The unbelievable, yet entirely true, story of a incredible woman comes to vivid light in Never Look Away, the new film about Margaret Moth, a pioneering news camerawoman dedicated to documenting the civilian impact of war, who stared death in the face but refused to look away.

Acclaimed actor and activist Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess, My Life Is Murder) makes her directorial debut with this feature documentary to share the remarkable story of how Margaret lived her life to the absolute fullest while covering war zones for CNN, and paid a significant price.

When Margaret died of cancer in 2010, she left her estate, including her extensive archive, to her best friend and fellow camera person Joe Duran, whom she had first met when she started working for CNN in Houston in 1990.

In the years following her death, Duran had made some attempts at making a documentary about Margaret, but the idea picked up once he got in touch with producer Robert Tapert, who suggested to Duran that his wife, Lucy Lawless, might be interested. After speaking with Lawless, Duran felt he had found the right person to make the film happen.

Never Look Away shows us how Margaret embraced a life where her work work on the frontlines of some of the most violent conflicts of the last several decades was balanced out by her seeking-pleasure behaviour. For her, pleasure included skydiving, recreational drugs and multiple lovers.

Unfortunately, Margaret was shot in the head by a sniper in Sarajevo in 1992. At the time, she lost the lower half of her face, which had to be reconstructed through more than twelve surgeries. However, she did not let this stop her work covering war zones. She returned to Sarajevo as soon as she could, and went on to cover multiple subsequent wars for CNN. At this point, she had become even more committed to showing the impact of war.

Margaret’s magnetism, her mysterious nature and her courage meant she connected with many people throughout her life. In the film, we hear from former lovers, friends, colleagues and family members, as well as key figures from the television news business, such as iconic journalist Christiane Amanpour, with whom she often worked.

As Lawless explores in the film, Margaret was a person with many contradictions not unlike many of us. She endured extreme trauma in childhood, which in some way, might have led her to seek out the most dangerous situations she could find, and made a name for herself as one of the most fearless operators in a man-dominated field.

Another key aspect of Never Look Away is its inclusion of dramatic footage from the war zones Moth covered – often shot by Margaret herself. Lawless and team were able to incorporate new interviews, old photos, vintage 16mm film, beta video, newspaper cuttings, animation, graphics, maps, news reports with different aspect ratios. The film also creatively uses bold dioramas created by Wētā Workshop which in turn, help to illustrate the physical realities of the extraordinarily perilous environments Margaret often encountered.

As a story about a captivating and interesting individual who worked in some of the most dangerous parts of the world, Never Look Away provides a good balance in terms of the personal and the professional sides of Margaret Moth. Whether familiar with her work or not, the film provides great insights while also being visually and creatively engaging as a feature documentary.