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📹 Cynde Strand goes in front of the camera in 'No Ordinary Life'

Cynde Strand says her career — and her life, really — has been a series of "many calculated risks."

As a young camerawoman, she was dispatched to Beijing's Tiananmen Square during the June 1989 uprising and government crackdown. In the 1990s, she covered the first Gulf War, the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda, the Bosnian War, the widespread famine in Somalia, and South Africa's first free and fair election that brought Nelson Mandela to the presidency after 27 years in prison.

And then, she put down her camera.

"I was at a massacre site in the Ivory Coast, and I was frustrated because I wasn't going to get home in time for 'Mom and Tots,' " Strand said, referring to a parent event with her young son. "I didn't have a child late in life to miss all the little things. So I called my boss and said, 'I have had exactly the life I wanted thanks to CNN, but I need to stop doing this.' ...  And she was so gracious. She started laughing and she said, 'Cynde, I expected this call a year ago.'

"Many women successfully balance motherhood and life on the road," Strand added. "I just no longer wanted to." 

In 2004, she made the move from the front lines to CNN headquarters in Atlanta, and eventually became the executive director of international newsgathering.

"(I was going) from one disaster to the next. … My life was always about the earthquake or the war or the revolution or some other natural disaster," she said. "What I realized is, after more than 20 years on the road, I now wanted my own life. I wanted my own stories."

Cynde Strand sets up her camera while on assignment in Somalia in the early 1990s.

Strand is one of five CNN war zone camerawomen whose incredible front-line journalism and life stories are featured in the documentary "No Ordinary Life," which premieres on CNN TV on Monday at 10 p.m. ET.

We recently caught up with this legendary journalist, who left CNN in 2019, on the cusp of a new headline in her life — teaching a course at Saint Michael's College in Vermont called Female Journalists: Headlines, Deadlines, and Frontlines.

Below is a portion of our conversation, edited for length and clarity:

What's it like being on the other side of the camera in 'No Ordinary Life'?

(Filmmaker) Heather O'Neill, who is a friend and former colleague of mine, approached each of us and said, "I'd like to make a film about you gals" because it was just a such a unique time at CNN.

While there were many female still photographers working around the world, there just weren't that many females behind the video cameras. At first I told Heather, "Oh no, I am much better behind the camera than being focused on," but then I realized that I could hopefully inspire other people and give a little bit of a look behind the scenes for photojournalists. 

People trust us with the most intimate moments of their lives and it's such a responsibility, and I hope that people seeing this film will understand that and how each of us cared so deeply about the people that we had the gift of filming, sometimes in very bad circumstances.

Tell us a bit about how you decided to become a camerawoman.

When I went to university, I started studying chemical engineering. In my third year, I was lucky enough to I realize that I was on the wrong bus and I could make a change. I had always loved photography so I switched to journalism, and I was hired as a video journalist (entry-level position) when CNN was young. 

I did anything and learned everything I could to work my way up, and I had always wanted to work overseas — in my day, you would quit your job and pick a war zone and go there to freelance and then try to be hired. And that's exactly what I did. I quit and moved to Beirut and then CNN picked me up there on a full-time basis as a tape editor.

My career has been a series of calculated risks. Later, I quit for a year and studied Chinese in China and the timing was just perfect because at the end of that year (1987), CNN opened its bureau in Beijing. They took a chance on me and gave me the full-time camera position in Beijing.

Some people tell us, "Oh you're adventure seekers and adrenaline junkies," and that's just not the case. Yes, you get used to life on the road — but you do pay the price for that. And certainly, in my early days, we didn't even have flak jackets or helmets and, more importantly, we didn't know what PTSD was. Sometimes the guilt of leaving people behind in terrible circumstances is something you would also carry with you. Now there is just so much more education and help out there for journalists who experience trauma and bring it home with them. CNN is certainly a media organization at the forefront of this kind of care for its employees.

Strand, left, and fellow CNN camerawoman Mary Rogers with international forces in Somalia.

What stories have impacted you the most and why? 

The most impactful experience for me was when I was in a feeding camp with Christiane Amanpour in Somalia. There was this woman, she was beautiful and she was dying. I'd seen her some days before and she was getting weaker. No one in this day and age should be lying on a straw mat in the dirt, dying from a lack of food. She was taking her last breaths and Christiane and I looked at each other. We didn't know what to do. What could we do? I couldn't fix it. I couldn't change it.

To this day, I still tear up tear up when I talk about this because I watched this woman die — and I did not know her name. From then on, I always tried to write down someone's name. I feel like it's such a responsibility we carry and, in that moment, the shock of watching someone die from the lack of food, it shook me to my core more than any war zone I have been in.

On the flip side of that, when I lived in South Africa working with (CNN correspondent) Mike Hanna, we did a story about ballroom dancing in the townships. I just couldn't take a bad piece of video. I carry that story with me always because it reminds me of the grace and beauty that is in most of us. We've seen it in the people who are driving food into a war zone or the people who are helping their neighbors — just watching that grace and beauty that exists in most of us. 

That story rejuvenated me, and I carry that always and focus on the good things that we can find in each other.

📺 Watch more of Strand's story featured in the documentary "No Ordinary Life" on CNN TV on Monday at 10 p.m. ET. 

💳  CNN insider rec of the week

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📢  before you go

💧Watch: CNN's Stephanie Elam got an inside look at how the "water police" in Southern California are cracking down on residents exceeding their water restrictions — even celebrities.   

