“Hide? We live like this every day!” Those were the words of a Ukrainian citizen to Lynsey Addario and her team as they asked where they could shelter during an active Russian attack on a Ukrainian city, as seen in the 2025 Documentary “Love+War,” focused on the family and professional life of photojournalist Lynsey Addario which was shown as part of the second day of the 2026 Borah Symposium at the Kenworthy.
As an event all about war and resilience, specifically focusing on the human impact of war, “Love+War” was a powerful pairing with the speakers featured previously in the event. It’s one thing to hear the speakers talking about warzones, the laws of war and how they are violated and humanitarian missions in occupied regions, and another to see what they’re talking about with your own eyes.
The film is set in medias res, and we soon discover the setting is the depressing backdrop of a fractured Ukraine amidst the Russian invasion that started in 2022. One of the first truly intense and defining moments of the film, for me, happened quite early on in this Ukraine segment, wherein Addario and her team are out in the streets as an unexpected Russian attack strikes right on their location, sending Addario sheltering behind a wall as debris and dust speckle the landscape amidst the chaos of war.
Once the dust settled and Addario confirmed she was unharmed, the team proceeded to exit where we see uncensored civilian casualties, a family, and soldiers yelling for a medic. The real impact of this scene isn’t just that the attack happened, but rather the circumstances it happened under.
It’s not as if Addario had been on the frontlines or had been close to a massive military installation. Rather, the Russian forces had intentionally targeted innocent civilians, killing them along a civilian evacuation route in broad daylight. Later in the film, Addario meets up with a father whose wife and children were killed in the strike, which he found out about from the photos we see her take of the murdered civilians.
He states that he is not upset that the photos were published, as the entire world needs to know the reality of war and its impact in Ukraine. This loss of family is contrasted with her own family, often leaving them for weeks or months at a time, with her nuclear family feeling as if they’re losing too much time with her because of the nature of her work.
From this scene on, the film shifts to being about Addario’s calling as a photographer rather than as a pure show of the conditions she experiences, in my point of view.
While at a glance, the film seems to be about Addario’s family connection and trying to balance her life as a war photographer with wanting to be there to love and support her family, it also in a deeper way references her love for her profession and for humanity. Addario’s unfiltered emotions and dedication to sharing the truths that wouldn’t otherwise see the light of day through her work reflect her love for humanity and her war on oppression of truth, and thus explains the equation that is the film’s title.
With references to Doctors Without Borders, war crimes, and the human impact of war, “Love+War” is certainly a passionate and deeply human display of what the 2026 Borah Symposium seeks to educate about, reinforcing the lessons taught by the event’s speakers.