Former war correspondent David Brill has borne witness to some of the world's most catastrophic events from international conflicts for almost 50 years.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
With fellow iconic cameraman Neil Davis, Brill was among the first Australian media personnel on the ground to cover the Vietnam War where he captured a balanced view of both sides of the conflict.
He covered the particularly bloody battles in South America in the 1970s and 1980s and captured the fall of the Soviet empire while he was stationed in Moscow from 1988.
He played a part in covering both Gulf Wars and was part of a parliamentary delegation that travelled to Baghdad in the early 1990s to secure the release of Australian hostages.
While he captured all the action from the theatre of war, it was his empathetic footage and storytelling of its impact on victims that won him attention and acclaim early in his career.
Born and bred in Longford, Brill developed an interest early in his schooling, poring over the images printed in Life Magazine.
At school, Brill struggled with what would later come to be known as dyslexia, something he would continue to deal with over his media career.
"I knew I wasn't an idiot, but it was hard stuff in classrooms to write things down properly," he said.
"My mother used to pay extra money for me to go and get extra help from teachers after school because no-one knew what dyslexia was there.
"I was bullied a bit and I just always felt a bit different.
"I think it was that experience that made me want to go that extra mile beyond the average person."
Following school, he managed to secure a casual position as a camera operator for ABC in Hobart.
While two full-time cameramen were on leave, Brill got his first big break and was sent to cover one of the biggest events in Tasmania's history - the 1967 Hobart bushfires.
"It hit me like a ton of bricks," he said.
"I realised news coverage was powerful stuff, particularly when the footage went all around the world and brought aid and expertise into Tasmania.
"I realised then how powerful good journalism and good filmmaking could be."
THE FIRST OF MANY BATTLES
A few years later, he was sent to cover his first international war in Vietnam.
While on the ground, Brill said he asked himself how he could portray the enormity of the war.
He sent back footage of bombing, tanks rolling across fields and the rat-a-tat of machine gun fire, though sought to tell a different story as well.
Brill said being behind the camera was more about nailing down the technical aspects of shooting and capturing key moments.
"Cinematography is just the craft - for me, it's always been about storytelling," he said.
"I love to get a good exposed and beautiful shot the best that I can, but I'm a newsman at heart.
"The more I got into filming, the more I realised how powerful television was.
"You might be able to change the world, but at least you keep people aware of what's going on."
His brand of storytelling came to fruition quite early during his time covering the Vietnam War through iconic footage of a girl being fitted with a prosthetic leg.
Her unemotional stare down the barrel of the camera captured her innocence and stern courage.
Her slight smile once the leg was fitted and she was once again able to walk was heartwarming.
"Thousands of little girls were suffering the same thing," Brill said of the footage.
"She was just one little innocent girl. If it was a large group, it wouldn't have had that sort of impact as it would be too overwhelming.
"It's pretty rough in the sense of beautiful cinematography, but it's capturing reality in a very dignified way.
While in Vietnam, he crossed the border into Cambodia to cover the country's developing civil war - something that had been overshadowed by the neighbouring war at the time.
Vision of boys sent into conflict who were barely big enough to be able to lift weaponry hit Australian audiences hard.
THE HUMAN SIDE OF WAR
While Brill would still capture the sensational parts of conflict demanded by the networks, he dedicated himself to telling the human side of war and continued to do so throughout his career.
"You don't see much because normally you've got your head down if the bullets are coming at you," he said.
"It's all very dramatic, but what story do those shots really tell?
"To me, the story is about the people - the civilians, the refugees, the soldiers.
"When I go to a war, I want to show the life of the people and how they're suffering and how they're getting on with it.
"You meet some terrific people - ordinary people.
"I've had people who've lost everything come up to me and offer me a cup of tea out of an old pot they've found."
Brill credited his self-described oversensitivity to the things around him for putting heart and soul into his work.
"You don't only see people suffering, you can feel it," he said.
Brill said among many of the tragedies he has witnessed, it was his coverage of the crisis in Darfur that deeply affected him in particular.
Although the war killed an estimated 300,000 people, there were a further three million that were displaced from Sudan.
"I wanted to show there's nothing worse than a refugee camp," Brill said of his coverage.
"These wonderful people: farm workers, lawyers, doctors all living in these dreadful refugee camps.
"I want to show what life was in there and the dignity of the people.
"The camps can turn into little villages and communities over time, but the people are isolated. They are just stuck there with nowhere to go."
It is in these often desperate and hopeless situations that Brill has been able to find positive forces in people.
He has told the story of a young Australian dance teacher who established a dance studio in a ghetto in the Middle East to encourage children to express themselves through movement.
There was the story of Eva Doherty, a nurse who dedicated her life to the service of Sudanese refugees.
There was the story on Australian doctor Rowan Gillies, the youngest ever president of Medecins San Frontieres, with whom Brill spent three weeks in the Congo as he performed more than 200 operations on women who had been brutalised by soldiers.
Outside of conflict, there was the story of an intuitive young Filipino inventor who sought to bring light into impoverished homes through the installation of plastic bottles in ceilings.
"These are unsung heroes," Brill said.
"They're doing it because they really do care.
"These are brilliant people doing terrific work that you often never hear of and they sure aren't doing it for glory or money.
"What kept me going for so long was these sorts of people. They gave me a bit of hope."
MORE STORIES TO TELL
Brill's early career has been captured in a 60-minute documentary David Brill's Story On The Frontlines.
The feature was able to be produced through a grant from the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.
Brill and a group of friends hope to generate interest to produce a second and possibly third part of his story for screening.
The second part is intended to focus on Brill's arrival in New York in 1976 as the ABC's first resident cameraman in the United States, assignments to El Salvador and Cuba, and coverage of US presidential campaigns.
It was over this time in the US that Brill covered the civil war in Guatemala which he believed was one of his most perilous assignments during his career.
Unsurprisingly, the horror and tragedy Brill has witnessed has taken its toll on him, particularly in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
To me, the story is about the people - the civilians, the refugees, the soldiers.
- Former war correspondent David Brill
"You're always watching your back all the time in this business in case you walk on a landmine or in the view of a sniper," he said.
"What gets to you is just not knowing what is going to happen to you the next day.
"I think I've been incredibly lucky in that I got away with a lot in those first few years.
"You learn from experience in war."
Despite his many years filming conflict in the middle of various wars, Brill does not describe himself as a war cinematographer.
"They are dreadful things and I've tried with my work to explain them in a decent and proper way to show how horrible it all is and, I know it's an old cliche, but hopefully we can learn from them," he said.
"We made a dreadful mistake in Vietnam, we made a dreadful mistake in Iraq, we made a dreadful mistake in Afghanistan, we made a dreadful mistake in Somalia and on we go.
"But being there, getting behind the scenes and learning and then presenting it to people keeps them aware of things."
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