🚀 Explore: Barring any weather or technical delays, Artemis I is set to launch on Saturday after engine issues delayed its originally planned takeoff on Monday. Tune into CNN for the launch. In the meantime, here's a visual breakdown of why this moon mission is such a monumental feat.  

👬🏽 You look familiar: They look incredibly alike, but they aren't part of the same family. A new study suggests these strangers who bear striking similarities, aka "doppelgängers," probably share the same DNA.   

✉️  talk to us

Is there something or someone at CNN you'd like to see spotlighted next? Send your thoughts to insidecnn@cnn.com. 

- Written and edited by Kyle Almond, Tricia Escobedo and Jessica Sooknanan

Wednesday 08.31.22

About a month ago, a lottery ticket was sold for the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot ever, netting the winner nearly $1.34 billion. But there's just one problem: The massive prize hasn't been claimed yet. Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On With Your Day.
 

By Alexandra Meeks

A photo from the Justice Department's filing showing classified documents on the floor of Trump's Mar-a-Lago office.

Mar-a-Lago

US government documents at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence were likely "concealed and removed" from a storage room as part of an effort to "obstruct" the FBI's investigation of Trump's potential mishandling of classified materials, the Justice Department said in a filing Tuesday night. The filing represents the DOJ's strongest case to date that Trump concealed classified material taken from his time at the White House. The Justice Department revealed the startling new details as part of its move to oppose Trump's effort to intervene in the federal investigation that led to the search of his Florida resort and his desire for a "special master" to be appointed to the case. A picture from the court filing also showed classified documents strewn about on the floor of Trump's office -- full of classified markings like "HCS," or human confidential sources -- displaying how sensitive the material Trump had taken was.

Flooding

A water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, has left residents with no running water, hospitals without air conditioning and moved schools online. Last week, flooding of the Pearl River after heavy rains impacted the treatment processes at the city's main water facility. Now, there's not enough water pressure to serve some 180,000 people, officials said. As crews work to get the water treatment plant back online, members of the National Guard are distributing bottled water, state officials said, but those efforts appeared unsustainable Tuesday. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said there will be several mega distribution sites with 36 truckloads of water available each day for the public beginning Thursday. 

Heat waves

A prolonged and potentially record-setting heat wave is building over the Western US. More than 55 million people are currently under heat alerts from Southern California through the San Joaquin Valley and into portions of the Northwest, including 20 of the most populated cities up and down the West Coast. According to the National Weather Service, dangerously hot temperatures today may extend through Labor Day and could exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the Southwest. The kind of heat that will be felt from San Diego to Los Angeles and even to Phoenix will be difficult to endure even for the locals, experts say. There will be a gradual warm-up in the coming days and it will peak by the end of the week.

Artemis I

The uncrewed Artemis I mission will get another attempt at launching on a journey around the moon on Saturday. After the launch was scrubbed Monday morning, NASA's launch team spent the day evaluating data gathered during the attempt. Mission managers said one of the rocket's four engines could not reach the proper temperature range that is required for the engine to start at liftoff. Several other issues, including storms and a hydrogen leak, also caused delays that prevented liftoff during Monday's launch window. The new two-hour launch window opens at 2:17 p.m. ET on September 3. There is still a backup opportunity for the mission to launch on September 5 as well.

Gun laws

New York City's famed Times Square tourist area will be designated a "gun-free zone" beginning Thursday as a new state law limiting where firearms can be legally carried in public is set to go into effect. The law outlines areas in the city deemed "sensitive" where firearm possession will be illegal, and also includes government-owned buildings, schools, health care facilities, places of worship and public transportation. People who carry a gun in a prohibited location could be charged with a felony under the law. New "gun-free zone" signs are expected to be posted in Times Square today at every entry and exit point of the area. This comes as the number of shootings involving automatic weapons in the US has skyrocketed in recent years.

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in memoriam

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the former Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, has died at the age of 91 after a long illness, Russian state news agencies reported on Tuesday. Gorbachev is credited with introducing key political and economic reforms to the USSR and helping to end the Cold War. Several world leaders paid tribute to Gorbachev Tuesday, with President Joe Biden calling him "a man of remarkable vision" in a statement.

33 million

That's how many people in Pakistan have been recently impacted by devastating floods. Some areas have seen five times their normal levels of rain, largely due to the climate crisis, experts say. Torrential rainfall and extreme flooding have killed more than 1,100 people and injured more than 3,500 others in the country since mid-June.

This seizure is a prime example of border security management and how it helps prevent dangerous narcotics from reaching our communities.

-- Alberto Flores, a port director for the US Customs and Border Protection, after a large shipment of baby wipes at the US-Mexico border turned out to be $11.8 million worth of cocaine. Officers seized the narcotics Friday at the Colombia-Solidarity Bridge just north of Laredo, Texas, according to a news release. An inspection revealed 1,935 baby wipe packages were stuffed with around 1,533 pounds of alleged cocaine.

Dog gets annoyed by new puppy

Watch this dog's reaction when an energetic puppy becomes the newest addition to the family. (Click here to view) 

one more thing...

In Tuesday's 5 Things, we incorrectly stated that: "On Monday evening, Jackson residents were hit with record-setting rain that resulted in the Pearl River cresting at a dangerously high level." The rainfall occurred several days ago, and on Monday evening, Jackson residents were dealing with the aftermath of record-setting rain that resulted in the Pearl River cresting at a dangerously high level.