Hot Docs

National Geographic Films, Hot Docs and Realscreen magazine are uniting to pay tribute to filmmaker Tim Hetherington, with a special one-off charity screening of the late director’s Academy Award-nominated Afghanistan war documentary RESTREPO. Co-director Sebastian Junger will attend the screening, paying tribute to Tim, his friend and collaborator, and will host a Q&A session after the film.

The special screening comes after Tim Hetherington, age 40, was killed in Libya on April 20th while covering the conflict between Muammar Gaddafi and Libyan rebels. The conflict also claimed the life of his friend and fellow photojournalist Chris Hondros. The news sent shockwaves and sadness throughout the documentary and journalism communities. Hetherington was highly praised as both a photographer and a filmmaker, having won the 2007 World Press Photo Award for his pictures of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan; and sharing the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for RESTREPO with his co-director, Junger.

For RESTREPO, Hetherington and Junger spent a year documenting one American platoon’s battles in Afghanistan’s danger-filled Korengal Valley. Unflinching, emotional and insightful, the film has won numerous awards – in addition to the 2010 Sundance prize, it also received the Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Documentary; the National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary; and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s Academy Awards.

Proceeds from the screening with be donated to a charity of the Hetherington family’s choice, to be announced.

Please note that this screening is a fund-raising event, and Hot Docs public or industry passes cannot be used to obtain tickets.

Media Coverage

• cbc.ca Feature

• The Globe and Mail Feature