Amy Costello & Gregg Watt

By Rebecca Ransom

Torrington- Journalist Amy Costello has gone to some of the most dangerous regions of the world to get the story. She has traveled through highly unstable areas ravaged by years of genocidal violence, stared accused mass murders in the eye, and sat with women whose entire family had been murdered before them.

Taking “informed risks” is sometimes a part of the job as a foreign correspondent, and Ms. Costello doesn’t seem to shy away from them if it means getting to the heart of a story. “I do feel it is my responsibility as a journalist to get out of my comfort zone to get to places and people who might not otherwise get a voice in American media,” said Ms. Costello, a Washington, CT native who has been based in South Africa for the past several years.

Last year, Ms. Costello was nominated for an Emmy Award for her investigative report on the Darfur crisis, entitled “The Quick and the Terrible”, for the PBS FRONTLINE/World television program.

Most of us will never have contact with the human rights crises occurring in Darfur and other areas of the world apart from the stories we watch over the television, hear over the radio, or read in print. But for those like Ms. Costello who watch the atrocities unfold and see the devastation firsthand, “it’s always very difficult to see other people who are suffering, victims of human rights violations, powerless over their own future and lives, their families killed before their eyes, to hear their stories is always very difficult and very sad.”

So what inspires her to keep going day after day after seeing such devastation? “I take my skills and power as a journalist to shed some light on some of the horrific things going on in some parts of the world…to move other people (who see my work) to take action or at the very least, try to understand what’s going on in other parts of the world.”

On Wednesday evening, Feb. 14, Ms. Costello and her husband, South African filmmaker Gregg Watt, will be the guest speakers at the Litchfield County Writers Project’s spring lecture series, “Filmmakers of Litchfield County”. The LCWP series has a particular emphasis on filmmakers and films which explore the issue of human rights. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place at the University of Connecticut’s Torrington campus from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

A special screening of “The Quick and the Terrible” and Mr. Watt’s documentary “Without Remorse” will be shown Wednesday, Feb. 7 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Torrington campus. The award-winning film “Without Remorse” is a look at Mr. Watt’s experiences as a white South African man who returns to the “new” post-apartheid South Africa after years abroad.

For a complete LCWP series schedule or for more information, visit www.lcwp.uconn.edu or call the LCWP at 860 626 6845.

Posted with the permission of The Litchfield County Times.
Amy Costello&Gregg Watt - Couple to speak for LCWP - Friday February 2 2007 - page 5