Moving Pictures: ‘Hondros’ Follows Life, Career of Alum Chris Hondros

To hear his friends tell it, Chris Hondros (English ’93) was not the sort to talk about himself or his work. So they took it upon themselves to ensure that Hondros’ story was told after he was killed in a mortar attack in 2011 while photographing the civil war in Libya. The result is the documentary Hondros about his work as a war photographer in places such as Kosovo, Angola and Iraq.

The documentary, available on Netflix, iTunes and Amazon, took almost five years to make. It won the audience award for documentaries when it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017, and has been shown in Hondros’ hometown of Fayetteville, N.C., and in theaters in London, New York and Los Angeles.

NC State will screen the film at 7 p.m. on Sept. 27 in the James B. Hunt Jr. Library auditorium. The event is presented in partnership with NCSU Libraries, the Gregg Museum, the Alumni Association and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. 

Several of Hondros’ friends, including many he made while working at the Technician, helped make the film a reality. Eric Schofield ’92, president of Optimum Financial Brokerage, was the first contributor to an online fundraising effort and hosted fundraisers in his Raleigh home. Marc Tosczak ’94, a freelance writer and instructor at Elon University, also contributed and helped Greg Campbell, a childhood friend of Hondros who directed and produced the film, track down the stories behind photos of Hondros. Schofield and Tosczak have also endowed a scholarship at NC State to help students wanting to study abroad.

“I weep every time I see the film, yet I’m so proud of the person Chris was, the quality of his work and the impact it made on society,” says Schofield. “But we miss him. He was a very, very special human being.”