Tag Archives: vanguard

For the first time in more than two months, this week the entire Vanguard team was in one room at the same time. I had just gotten back from Indonesia and India (see above). Mariana had returned fewer than 24 hours before from Paris after more than six weeks abroad reporting two different stories. Christof's been in the U.S. South and then up in Canada, but returned this weekend. And Kaj had just one day between trips reporting from some of the most high-security prisons in America. There we were, all in some room — and I didn't get a photo. Though a rare occurrence when we're all in production, I swear we were all there together. A couple of highlights from our debriefs: I shared the story of how just moments after shooting this video from the middle of a river of shit, I completely lost it. I'd stupidly decided to make myself a protein shake that day — and used tap water. Despite the fact that I was in India to report on the prevalence of unclean water. Still, as Kaj pointed out to our colleagues conferencing in from San Francisco, I was telling this story while eating lunch: sushi. Mariana's trip to Africa, then Europe, then back to Africa, then back to Europe, was interrupted by not one but two epic luggage fails on the part of Lufthansa — and one very public Twitter campaign to reuinte her with her bags (and tripod). Kaj can't talk about his next piece other than to say that a trip to a high-security prison nearly landed him in contempt of court. And to promise he'll be using Twitter more now. And Christof is back from a very intense round of reporting, painfully without his own camera in hand. It's a story we've been careful to talk too much about — unlike my relentness documenting of every pile of shit in India I filmed — because the subjects were, even for the kind of story Vanguard so often goes after, particularly reluctant to speak with the media. We want to tell you — and show you — as much as we can about the next season of Vanguard, even as we're still in the field or back here in LA piecing the shows together. You tell me — what do you want to know? (Follow the full team at Twitter as we all scatter back across the globle.) added by: Adam_Yamaguchi