Drug trafficking, poverty, gang violence, corruption and ethnic warfare have created some of the most dangerous hot spots on Earth. WITNESS follows our current generation of photojournalists into these conflict zones in Mexico, Libya, Brazil and South Sudan. In the four-part series, war photographers carry us into the heart of the human drama of the people in the action on the ground. We see what compels the photojournalist and experience why, when everyone else seeks cover, the photojournalist stands and moves closer.

Executive produced by writer-director Michael Mann (The Insider, Ali, Heat, HBOs Luck) and acclaimed commercial and documentary director David Frankham, WITNESS is not a historical summary or analysis. It does not present the sides of an issue from an objective perspective. WITNESS is the exact opposite. It is personal experience. It is an immersion into the human drama on the ground of people caught in the thick of it. WITNESS dives into the anomalies, the humor, the tragedy, the chaos, the exultation. It struggles to capture  as does the photographer  a small piece of the truth in a moment.

I share an admiration for the art and the truth-telling of photography from conflict zones with David Frankham, says Mann. Sometimes, in a single frame in the midst of chaos and danger, an indescribable, small piece of truth is captured. As journalists, as artists, theyre drawn in while everyone else is running in the other direction. They stand as witness.

Says Frankham, WITNESS was born out of our belief that by following the experiences and struggles of war photographers who risk their lives in an attempt to reveal the truth, we would capture an honest, ground-level view of conflicts around the world, and the people affected, in a way that had not been seen before.

WITNESS: LIBYA

Michael Christopher Brown has been to Libya five times during the conflicts that brought down Gaddafis rule. Now, the revolution is over, but the chaos has only begun; the current situation in Libya is even more complicated. Internecine fighting continues, not unexpectedly. After 42 years of Gaddafi and no democratic tradition, Libya was not going to magically turn into Connecticut. On an earlier trip, in April 2011, Brown was in Misrata with veteran photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros. He remembers having an uneasy feeling, saying, The city was like a shooting gallery that day. Then a mortar round struck nearby, Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were killed, and Brown was wounded. In WITNESS: LIBYA, Brown is in the extreme moments of present-day chaos and reliving the loss of his friends and mentors. Directed by Abdallah Omeish; produced by Julie Herrin and Josiah Hooper.

WITNESS is a Blue Light Media/Little Puppet Production. Executive producers are Michael Mann and David Frankham. It features photojournalists Eros Hoagland, Michael Christopher Brown and Veronique de Viguerie. Cinematographer is Jared Moosey and composer is Antonio Pinto. An HBO Documentary Films presentation.