A Private War: Matthew Heineman teams up with DP Robert Richardson

“There is always a story at the end of a rocket,” Marie Colvin once said. That’s what lured the American-born British Sunday Times war correspondent to the world’s most dangerous hot spots: Syria, Iran, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Libya, Kosovo, Chechnya. She kept going back after losing an eye to a grenade when covering the Tamil Tigers in 2001. She returned even after PTSD set in, along with its handmaiden, alcoholism. But war reporting was her main addiction, fed by ambition, a hard work ethic, and bravery bordering on bravado. Her scoops were legendary, her interviews hard-hitting, her writing alive with details. Colvin died in 2012 during the siege of Homs, Syria.

A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike as Colvin and Jamie Dornan as her photographer, Paul Conroy, follows the last decade of the journalist’s life, charting her professional triumphs and personal demons. “In this day and age, where truth seems malleable and facts and journalism are under attack, I thought it was an incredibly important film to make, celebrating this courageous woman, but also celebrating journalism,” says director Matthew Heineman, who teamed up with veteran cinematographer Robert Richardson, ASC, to make his narrative-feature debut.

Published in the December 2018 issue of American Cinematographer.