ICView: What was the most difficult thing about covering a story in Pakistan?

AE: There are so many challenges to reporting as a one-man-band journalist in Pakistan that do not exist in other places I have worked. It usually took about four times as long to accomplish the same amount of reporting in Pakistan compared to [the time it takes] in the West. The major hurdles included constant power outages that disrupt shooting interviews with lights; security assessment and planning; and finding and hiring local reporters who know the local language, [can help with] sources, and are reliable. It's also incredibly difficult to verify facts, especially in a nation where some data is not reliable and where conspiracies are a national sport of sorts.

ICView: What kind of access did you have to Malala’s family?

AE: The family was incredibly cooperative and open to my documentary project. I followed them, on and off, for about six months. That meant meeting up with them during key moments in their lives and also at random times for interviews and check-ins to document their routine. I was always afraid of missing a critical moment in their lives, mainly because their lives were so unpredictable. I lived in Islamabad, and the father was in Peshawar, and at times, Malala was in a third city. But I spoke to the father by phone quite often, so even when I was not documenting them, I was getting updates by mobile.

ICView: How did you overcome the cultural barriers—like gender—and the difficulty of interviewing such a young subject?

AE: Malala was 11 [when I met her], which made it a bit easier to cover her as a reporter. Women are generally allowed to interact with men outside the family until puberty, after which they are veiled and often hidden from public view. Interviewing children in any culture is very challenging. They are often abrupt, shy, or struggle to express themselves to strangers. Malala made that  easy because she was quite eloquent and expressive. And her father was incredibly accommodating, and unusual, in agreeing to allow a foreigner into their lives during such tense days. I was lucky to have met such a brave family. Zia and I quickly became friends. We talked about everything from the beaches in Brazil to Rumi poems, and as a result, we trusted each other deeply.

ICView: How close did you get with Malala?

AE: Malala and I became friends. At times, I felt like her de facto uncle. I gave her a video camera and my old computer, and after the film, the family stayed with me for several nights in Islamabad. We went shopping. I have warm memories of buying her ice cream, books, and DVD movies. Malala was reflective of the culture. Kids, and especially women, are very well behaved and deferential to elders, and to men.

ICView: Did you ever worry that maybe you were getting too close to the story?

AE: No. The job of a journalist, and especially a documentarian, is to get as close as possible to the sources. I think my closeness to the story, and the subjects, yielded a more intimate piece of journalism in the end. My friendship with the family went to new heights after the films aired.

ICView: Were you ever concerned for Malala’s safety?

AE: No. Zia and I often talked about death, but it was always linked to his safety and my safety. Almost all targets were men. Women were very rarely targeted. Even the bombings of girls’ schools took place at night. One of my regrets is that I never asked Malala if she was willing to die for the cause. That said, it is important to understand the chronology of the story. My film aired in 2009, and it catapulted Malala into [a role as] a public figure in Pakistan. After I left the country, she started speaking out more aggressively in the Pakistani press, and she was shot in 2012.

ICView: Do you feel like your documentaries put her in danger in any way?

AE: When I first met Malala, she was unknown to the world. My films gave her a public profile and invited international and national media to come knocking on her door. The coverage also triggered the family’s appetite to be agents of social change. The films, and the awards and benefits that came with  the attention, emboldened Malala and her father into speaking out more aggressively. My films played a significant role in transforming her into a known figure, and her response to that eventually put her on the Taliban's radar.

ICView: What do you think of Malala’s now international celebrity and her nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize?

AE: The reason that I went to Swat and invested so much in telling this story is because of the injustice: thousands of girls are not going to school in Pakistan. In fact, the country has more uneducated children than almost any country in the world. Malala's celebrity has further spotlighted that issue. That’s fantastic. At the same time, it presents a challenge because the celebrity of Malala creates interest in [her as a] person and detracts from the core issue: the millions of Malalas who remain out of school in Pakistan. Today, people ask me far more questions about Malala than about how to solve the core issue of educating kids in Pakistan.

ICView: What did you learn about yourself by covering this story?

AE: It was a privilege and an honor to report [about] the most brave and courageous people I have ever met. I cherish that experience. The story also offers obvious lessons about how precious education is. This family craved normalcy: the dad wanted to return to work, and Malala wanted her education. These routines often draw complaints and whines across most of the developed world. The story also taught me many lessons about the enormous responsibility and struggle that accompanies being a journalist in dangerous places. Of course, foreign correspondents know that our job is to give a voice to those who are experiencing injustice, but we also know that doing so can make those sources targets. Seeing those sobering decisions play out in reality has been a painful experience.