Sundance Notebook: Ben Affleck Turns Reporter

Oscar winner heads to Park City to premiere his new documentary, about the civil strife in the Congo

By Josh Grossberg Jan 19, 2009 8:35 PMTags

Ben Affleck doesn't think of himself as a journalist. But he's good at playing one.
Before jetting off to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration, the Oscar winner turned up at the Sundance Film Festival Saturday to talk about the premiere of Reporter, the in-competition feature-length documentary he produced.

A compelling examination of the state of American journalism today, the film chronicles New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof's journey to the Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate the country's ongoing civil strife.

Affleck says he hopes his doc can shed light on a humanitarian crisis that rivals Darfur and Rwanda in scope, but so far has received little attention.

He also wants to show that while celebrities have their pet causes, it's still the grand tradition of journalists to tell the stories that spark movements of social change.