The brainchild of Brian Storm, whose previous stops included Corbis and MSNBC.com, MediaStorm links talented filmmakers and photojournalists with a like-minded publishing resource and production facility, and produces stark, intelligent, award-winning documentaries that examine some of the world’s most pressing crises.
Now, amid the crush of media retrospectives on the war in Iraq, MediaStorm has teamed up with Reuters to produce “Bearing Witness: Five Years Of The Iraq War.” It’s a stunning package, featuring interviews with long-serving journalists in Iraq; maps that depict shifts in ethnic populations, oil production, and fatalities; and a long list of other resources, from aid groups to think tanks.
However, the project’s most arresting element is the timeline, a scrollable collection of photographs and text that summarizes the war’s week-by-week progress — or lack thereof. As is typical with MediaStorm projects, the photographs are of an impeccable quality, ranging from broad landscapes and crowd shots to the up-close views of the dead, dying, and barely surviving.
The work of Reuters journalists and photographers lies at the heart of “Bearing Witness,” but it’s worth noting that one of the world’s largest wire services turned to a relative up-and-comer in the digital media world to produce this important package. It all adds up to a seamless blend of traditional and new media, with MediaStorm again raising the bar.
