''It was really just a matter of finding out who was going where,'' said the 32-year-old Plymouth resident. She spent about two weeks in the town of Andkhoi, near the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan border. But the uncertainty and the potential danger did not bother Murphy - in fact, the absence of a concrete plan made the experience more exciting.
''I think that's one of the things I love,'' she said. For four years, Murphy has traveled the world as an independent documentary filmmaker. Drawn to ''people trying to make a bad situation better,'' she has chronicled everything from environmental racism in Louisiana, to young women with breast cancer, to slavery in the Sudan.
In Afghanistan, she turned her camera toward humanitarian relief, spending time with workers from the International Organization for Migration who support displaced Afghani citizens and help them find ways home. The footage will be included in a 13-part series called ''Heroes of Hope.'' It's an attempt to show the complicated work that goes on in emergency situations once the rest of the world has stopped watching.
''In a lot of ways, it's really about giving a voice to the voiceless,'' Murphy said.
Murphy, whose work has aired on public television stations across the country, was nominated for an Emmy award for her film ''Heroes of Hope: Crisis in Kosovo,'' a look at humanitarian relief efforts in Macedonia. It became a springboard for the ''Heroes of Hope'' series, which will tell the story of humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Nairobi, and Sarajevo by focusing on the motivation and dedication of a handful of workers.
''It's a very personal approach,'' she said. ''Who are these people? Why are they doing what they do?''
Murphy, who studied history as an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut, began her career in radio broadcasting before moving to television news. She studied documentary filmmaking at Georgetown University, and earned a master's degree in international relations and international communication from Boston University. She runs her two-year-old production company, Passport Productions, from the home she shares with her husband - also her associate producer - in Plymouth's Pine Hollow neighborhood. A room on the first floor has been transformed into an editing station where Murphy condenses videotapes of raw footage into hour-long segments.
Friends and former colleagues of Murphy's describe her work as unique in its thoroughness, and because of her knowledge and determination.
''She understands the importance of international issues and how they affect us in our daily lives,'' said Kevin Sullivan, a producer at WJZ in Baltimore who traveled with Murphy to Kosovo. ''It's almost sort of a combination of documentary and news.''
Bill Schlosser, Murphy's cameraman, says her work has shed light on unsung heroes and victims around the world.
''It's an attempt to show the other side of the story,'' said Schlosser, a producer at New Jersey's News 12. ''This is a story that continues after the bombs have stopped dropping.''
Murphy plans to travel to Afghanistan at least two more times in the coming months, and speaks enthusiastically of her observations - large and small - during her first visit. She showed a visitor a bottle of sand she collected as a souvenir. Unlike the beige-colored, grainy sand found on many American beaches, it is a dark, silky powder that she describes as the defining characteristic of Afghanistan's terrain. Despite the demise of the Taliban, raw video footage of her trip shows women still clothed in burkas, the head-to-toe veil they were forced to wear in public.
One of the highlights of her stay, Murphy said, was the hospitality. ''I was not expecting the kind of warm welcome we got from so many people,'' she said, recalling customs officers who offered tea to her crew and asked to have their pictures taken with them.
But never far from Murphy's mind was the realization she and her crew were in a war zone, and that some journalists and aid workers have been victims.
''You have to be very careful you don't get yourself lulled into any false sense of security,'' she said. ''Your senses are at their highest. Absolutely.''
Although she says there are places in the world she considers too dangerous to go, Murphy is not afraid to take chances. While working on ''Masters of Freedom,'' a film documenting the Sudanese slave trade, she and her crew flew illegally into the Sudan, bringing their own food and tents.
''I definitely view it as taking calculated risks,'' she said.
What she saw in Afghanistan has only made her more interested in returning. ''I wish I were over there right now,'' she said.
At home in Plymouth, Murphy is editing her latest project, ''Never Too Young,'' a piece about women in their 20s and 30s who have breast cancer, and their attempts to raise awareness of their situation through an organization called the Young Survival Coalition. That piece, which Murphy has offered to the Lifetime cable network, has spawned an educational video for young women who are newly diagnosed with breast cancer. There is also a companion book.
She finances her work through extensive fund-raising. For example, Murphy received $300,000 for the breast cancer project from the oncology division of Roche Pharmaceuticals and Lorad Medical, a mammography company. She has plans for several new projects, including a series on human cloning and one on the intersection of cultural superstition and human rights. She will pitch those projects, along with the ''Heroes of Hope'' series, at a spring conference in France that will be attended by television production companies such as the BBC and Discovery Channel.
Emily Shartin can be reached by e-mail at eshartin@globe.com.
This story ran on page 1 of the Boston Globe's South Weekly section on 1/27/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
Announcements:
Actress Melissa Joan Hart (WB's Sabrina) to host Never Too Young: Young Survivors Unite Against Breast Cancer.
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