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Tim Hetherington earned an Oscar nomination last year for Restrepo, his harrowing, front-line documentary about an Army platoon mired in a deadly Afghanistan valley. The picture is named for medic Juan “Doc” Restrepo, a Pembroke Pines native whose death during a firefight inspires the rest of the soldiers to survive the tour of duty.
Now Hetherington himself has died in combat. The New York Times reports the filmmaker was killed today by a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Libya.
Along with three other photographers, Hetherington had recently arrived by boat in Misurata, Libya’s third-largest city where rebels are trying to withstand a fierce onslaught by troops loyal to dictator Muammar Qadafi.
Hetherington died shortly after the grenade attack, The New York Times reports, while his three colleagues were seriously wounded by shrapnel. Hundreds of Libyans have died in fighting in Misurata in recent days.
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Along with director Sebastian Junger, Hetherington spent months living with with an Army platoon in Afghanistan’s Korangal Valley to produce Restrepo.
Juan Restrepo, who was 20 years old, died shortly after the platoon arrived in the valley, one of the deadliest in Afghanistan.
Riptide talked last year to Junger and Maj. Dan Kearney, the platoon’s leader, about the film, which also took top honors at Sundance.
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