As part of our monthly PhotoNight lecture, producer Greg Kelly visited UNC’s School of Journalism this October to discuss his documentary “Beyond Words: Photographers of War.” Click on the player below to hear Kelly talk about why he took on the project.

After getting a doctorate in literature from Oxford University, Greg Kelly returned to his native Canada, where his first job was that of proofreading Harlequin Romances. He later started doing documentary radio work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which led to an award-winning career in both radio and television.

“Beyond Words: Photographers of War” has been sold to about twenty countries and screened in New York, London, Paris, Vancouver, Toronto, Bangkok, Moscow and at the Visa pour l’image photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France. It’s won several awards and was described by the eminence grise of photojournalism John G. Morris as being “the most important film documentary about photojournalism ever made.” There is no narrator in this documentary. Instead, twenty-four of the world’s top photojournalists tell the story of what photographs and the practice of photography mean to them.

Kelly is the senior producer and co-creator of “The Story with Dick Gordon” a nationally syndicated radio program on National Public Radio.

“Beyond Words” can also be viewed at NPPA’s The Best of Television Photojournalism 2006 — look for Judge’s Choice.

Audio by Chris Carmichael (with a special thanks to Audio Engineer Al Wodarski of WUNC)