Love+War chronicles Pulitzer Prize-winning Lynsey Addario’s ascent in the male-dominated world of conflict photography. But her work is dangerous. She’s been kidnapped twice while on assignment in war zones — a cost she must wrestle with each time she leaves her husband and two sons to go on assignment. Behind the camera, Addario is torn between her unwavering commitment to the essential work of journalism and the powerful, competing demands of motherhood, grappling with what it truly means to follow your calling when it threatens everything you love.

STORY 

Pulitzer Prize-winning Lynsey Addario has risked her life to capture the stark realities of war — from the Middle East and Afghanistan to Ukraine. From National Geographic Documentary Films and Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin,  Love+War  chronicles Addario’s ascent in the male-dominated world of conflict photography. But her work is dangerous. She’s been kidnapped twice while on assignment in war zones — a cost she must wrestle with each time she leaves her husband and two sons to go on assignment. Behind the camera, Addario is torn between her unwavering commitment to the essential work of journalism and the powerful, competing demands of motherhood, grappling with what it truly means to follow your calling when it threatens everything you love.

FILMMAKERS

Chai Vasarhelyi is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker with a storied history of critically acclaimed films. In 2019, she, along with co-director and co-producer Jimmy Chin, was awarded the Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Documentary Feature for “Free Solo,” an intimate, unflinching portrait of rock climber Alex Honnold. The film also received seven Emmy® Awards. In 2023, she also co-directed her first scripted feature, “Nyad” for Netflix, which saw both stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster receiving Academy Award nominations. More recently, Vasarhelyi was also honored with a Peabody and a News & Documentary Emmy Award for co-directing and producing the acclaimed Nat Geo series “Photographer.” In the fall of 2025, she has two new feature documentaries for National Geographic Documentary Films premiering: “Love+War,” on acclaimed war photographer Lynsey Addario, and “Lost in the Jungle,” on the incredible true story of four children who survived a plane crash in the Colombian Jungle. In 2021, she co-directed the BAFTA- and DGA-nominated documentary “The Rescue,” chronicling the enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of 12 boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand. Other projects include “Return to Space,” about SpaceX and NASA’s first joint spaceflight, which hit the top 10 on Netflix’s most-watched films list, and the series “Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin” for National Geographic. Her feature “Meru” won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015 and was on the 2016 Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature. Vasarhelyi’s other films as a director include “Incorruptible” (Truer Than Fiction Independent Spirit Award 2016); “Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love” (Oscilloscope, 2009), which premiered at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals; “A Normal Life” (Tribeca Film Festival, Best Documentary 2003); and “Touba” (SXSW, Special Jury Prize Best Cinematography in 2013). Vasarhelyi has directed two New York Times Op Docs, two episodes for Netflix’s nonfiction design series “Abstract,” and two episodes for ESPN’s nonfiction series “Enhanced.” She has received grants from the Sundance Institute, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Bertha Britdoc, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a member of the DGA, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). She holds a B.A. in comparative literature from Princeton University. Vasarhelyi lives in New York City with her children: daughter Marina and son James.

Jimmy Chin is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, an award-winning National Geographic photographer and a professional climber and skier. He has led and documented cutting-edge expeditions around the world for over 20 years. He has climbed and skied Mount Everest from the summit and made the coveted first ascent of the Shark’s Fin on Mount Meru. His photographs have graced the covers of National Geographic Magazine and the New York Times Magazine. In 2019, Chin, along with co-director and co-producer Chai Vasarhelyi, was awarded a BAFTA and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for “Free Solo,” an intimate, unflinching portrait of rock climber Alex Honnold. The film also received seven Emmy Awards. More recently, he co-directed his first scripted feature, “Nyad” for Netflix, which saw both stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster receiving Academy Award nominations. In the fall of 2025, Chin has two new feature documentaries for National Geographic Documentary Films premiering: “Love+War,” on acclaimed war photographer Lynsey Addario, and “Lost in the Jungle,” on the incredible true story of four children who survived a plane crash in the Colombian Jungle. Additional projects include the BAFTA- and DGA-nominated “The Rescue” and the 2015 Sundance Audience Award winner “Meru.” Chin was also the face of National Geographic’s critically acclaimed series “Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin,” which premiered in 2022. Chin lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and is the dedicated father of daughter Marina and son James.

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