a short film […]

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Interviewing NYTimes Freelance Foreign Correspondent in Mexico

WASHINGTON, DC, 7 May 2017 — During a March trip to Nogales, Mexico, I interviewed Ioan Grillo (R), a freelance foreign correspondent based in Mexico City who works with The New York Times and Time magazine. American University Graduate Teaching Assistant Matt Cipollone and I accompanied Grillo during much of his reporting trip for this […]

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