Ryszard Kapuściński

A 4-part series of interviews and demonstrations by various artists, authors and performers put on in 1991 for the Viennale film festival (which Herzog directed). Herzog conducts the interviews himself.

In 1975, Ryszard Kapuściński, a veteran Polish journalist, embarked on a seemingly suicidal road trip into the heart of the Angola's civil war. There, he witnessed once again the dirty reality of war and discovered a sense of helplessness previously unknown to him. Angola changed him forever: it was a reporter who left Poland, but it was a writer who returned…

The end of the Cold War did not bring about a definitive thaw in the former republics of the Soviet Union, so that today there are several frozen conflicts, unresolved for decades, in that vast territory. As in Transnistria, an unrecognized state, seceded from Moldova since 1990. Kolja is a silent witness of how borders and bureaucracy shape the lives of citizens, finally forced to lose their identity.

A POET ON THE FRONTLINE will introduce audiences to the world of Ryszard Kapuscinski, the famous daredevil war correspondent and one of the world's most important contemporary literary figures. Known as "Indiana Jones with a notepad," Kapuscinski is a legend among his peers who has been looking for the truths of human experience in the most dangerous places. Filmmaker Gabrielle Pfeiffer traveled with Kapuscinski in four countries, capturing his true character, his passion, his humor and his demons. Her film interweaves Kapuscinski's childhood as a refugee in Poland during WWII, with his later experiences on the battlefields of the Third World, in a poetic reverie of the tragedy and the absurdity of war. It also looks at the lines between journalism and literature, and challenges of the writer in the face of censorship.—Gabrielle Pfeiffer

Haile Gerima and Ryszard Kapuscinski travel around Ethiopia talking to people about their current situations and what needs to be done for a prosperous country.