“Never Look Away” Holds Our Gaze

Never Look Away (Lucy Lawless, 2024) 3½ out of 5 stars

Photojournalist Margaret Moth (1951-2010) lived about as full a life as one could hope for, in terms of adventures had and risks taken. An adrenaline junkie, she looked a bit like Joan Jett (who was younger, so maybe she stole Moth’s look …) and dashed around the world, camera in hand, to crash the latest warzone hotspot and gather striking images. Actress Lucy Lawless (of Xena: Warrior Princess fame) makes her debut behind the camera with the documentary Never Look Away, which presents Moth’s wild existence—the good, the bad, and the ugly—for all to see. Occasionally rough as it may be, it’s the kind of warts-and-all portrait that its subject would no doubt enjoy.

Born in New Zealand, she became that country’s first television camerawoman before moving to Texas in 1980, where she worked for a Houston station. She left for CNN in time to cover the first Gulf War, which established what then become her primary stomping grounds: conflict zones. Cool under pressure, she had no apparent need for sleep or food, thriving on the high of danger. She gathered important footage used by news organizations around the globe, while also greeting every day with passion (which included many lovers). There was no stopping her.

Until, in 1992, she was shot by a sniper in Sarajevo, the bullet shattering her jaw. She almost died, and did let up for a bit, but the call of action was too much and she returned to Sarajevo in 1994 and then to further places after that. Though her face and ability to speak were never the same after the would-be assassin’s attack, Moth continued to go go go until, at the end, cancer took her.

Lawless presents the facts through archival material and interviews with Moth’s contemporaries, including CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, the BBC’s Susan Stein, and her soul mate, cameraman Joe Duran (also, at one point, of CNN), among others. There are many more people to attest to her bravery (and recklessness). One such interviewee is Jeff Russi, who first met Moth when she was 30 and he was 17. His is a slightly troubling chapter in the movie; though he says he loves her to this day, it’s hard not to see Moth as something of an abuser, given how she upended his life and, as a result, he never finished high school. She also proved controlling with a later lover, Yaschinka, also profiled in the movie.

But Moth, herself, came from an abusive environment, as we eventually learn from her siblings. Her last name was originally Wilson, and her hair was blonde. She would adopt Moth and dye her hair black and wear dark mascara as a way of shedding the past from which she fled. Perhaps she lived so hard as a way to make up for the challenge of her early days.

The film’s narrative is sometimes a jumble, but within its messy structure emerges an engaging profile. Moth was a pioneer, whatever her faults. And she left behind an impressive treasure trove of important work. It is, indeed, hard to look away from her achievements.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator, as well as Film Festival Today's Editor. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.