AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY MAKER Isabelle Abric has more than a decade of experience in United Nations peace-keeping missions; one could say there is not much she hasn’t accomplished.
Abric started filming bar-mitzvahs and weddings in New York City, later going on to work for the United Nations as a Video Producer, she has received accolades for excellence in her documentaries on human rights, she now is the Chief of Communications in Timor Leste who lecturers at Universities in her spare time.
Her illustrious career began with an internship for the UN in 1986; leading her to her first mission in Namibia as a Video Producer.
Namibia, at the time still racially segregated under the Apartheid, Abric says “It was magic, you rarely get to see a country gain its independence during the course of a mission, it can take a whole generation before it reaches international amnesty that experience was very special to me – plus it was my first mission”.
Travelling at the age of 17, from France the country of her birth, Abric completed her high school studies in Kingwood, Texas. She returned to Paris to complete her undergraduate degree in English with a minor in Journalism. It was not long before Abric returned to the United States, to undertake graduate studies in Media Research at City University of New York (CUNY).
In 1992 Abric’s mission took her to Cambodia, where she produced and directed the documentary ‘Fear and Hope in Cambodia’, narrated by British journalist William Shawcross.
She arrived in Somalia in 1994 shortly after the two US black hawk helicopters went missing, as the Chairperson for the (UNESCO) Committee for Peace campaign. Her mission the second of its kind to ascend on Somalia during the early 90s, Abric describes as “A very sad experience, everywhere you turned the population was dying of starvation”.
“It was also rather frustrating, we were living in a military compound guarded by rebels, paid to protect us, one moment peace would be negotiated and the next moment it would be all out war again”, Abric says.
Her mission in Somalia would see her losing contact with her crew, all albeit her camera man, “That was a little frightening”, Abric says “When we finally made it back to the airport my camera turned to me and said ‘I told you that I would get you out of here alive’.
And that he did, in 2001 Abric along with colleague Simone Di Bagno, completed the award winning documentary ‘A work in progress: Human Rights in Haiti’, following on from her mission in Haiti in 1990 in the capital Port-au-Prince.
The documentary won the Golden Award at the World Media Festival in Germany, the Silver plaque award at the Chicago International Film Festival, a certificate for Creative Excellence at the US International Film Festival and a finalist in the New York International Film Festival. The film was also offered a permanent place in the collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Broadcast and Communications in Chicago.
Abric later funded her own documentary in with long time friend George Clinton, the documentary titled ‘Funk, its alive’ was a feature length documentary on music and the icon that is George Clinton, the film looked at its socio-cultural impact on culture over the last 40 years.
Abric says “It is very difficult to fund your own documentaries with your own money, I have won the No Borders festival in New York twice”, the festival she goes to explain “Is an independent film festival in which you market your ideas for a documentary, if your successful the organisation sets you up with parties interested in funding your project”.
“Unfortunately each time I have won, before I could get my projects off the ground, I’ve been called out on a mission somewhere and the opportunity is lost”, Abric goes onto say.
In 2003 Abric was sent off to a mission in the Republic of Congo, based in the Ituri province, Abric witnessed firsthand the massacre and violence caused by the militia group, Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC).
‘We were forced to live in our office and eat military rations for weeks, it was all chicken halal, don’t speak to me about chicken halal I never want to think of it again’ Abric goes off on a digression of her own and I don’t dare to broach the subject any further. Abric is a very serious woman, who surprisingly for someone in her position has an incredible sense of humor.
On a more serious note she explains ‘The first person ever is now being tried for crimes against humanity”, she is referring to Thomas Lubanga head of the UPC. Lubanga is guilty for the massacre of thousands of Congolese people as well as trying to enlist young innocent children into his army.
During her time in Ituri, Abric also describes a friendship with a young boy “He had been orphaned as a consequence of the violence in the region, he was adopted by his aunt and uncle” Abric says, “We have kept in contact and is now training to become a mechanic”, she concludes.
Our conversation diverts for a moment to talk about technology and the impact of those
technologies on her career. “In my line of work, it’s all really a plus, I mean, the internet is great for communication purposes, then the technology of the computer programs also enhance what I do”, Abric says.
“Had it not been for the introduction of the radio lines in Ituri, that’s what essentially saved us and potentially many Congolese nationals, we were able to radio ahead for help”, Abric says.
Abric is currently based in Timor Leste and is the Deputy Chief of the Communication and Public Information Section. Their mandate Abric explains “Is to provide accurate and objective information to the Timorese people ….. and to build local media capacities”.
When asked if she had any advice for people wanting to enter her field of expertise Abric teases “Don’t do it”. “No seriously she says, it can be tough, I mean you can’t go out or anything in Timor to socialise, you spend most of your time with colleagues and you drive around in a car covered in flags, I mean you’re the UN”, she says.
Abric is currently lecturing at a local University on ethics in journalism. “So” I ask “If you didn’t have any financial constraints is this what you would be doing?”, “Absolutely, that and independent documentary making that is really where my passions lie” she says.
Deanne Mason