Deez Interviews: Meet the uncomfortably chill documentary journalist you wish you were
Big news on the Employerlantic home front today, which makes for a fitting way to introduce this week’s interviewee: Daniel Lombroso, a rising star & video producer & tbqh one of the reasons that, regardless of who’s running the company, The Atlantic’s future is staying v. bright for a while (stop doing that humble blushing thing Dan I know you are). You’ve seen his dynamite alt-right conference doing the Hitler salute video scoop, now meet the documentary genius behind it all:
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The interviewee: Daniel Lombroso (follow at @daniellombroso)
The current job: Associate producer at Atlantic Studios
The hustle: It's producing a mix of formats: documentaries, animations, explainers, and hosted videos — and also working with some of the smartest, most creative people in the biz.
You made serious headlines last winter with your Richard Spencer doc and the video clip of alt-right conference attendees performing a Nazi salute, which went viral. What was that like?
The recognition was nice! And watching the views tick up was totally surreal. But, it was more meaningful to know the coverage played a role in the national conversation around the alt-right. The "hail Trump" clip and corresponding documentary showed the alt-right's true colors as a hard-line white nationalist group. I'm thrilled that my reporting had a small impact on the way Americans perceive the movement.
Recent documentaries you've produced at The Atlantic touch on nationalism, religion, and politics. How do you get some of the most contentious/wild characters out there to talk to you?
It sounds simple, but it's honestly treating subjects with respect and empathy. I often (strongly) disagree with subjects on their political views. Sometimes, they're even personally offensive to me as a Jewish American. But, it's important to take some distance, to try to understand where they're coming from and why they think what they do. In my experience, subjects are the most dynamic, interesting, and revealing when they feel the space to open up. That takes time and trust. I try to be patient and open-minded.
Have you ever felt unsafe/in over your head while out on shoot?
Once, when I was filming a doc in Southeastern Turkey (20 miles from the Syrian border), a soldier slammed on my hotel door at 3 am. He had a machine gun in hand and started yelling at me in Turkish. The area is PKK country (a Kurdish separatist group) and I thought they were taking us hostage (possibly to use as a bargaining chip with Turkey).
I ran over to wake up my producer, a Turk. It turns out that he had been evading compulsory military service for months. They showed up to tell him to he had five days to report to army duty. He couldn't — our documentary had just began and would film for a week — so he called his dad, who called a friend, who called a friend, who called someone high up in the military, who got him out of it. All worked out in the end!
Shit. Becoming a hard-hitting documentary journalist is a huge glamorous pipe dream that many a youth goes into media wanting to pursue. Tell us more about the realities of actually doing it.
It's difficult. On docs, we're doing four jobs (directing, producing, shooting, and editing), and still striving for that same Netflix-level production value. It takes a lot of patience and hard work. The existential worries always come: "Did I pick the right story? Will my subjects flake? Can I deliver on what I pitched?"
But, I wouldn't trade this job for the world. The Atlantic is my favorite publication and has a sensibility that jives with my own. Journalism allows you to ask your deepest questions and (sometimes) find satisfying answers. That's an incredible opportunity.
My advice: go out and experiment. I'm a self-taught filmmaker and journalist. The only way to learn is to try things and fail. If you try enough, your work will get better. Take a leap of faith and give that pipe dream story a try.
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Jesus H Christ, Dan sounds so chill talking about that near-hostage situation and meanwhile I’m sitting in my air-conditioned office having heart palpitations by proxy. You can check out more of Dan’s work here and send him good vibes for his current shoot in Israel!
Like Deez Links? Forward to someone whose job involves a little more danger than using the wrong font size on a powerpoint.