Dart Society

Lena Jakobsson and Mike Walter prepare for screenings of "Breaking News, Breaking Down" in Sweden.

By MIKE WALTER -- I arrived early for our SPJ session in Indianapolis. I wanted to make sure the equipment was working right -- I'd been burned before. Lena Jakobsson, ever the producer, arrived at about the same time, both of us armed with our DVDs. There is nothing worse than coming to a session carrying DVDs and finding out the machines don’t work right. You better have a Plan B! Luckily, we wouldn’t need one. The equipment worked perfectly.

So we had time to kill. I mentioned to Lena that I had just learned that the documentary about the Dart Society and Target: New Orleans had just been accepted at the Flimmer Film Festival in Sweden. I saw Lena’s eyes light up, and she began to laugh. Flimmer -- one of the most renowned film festivals in southern Sweden -- was staged in Lena’s hometown of Norrkoping.

Suddenly, we were brainstorming. Deirdre had told me a few months back that she wanted to stage more of the screenings with panel discussions involving Dart Society members. And recently Natalie Pompillio and Kelly Kennedy had joined me for a panel discussion at the National Press Club. It was a huge hit. Perhaps we could do the same in Sweden? I floated the idea to Deirdre and Dart Society President Scott North. Before long, I was given the green light.

The film would screen three times at Flimmer. Because of the demands of her job at TruTV, Lena would only be able to be there for one screening. Her attendance was quite welcome; she brought along family members to swell the audience. The films were well attended; people in Sweden seem to have a keen interest in this subject matter.

After Norrkoping we would head to Stockholm. We were excited to enlist the aid of the Dart Center’s Liselotte Englund in Sweden. We were also lucky that Kelly Kennedy put us in touch with Johanne Hildebrandt, the premier war correspondent in Sweden. With the help of these Swedish contacts, we quickly got in touch with Ulrika Knutson of Publicistklubben. It looked like we had the perfect venue for a screening and panel discussion.

Everything seemed to be etched in stone for Oct. 12, until Ulrika notified us that the Publicistklubben had a full agenda and they would not be able to squeeze us in.

If this had happened in the States, I would have gone into scramble mode. But I was overseas, and I didn’t know the language. Lena and I had traveled all this way hoping to parlay the screening at the film festival with another event in Stockholm. This is where the plan to have Lena really paid off. With her language skills she was able to immediately jump on the phone and do what producers do. She worked the phone until she was able to line up a screening at Stockholm University. She contacted the dean of the journalism department and he quickly put together the screening.

Johanne agreed to go along with us to the screening. The film and our discussion afterward was a hit. So was Johanne. She candidly spoke about her time in the Balkans. She was hit by shrapnel, she had guns placed against the back of her head, she had dodged death so often that the numbing effect had really gripped her.

She described what it was like "hitting the wall," as she put it. Her story was so compelling, and she was so open about her experiences and her fears. She admitted to being reluctant to come to the screening, for fear of what it might stir inside her. But she said she really liked the film, and she felt like it was a message of hope. She was also quite taken with the Dart Society, and the fact that there is an organization like ours out there. The dean of the journalism school invited her to come back in November to talk at length about her experiences as a war correspondent. She agreed, and said that she would screen the film for a second time at the university, because she liked it that much.

I left Sweden encouraged by what I see as one of the true benefits of the film, and of being a part of the society. I love the fact that the film allows journalists to talk about their experiences. I also love the fact that after it screens I can talk to these journalists and tell them that there is a home for them in the Dart Society. That is why I am so excited that we will move in the near future to expand our membership.

The Dart Society is a great place for all of us to collaborate; it is also a great networking organization. I am also certain we have recruited a potential future Dart Center Ochberg Fellow in Johanne. Because of the people in the society, from the folks at the top like Deirdre and Scott, to great friends like Kelly and Lena, we were able to pull off a great event in Stockholm.

Upon my return I got an email from Johanne. It said in part, "It was really great to have you here, and I was enjoying myself a lot. I was actually starting to talk about my job, which is a big step, so the film was kind of a therapy for me." That alone made the trip well worth it.