Sebastian Junger

Sebastian Junger

Belmont (USA), 1962

He is an American writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker, best known for his book The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men against the Sea (1997) and its subsequent film adaptation. The book recounts the real case of the fishing boat Andrea Gail, which sank in 1991 off the coast of Nova Scotia, in which its six crew members perished after the risky decision to continue traveling despite adverse weather forecasts. A Death in Belmont (2007) focuses on the rape and murder of Bessie Goldberg, in 1963, which many attributed to the one known as the Boston Strangler, a highly controversial subject in the USA. Fire (2001) is a collection of articles on hot topics in highly conflictive places such as Afghanistan, Kosovo or Sierra Leone. War (2010), the result of his trip to Afghanistan with reporter Hetherington, was one of the best-selling nonfiction books that year.

Junger has received different awards, such as the National Magazine Award in 2000, for his "The Forensics of War", a report published in Vanity Fair. In 2009 he was awarded, along with Hetherington, with the Alfred I. du Pont-Columbia University Award, for The Other War: Afghanistan. Likewise, a documentary made by both, Restrepo, received the Grand Jury Prize in the documentary section at the 2010 Sundance Festival, and the nomination for Best Documentary at the 2010 Oscar Awards.