Camera

Camera

A surveillance expert takes radical steps to ensure he stays ahead of the game. When hired to follow the daughter of a sinisterly powerful man, he begins to fall for her, calling into question a life-long ethic of detachment and sending him on a path that could destroy his very...
The Great North Korean Picture Show

The Great North Korean Picture Show

An unprecedented journey inside Kim Jong Il’s film industry. To be released in 2012.
The Shortest Man In The Village Who Can Soar Like An Eagle

The Shortest Man In The Village Who Can Soar Like An Eagle

No black person has ever competed in cycling’s most prestigious race, the Tour de France. Zakayo Nderi, a former shoe-shiner from the slums of Kenya, wants to change history.
Cinema of Dreams

Cinema of Dreams

Kim Un Bom and Ri Yun Mi look like typical university students. They’re young, smart and driven. But unlike their peers elsewhere, they’ve been handpicked for a rare honour – to serve Featuring unprecedented access to the Pyongyang University of Cinematic and Dramatic Arts and rare footage from inside the...
Homeless FC

Homeless FC

Twice a week in Hong Kong, an unlikely group of men gather to play football.  They call themselves the Dawn Team, for all of the players have lived through some pretty dark times.  Beyond a love for the beautiful game, the one thing that unites these people is the fact...
Aki Ra's Boys

Aki Ra’s Boys

Boreak was six when he lost his right arm in a landmine accident. Family members rushed the young Cambodian to a nearby hospital where so-called “doctors” performed a crude amputation. Burdened with eight other children to feed and unable to cope with the stress of handling a crippled son, Boreak’s...
Passabe

Passabe

The remote village of Passabe lies on the precarious border between East and West Timor. It is a battle-scarred community with a horrific past. In the run up to the vote for independence in 1999, Passabe was a base for hundreds of pro-Indonesian militiamen who participated in a rampage of...
Latest entries

Happy 24th Birthday, Vui Kong

Dear Vui Kong, Happy birthday, in advance. You’ll be 24 on the 19th of January. It’s a huge milestone. Outside here, your supporters are celebrating the fact that you’ve lived another year. Last time we met, I asked what you were planning to do on your birthday. You said you’d spend it thinking about your...

Goodbye 2011, You Just Flew By

This is one of my favourite pictures this year. Taken in some park in Amsterdam, on my iPhone. No action, no drama, no backstory. I think I like it because it captures a moment that was just so not the 2011 we know. I remember the day well. James made a huge breakfast. And then...
Storm In Subic Bay

Storm In Subic Bay

Workers at a South Korean-run shipyard in the Philippines are fighting back against a deadly safety record.

Storm In Subic Bay: Some Random Thoughts

Our new documentary, “Storm in Subic Bay” airs today on Al Jazeera English’s 101 East. We will post the link to the film as soon as it is available. Rudolfo Alvarez and his children. Photo by Kirsten Han. We meet Rodolfo Alvarez on a gloomy, overcast afternoon. His home isn’t much to look at –...

"All My Preconceived Notions Went Away"

The photo shows a girl with long, curly hair and big expressive eyes. Her name, we’re told, is Christa. And she is an inmate at a maximum security prison in Tennessee. What led her there was an unspeakably gruesome crime. She had lured a girl she suspected of sleeping with her boyfriend into an isolated...
Tough Love: An Education

Tough Love: An Education

Asia is renowned for producing some of the best and brightest students in the world. Such academic achievement is often underpinned by parental pressure, strict discipline and relentless hard study. In Hong Kong, the demand for extra tuition has turned cram or tutorial school teachers into rich celebrities. Yet some students have been driven to contemplate...

The Death Penalty And Me

A post marking the World Day Against the Death Penalty. There are checks, so many checks. Layers of security and gates and searches to go through before they finally lead you to a long corridor. The walls are painted pale yellow and the smell is hard to describe. Sharp and sour and distinct, it hits...
iProtest

iProtest

iProtest follows activist Debby Chan as she works to gather evidence against Foxconn and Apple, often at great risk to herself.

iPhone, iPad, iProtest

In May this year, we followed Hong Kong activist Debby Chan, as she investigated allegations of labour rights abuses at Foxconn, the company that manufactures shiny Apple gadgets like the iPad. Debby was an inspiration – smart, fearless and focused. She taught us what it meant to stand up for a cause, and showed us...

In Search Of The Tiger Mother

What was your childhood like? If you’re Chinese, was it filled with after-school tuition classes, piano and swimming lessons, ballet and homework? Did your parents tell you it was all for your own good? Do you now agree? Cram school in Hong Kong Recently, we spent three weeks in Hong Kong visiting schools and talking...

Senora Jacinta

She was one of the reasons why we grew to love Oecusse. The little East Timorese enclave inside Indonesia had fabulous beaches and brilliant sunsets and the best grilled fish in the world. But only if you knew Senora Jacinta. I still remember how she did them – stuffed with air manas, barbecued over a...

Coming Soon

It’s taken us a little longer than expected, but we’re almost there now. Poster design by Joshua Chiang.