If you are a fan of this sort of cinema, check out Spirit of Baraka, a website dedicated to films that share those attributes.

Even as young whippersnappers, we knew the world isn’t always a friendly place. Spend a year on the road and you’re bound to cross some high-risk environments. On those occasions, you don’t place your faith in bible. Instead you make sure you packed a Robert Young Pelton book.

Robert Young Pelton is a legend of conflict area journalism and adventure writing. These days he shares his time between being, and we quote, “Adventurer, filmmaker, businessman, author, writer, director, lecturer, columnist, host, explorer, executive producer, photographer, pundit, vagrant and student of life.”

He’s basic message is not to inflict fear, but instead to educate those who are about to embark on an adventure of their own and may yet harbor some doubt if they will indeed “come back alive”. Robert Young Pelton teaches them how to do just that.

The man is a true inspiration – hey, we even named our production company after one of the phrases found in The World’s Most Dangerous Places – so we thought we offer some links that should keep you busy:

Rolph Potts (another amazing travel writer!) interviews RYP

The National Geographic columns and articles

The American Taliban Interview

Pelton radio interview on “License To Kill”

And of course, his official site with lots and lots to explore:

Comebackalive.com

Including Dangerpedia – check out how dangerous your next destination is!

R & T

This documentary is made up from actual footage shot by the video journalists of Burma during the Burmese monks’ protest of September 2007. Several VJs were captured by the government forces.

They are currently in jail and expecting life sentences.

Here’s a description of the film from the official Burma VJ website:

“Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country. Armed with small handycams the Burma VJs stop at nothing to make their reportages from the streets of Rangoon. Their material is smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered as free usage for international media. The whole world has witnessed single event clips made by the VJs, but for the very first time, their individual images have been carefully put together and at once, they tell a much bigger story. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same time providing a thorough documentation of the historical and dramatic days of September 2007, when the Buddhist monks started marching.

”Joshua”, age 27, is one of the young video journalists, who works undercover to counter the propaganda of the military regime. Joshua is suddenly thrown into the role as tactical leader of his group of reporters, when the monks lead a massive but peaceful uprising against the military regime. After decades of oblivion – Burma returns to the world stage, but at the same time foreign TV crews are banned from entering the country, so it is left to Joshua and his crew to document the events and establish a lifeline to the surrounding world. It is their footage that keeps the revolution alive on TV screens all over.

Amidst marching monks, brutal police agents, and shooting military the reporters embark on their dangerous mission, working around the clock to keep the world informed of events inside the closed country. Their compulsive instinct to shoot what they witness, rather than any deliberate heroism, turns their lives into that of freedom fighters.
The regime quickly understands the power of the camera and the reporters are constantly chased by government intelligence agents who look at the ”media saboteurs” as the biggest prey they can get.
During the turbulent days of September, Joshua finds himself on an emotional rollercoaster between hope and despair, as he frantically tries to keep track of his reporters in the streets while the great uprising unfolds and comes to its tragic end.
With Joshua as the psychological lens, the Burmese condition is made tangible to a global audience so we can understand it, feel it, and smell it.”

Official Site