Video Journalists often get little credit for their work covering major events taking place on every continent. Our thirst to be informed overshadows the risks taken in particular by video journalists in bringing us the images that shape television news let alone online news.

Among the unsung ‘heroes’ of video journalism for the past 40 years Fabrice Moussus made a name covering major events across the world. From the Middle East to Africa, From Western Europe to Eastern Europe, his camera captured that elusive ‘moment’ when an image is worth a thousand words. 

Moussus is the author of a recently published autobiography titled “Grab the Moment” which highlights some of the major historical events he was able to capture on video.

His breakthrough moment appeared when he courageously filmed the assassination of Egyptian President Sadat during a military parade on October 6^th,1981 marking the 8^th anniversary of the beginning of the 1973 Yom Kippour war against Israel.

I was fortunate to meet Fabrice Moussus in Paris for this interview and asked him whether he was aware of the physical danger when he filmed Sadat’s assassination. 

“Yes I was aware of the predicament” he says. “I could hear the bullets wizzing by and the sound of hand grenades exploding. It’s amazing to see and feel how quickly your brain can work. There is a fraction of a second when you wonder what is going on, the next fraction of a second when you identify the danger and the next fraction of a second when you decide what to do. In my case, I decided to move forward while still shooting with my camera on my shoulder and running parallel with the assassins. At the speed of light, I decided that the gunmen were not going to turn their weapons to the side because that meant that they would leave the angle in front of them open to the security guards returning fire. While I was running, I was aware of the danger but I decided to concentrate on the visuals, suppressing my feelings and thinking to myself that I would deal with them later.”

“One major indirect contribution was that of my soundman” says Moussus. “Aly who had worked for the Egyptian Cinema had to adapt to the quicker pace of working in television. He was good natured and we got along well. When the attackers started shooting at the reviewing stand Aly followed me. In 1981, the technology meant that we were connected by a cable. The cable which came out of the back of the camera, was about two meters long and connected at the other end into a videotape recorder. Aly carried the recorder on his shoulder and held a boom with the microphone in his other hand. When we started running, I pulled him along with  me and on the soundtrack, you can hear Aly shouting several times “Fabrice! Come back!” But Aly stayed with me and enabled me to record the assassination. In comparison, the soundman of the CBS crew got scared, unplugged his cable and ran away. That left the CBS cameraman with no pictures and it wasn’t until the attack was over that he was able to reconnect with his soundman.” 

Moussus first met Anwar el Sadat on October 6th 1980 exactly one year before his assassination. Egypt was inaugurating a tunnel under the Suez Canal to facilitate traffic to the Sinai peninsula. It was also a celebration to commemorate the crossing of the Suez Canal by the Egyptian army on Oct. 6th 1973.
 

“I went to the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the entrance of the tunnel.” recalls Moussus. “It was poorly organized. The press, that is mostly photographers and cameramen were supposed to get on the back of a flatbed truck. The truck would drive through the tunnel ahead of Sadat’s brand new Jeep Cherokee given by the US and everyone supposedly would have a chance to film/photograph the president going through the tunnel. It was mayhem trying to get on top of the truck. I was waiting to get onboard the truck when I heard a voice behind me, saying “ Hey, come you can ride with me”. Sadat’s Jeep was outfitted with side boards allowing the secret service guards to ride standing up on both sides of the jeep just like the ones protecting the US president.
 

I started moving toward Sadat’s vehicle with my soundman Aly but the head of security, who had not heard Sadat telling me to ride with him, ran toward me and tried to push me back, while yelling at me in Arabic. Sadat then spoke to him and the security chief let us get onboard grudgingly. We were now going through the tunnel with the journalists on the truck in front of us. I was standing on the running board with my camera on my shoulder and hanging to a bar on the roof while, Aly, my soundman was behind me. This meant that I could film ahead of us with the front of the Jeep in the picture and when I panned left, I had a shot of the president sitting in the front right seat next to me and of course I was in the shot of all the other journalists filming the Jeep. I thought I was riding high when I heard Sadat say “Do you need cutaways?”. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but yes I could use a cutaway. In technical terms, a cutaway is a picture from the side of the main action, allowing the editor to put a shot in the middle of a scene to allow time compression. When I answered yes, the president had the Jeep stop while we ran ahead and then waited for the presidents’ vehicle to drive by, giving us a side shot away from the main action. The Jeep stopped again, we got back on and proceeded to finish going through the tunnel. The driver of the truck had not looked in his rearview mirror and kept going, taking the press with him and with no pictures. This little scene might seem anodyne but it is revealing of Sadat’s character. After the Camp David peace accord, Sadat was solicited for many interviews. Barbara Walters and the ABC producers had a chance to explain to Sadat how the television technology worked and explaining the need for cutaways while shooting, had registered with him.

