They have spent time in combat, covered stories in Liberia and have witnessed some of life’s most emotional experiences.

Internationally-acclaimed journalist Sebastian Junger and award-winning photojournalist Tim Hetherington – whose documentary film “Restrepo” has been nominated for a 2011 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary – will visit West Virginia University on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

They will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Creative Arts Center as part of WVU’s David C. Hardesty, Jr. Festival of Ideas series.

Their presentation will revolve around the documentary “Restrepo,” which premiered on national television in November 2010. The film chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afganistan’s Korengal Valley. It is designed to make viewers feel like they have gone through a 90-minuted deployment.
The film was awarded Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Junger will also talk about his most recent book “WAR,” which looks at the reality of combat from a soldier’s point of view.

The visit is co-sponsored by the P.I. Reed School of Journalism’s Ogden Newspapers Seminar Series.

Junger is known for writing the New York Times Best-Seller “The Perfect Storm,” “A Death in Belmont” and “Fire,” and has been awarded the National Magazine Award and SAIS Novartis Prize for Journalism.

Hetherington is a contributing photographer for “Vanity Fair” magazine. He is known for his work on projects including “Healing Sport” and “Long Story Bit By Bit: Liberia Retold.” His most recent book, called “Infidel,” illustrates a group of American soldiers’ lives in Afghanistan.

The presentation is free and open to the public. A public reception and book signing will be held following the event. “WAR” and “Infidel” will be available for purchase.

The David C. Hardesty, Jr. Festival of Ideas is named after WVU’s former president who created the lecture series. Each year, the festival brings key figures from the fields of sports, politics, business, entertainment, research, scholarship and culture to the state.

The series is supported in part by the David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas Endowment.

Junger will also be speaking at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 21 in Charleston at the Clay Center. The event is co-sponsored annually by The Charleston Gazette.

The next Festival of Ideas presentation will feature author Michael Eric Dyson. It will be held on Thursday, Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Mountainlair. Dyson’s talk will focus on his book on Hurricane Katrina, “Come Hell or High Water.”

For more information on the 2010-11 Festival of Ideas, visit http://festivalofideas.wvu.edu/.

-WVU-
cd/02/7/11

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