The Zone

April 26, 2011 marked the 25th anniversary of the nuclear explosion in Chernobyl. The anniversary was cause for the news media to look back on one of the biggest nuclear disasters in history, but few took it as seriously as French newspaper . Photojournalists Guillaume Herbaut and Bruno Masi, who won the 24-RFI Web Documentary Award with their multimedial presentation, returned to "the zone," the area within a 20-mile radius from the reactor. They capture life in the area, closed off to this day, from every possible perspective. First and foremost the reactor itself, which has been inactive since 2000 but still employs 2,500 people - including a research team charting the nuclear radiation. But they also follow an old woman who has to cross the zone to visit her son, the ghost town of Pripiat located a couple miles from Chernobyl, and the "red forest," where radiation levels are still over 200 times higher than what is considered safe. illustrates the ways in which newspapers can renew themselves online, because they can utilize a wider range of storytelling forms. We descend into the "black box" of Chernobyl in esthetically balanced photo and video reports, clickable from photo collages that are projected onto a map of the area. will be presented during the DocLab Live Cinema Event .