'Restrepo' director has sorrowful Sundance return

The Associated Press, Monday, January 21, 2013, 3:24pm (PST)

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Sebastian Junger wishes his latest Sundance Film Festival documentary never had to be made.

It's been a bittersweet return for Junger at Sundance, where his war chronicle "Restrepo" won the top documentary prize three years ago.

Junger's back with "Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington," a portrait of his "Restrepo" co-director, who was killed covering fighting in Libya in April 2011.

Returning to Sundance has been sorrowful for Junger, who said he keeps seeing street corners and restaurants where he and Hetherington had conversations when "Restrepo" played the festival.

A portrait of a U.S. platoon in Afghanistan, "Restrepo" earned an Academy Award nomination for best documentary. Six weeks after attending the Oscars, Hetherington was killed by shrapnel from a mortar round.