“This created a bond between Sadat and myself because when I would show up somewhere with other journalists, he remembered me. When you looked at Sadat, he oozed with charisma.There have been very few courageous leaders in the Middle East but Sadat is one of them. He had a long term vision and took the courageous decision to make peace with the enemy. It cost him his life. “
 

Although Sadat’s assassination was not predictable, there were signs of growing tension in 1981. 

“There were many rumors that an uprising or a coup might take place.” recalls Moussus. “Sadat never had a good relationship with the Muslim Brothers. Remember, he was a military man, more pragmatic than the brothers. When Sadat set up the ‘open door’ policy, it was to facilitate private and foreign investment in Egypt. At first this profited the middle and upper class and many only saw dollars coming into the country and not getting their share. That explains partly why Sadat was more popular outside than inside Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood was stirring the lower classes against Sadat by sermons at the Friday prayers and among students. Sadat had many members of the Muslim Brotherhood arrested and thrown in jail. In September 1981, I went to cover Sadat giving a speech at the Cairo University and the atmosphere was tense. At Friday prayers, Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind Islamist militant known as the “blind sheikh”, would deliver sermons against Sadat. He was behind the organization which killed several tourists in Luxor and later on was linked to Ayman al-Zawahari, who would become the leader of Al-Qaeda.”

Egypt has always been a second home for Moussus. “I have been back to Egypt many times. Part of me is still there and I keep in touch with several friends who live there. I worked as a hotel manager from 2009 to 2012 during the revolution in Cairo. It was a great experience and I enjoyed it having travelled and stayed in hotels most of my working life.” 

But he acknowledges that Egypt in slowly changing. “The new government is trying to make Cairo look like Dubai with tall modern buildings and gated communities around the airport and the pyramids. The Egyptian museum of antiquities is being moved near the pyramids inside a modern building. This might turn the old downtown, which has all the history, into a dead city center.”

Asked about whether he has hopes for the Middle East, Moussus acknowledges that there is always hope. “however, the notion of time in the Middle East is not what it is in Europe or the United States. Waiting for a generation or 100 years for things to change is not a problem. Just look at how long the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis has been going on.”

Another highlight in Moussus’ career was meeting the Soviet Union’s last President Michael Gorbatchev. “Like Sadat, Gorbatchev had charisma and would look at you straight in the eyes. This set him apart from all the apparatchiks of the Soviet Union. I was able to follow him throughout the Kremlin for three days until the end of the USSR on Christmas Day 1991. Here like in Egypt, the secret services tended to push me back but when Gorbatchev didn’t say anything, I pretty much had freedom of movement and developed a relation with the president when he felt that I didn’t get in the way.

Time came for him to call the White House and say goodbye to George Bush senior. I was surprised but he let me film him with my elbow holding the camera on his desk and my soundman Dennis able to pick up the sound from the phone to record what was a historical moment. Gorbatchev addressed the US president as “George” which says a lot about the relationship they had established. 

I went outside the Kremlin, it was nighttime, when for the last time the red flag of the USSR came down and the new tricolor Russian flag went up. That too was a historical moment.

When the shooting was finished and the ABC news team with Ted Koppel went to say goodbye to Gorbatchev, he came over to me and grabbed my shoulder. I am proud of that moment.”
 

Now retired Moussus lives between Lisbon and Paris but continues to observe world events with keen interest.

Grab the Moment is available on Amazon.com Here