It is with great sadness that I report that Lee Rogerson, who contributed so much to the DARE project, passed away on 25 February 2023. His passing was completely unexpected and a great shock to us all. Our hearts and thoughts go out to Rachael, his wife, and their three children Sam, Isaac and Nathan.

Lee was with us from the start of the DARE project, working his magic to produce short films that told, with sensitivity and empathy, the stories of those whose lives had been profoundly affected by extreme ideologies. His background in youth and community work, for which he was awarded an MBE, lent him a deep understanding of the issues with which the project was concerned and brought a distinctive warmth and depth to the films. When COVID struck and our final conference became an online event, Lee juggled his many commitments, to find time to craft our home-shot videos into coherent short films presenting our research findings. He guided us, supported us and then applied his unique combination of deep understanding of the issues and vision as a filmmaker to create films we could be proud of.

Lee always joked that his role was not to be noticed – if people forgot he (and his camera) were there, he had done his job well. And below, at our meeting in Oslo in October 2017, there he is – tucked away on the back row.

It was a mark of his modesty but also a technique that made his film making on difficult issues so effective – you could not but feel at ease around Lee. As colleagues on the project have said, he had a kind, humorous and deeply human way of going about things.

Lee might have sought not to be noticed, but everybody he came into contact with remembers him instantly. He was just such a nice guy. But, he was more than that. There was a kind of greatness in his humility and simplicity mixed with huge generosity. It touched people and left them, always, in a better place.

We will miss him deeply.

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