USC Housing holds screening of VICE series

USC Housing held a screening of the VICE documentary series in partnership with HBO in King Hall on Thursday. The agenda for the night included a viewing of two episodes and a special Q&A with Emmy-nominated VICE producer and correspondent Kaj Larsen, who appears in one of the episodes.

The first episode featured a segment on the Nigerian Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram as well as a piece on genetic engineering. The second episode was dedicated to the controversial issue of assisted suicide.

After the viewings, Alex Janin, a senior majoring in broadcast and digital journalism, led a discussion with Larsen, who appeared in the first episode as he covered the story of Boko Haram. Students had the opportunity to ask questions to Larsen, and many were intrigued not only by VICE’s direct approach to journalism but specifically Larsen’s personal stories, as he was so close to the devastation in Nigeria.

Larsen specializes in covering stories in conflict areas including Liberia, Burma, Afghanistan and Columbia. He is known for getting up-close-and-personal with dangerous situations. He was the first journalist to be waterboarded on national television. Part of his affinity for these types of situations comes from his training and active duty as a Navy SEAL.

“On just a sheer proximity to danger level, I think my time in the SEALs and my time deployed overseas doing missions in the global war on terror kind of gives me a different situational awareness in combat zones,” Larsen said.

On top of a heightened sense of awareness, Larsen has been able use his military network to secure interviews that other journalists don’t have access to. Specifically, Larsen got into northern Nigeria when nobody else could by employing his knowledge of a squad of mercenaries operating there.

“I have a series of relationships and a depth of understanding of military and of war and things like that, and so I think that also helps me get closer to the story,” Larsen said.

Getting “closer to the story” is an understatement, as Larsen and his team were able to secure an interview with an active commander and deputy of Boko Haram. He described the mix of conflicting emotions as he interviewed two leaders in an organization considered by many to be even more dangerous than ISIS, a group responsible for killing thousands of people and kidnapping nearly 300 school girls.

“I have a greater mission, and that’s to let the world know what’s happening and to provide insight, so I actually had to do my best to approach that interview from a place of no judgment and use it as an opportunity to learn and absorb information,” Larsen said. “So few people have ever sat down with Boko Haram that really it would be tragic to do anything other than to learn as much as possible about what motivates them, what they want and stuff like that.”

VICE is a media company that was founded in the 1990s as a punk magazine with a youthful approach to content creation. Since then, it has expanded rapidly with a diverse multimedia platform, including a vibrant web community, an HBO series and, most recently, a television channel that is set to launch on Monday. According to Larsen, VICE is unique because of its commitment to getting close to the stories.

“I think it’s sometimes really easy when we’re watching these stories to remove ourselves from what the journalists and what the reporters are actually doing, because the content is so shocking, but it’s so necessary for us to see,” Janin said after the screening.

This event was part of a series of screenings hosted by USC Housing.