Yesterday brought the quite devastating news that journalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was killed while on location in Libya. I had the opportunity to interview Hetherington last year when his incredible documentary, Restrepo, was released in theaters. He was, simply enough, one of the most impressive people I have ever had the opportunity to meet: kind, gracious, and unassuming — with an approachable, friendly demeanor that hid his capacity for extraordinary bravery.

In the Guardian, David Batty writes about the photojournalist:

That mix of charm and compassion was a great attribute in a job where you were often dealing with vulnerable, distressed, if not traumatised, individuals: young runaways, victims of abuse, the mentally ill and addicts. Whenever he accompanied you on a story there was little need to persuade interviewees to open up — people just dropped their guard.

One story I was told by Sgt. Maj. LaMonta Caldwell during that interview was how Hetherington broke his leg while in the tiny military outpost in Afganistan, and rather than burden the soldiers with caring for him, he dragged himself down a mountainside to the base camp. In addition to the Academy Award-nominated Restrepo, Hetherington made two other movies, Liberia: An Uncivil War (2004) and The Devil Came on Horseback (2007). I have not seen Liberia, but like Restrepo, The Devil Came on Horseback exemplifies Hetherington’s determination to tell the stories of those affected by the horrors of war — the common soldier, civilians — capturing the human face that suffers between the lines of news stories about the world’s many conflicts. It is a sad that now his own life stands as witness to another group affected by the violence of war: journalists, especially those with the tenacity and courage to seek to give voice to the voiceless. Indeed, Hetherington’s very last act of reporting, a tweet posted on April 19, describes the plight of the Libyan people with haiku-like simplicity and power:

“In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO.”

Hetherington was supposed to return to Dallas this May, to participate in a screening of Restrepo at the Texas Theatre as part of the exhibition XXI: Conflicts in a New Century, currently on view at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center. Now Hetherington will not be at that screening, but the exhibition and his movie will have new resonance.

Here is Hetherington’s last movie, an experimental short called “Diary.” And here is that interview.

Restrepo Interview from Peter Simek on Vimeo.