Lynsey Addario has witnessed atrocities, lost colleagues and was even kidnapped in Libya in her 20 years as a war photographer. Now the new documentary “Love + War” shows how the Pulitzer winner balanced her harrowing career with her family life in Britain.
Addario joined the film’s co-director Chai Vasarhelyi, who alongside her filmmaking partner Jimmy Chin won an Oscar with their 2018 doc “Free Solo,” at TheWrap’s TIFF 2025 studio to talk about her work, including a mortar strike captured in the doc that nearly took her life.
“After the attack, I was trying to convince myself, ‘Oh, it wasn’t really that close,’” Addario told TheWrap’s CEO Sharon Waxman. “It was like, not a big deal. And then when I got to the hotel, Clarissa Ward, who’s with CNN, asked if I was OK. And I was like, ‘What do you mean? Am I OK?’ And she’s like, ‘That was a really close call.”
When Addario asked how Ward knew about the mortar strike, she showed a Facebook video posted by Andriy Dubchak, who was with Addario shooting footage for “Love + War.”
“It was a moment where I thought, ‘Thank God for the documentary.’ Because of it people could see what a close call it was, and moreover that we were there. It wasn’t like we showed up after the fact and had to piece together what had happened. We watched that attack.”
Vasarhelyi felt compelled to make “Love + War” to show that women like Addario are out there risking their lives for the truth at a time when journalism is attacked more than ever, and where the calls for diversity in the 2010s have been met with a right-wing backlash emboldened by Donald Trump’s re-election today.
“My daughter’s life has fewer prospects than mine did at her age. And it’s something I’m thinking about a lot, and I’m really kind of committed to telling stories that call attention to great work by women,” she said.
The documentary reflects on the constant danger Addario has faced in her career, especially in the spring of 2011, when she was kidnapped while taking photos of the civil war against Muammar Gaddafi. She was held with her colleagues for a week and assaulted by soldiers loyal to Gaddafi.
“On the front line of any war, all bets are off, because anything can happen. They can rape you and execute you. No one will ever know, and they can just say she was killed in crossfire,” Addario said.
“Love + War” juxtaposes this with the family Addario has built with her husband, former Reuters reporter Paul de Bendern, and their son, Lukas. Vasarhelyi said it was important to frame Addario’s story in a way that shows how Addario was able to build a loving life at home while remaining honest about the risks of her job.
“You guys have worked really hard at it, and you are also not lying to yourself about it,” Vasarhelyi told Addario. “It’s really difficult to watch the film. I don’t know if I could put my own life under that scrutiny.”
“Love + War” will be released by National Geographic at a later date.
