ABSTRACT
Pierre-Olivier François is a French German TV reporter and documentarymaker, who also worked briefly for the UN in New York as a French speaking press attaché in charge of the General Assembly and the Security Council. Based on this experience he was asked by the production company Alegria, in co-production with ARTE, and other public broadcasters, to make a film about peacekeeping for the 70th anniversary of the UN. This chapter discusses the making of the documentary, UN—Last Station Before Hell, detailing the challenges posed by the mostly negative media frames applied to UN Peacekeepers. In an attempt to identify the faultlines between this complex bureaucracy and the news narratives that tell its story, he also offers an analysis of the complex dynamics of the UN and its relationship to the press.
