← All Of It with Alison Stewart
All Of It with Alison Stewart
A Tribute To The First Western Journalist Killed On Assignment In Ukraine
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WNYC Announcer
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Alison Stewart
This is all of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. For Veterans Day, we here at all of IT want to extend our gratitude to those who have served in the military and the loved ones who support them. Now we'll hear about a documentary short about Brent Renault, the award winning filmmaker and war zone photojournalist who became the first western member of the press to be killed covering the war in Ukraine. The new documentary titled Armed Only with a Camera chronicles the life and death of Brent as told by his younger brother, director and journalist Craig Renaud. Last month I talked with Craig and producer Juan Arredondo, who survived the same attack that killed Brent. I started by asking Craig to share something he felt made his brother great.
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Craig Renaud
He was a wonderful uncle and to my son and to his other nephews and a wonderful journalist and human being. I would say he was the hardest working filmmaker I've ever known and the most compassionate.
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Alison Stewart
Juan, physically, how are you doing?
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Juan Arredondo
I'm good, Alison, thank you for asking. Fully recovered. I had to underwent 13 surgeries but, and then physical therapy but that was already three and a half years ago so I'm doing well, thank you.
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Alison Stewart
Craig, you are a filmmaking team. The Renault brothers. You were known for your award style, your cinnamon verite style, but it all started with a Super 8 film camera and reels from your childhood. When was the first time that you remember picking up a camera?
- [02:15]
Craig Renaud
I remember a camera always being around, I mean since my earliest memories. You know, we were fortunate that our, our parents had a Super 8 film camera, you know, and when we made this film my mom handed me boxes of reels that were perfectly preserved and, and my parents got a camera credit in this documentary because they did an amazing job documenting our childhood. And you know, to my pleasure, it was very, very well shot. So, you know, so I guess that that started our career. It was always around and then my father gave Brent his a photo camera around the age of 10. And you'll hear him talk about that in the documentary is that was the moment where he really felt like this is what he wanted to do.
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Alison Stewart
Juan, how did you first meet Brent?
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Juan Arredondo
I met Brent at. We were both Neiman Fellows at Harvard. And that was in 2018. Very quiet and kept to himself. And then one, I remember on about a month of being a fellow, he called me on a Sunday to say that he lost the keys, he got locked out of his apartment and if I could stay with him and Chai, his dog with me, which you see Chai in the film as well. And that's what started long lasting friendship.
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Alison Stewart
And how did you start to work with him, Juan?
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Juan Arredondo
I started to work right after the pandemic.
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Alison Stewart
We.
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Juan Arredondo
We took a trip. Well, during our Nieman, we took a trip to Venice, to the border between Colombia and Venezuela. We were trying to do a short documentary in 360, but that was more of us just trying to do something around stories that was happening in that moment. But it was 20. It was during the pandemic that after I finished school he said, hey, we got work to do. And Craig and Brent took me under their wing and I started. I always wanted to migrate into documentaries. I'm a photojournalist by training. But then we started to work. We did a documentary for Imagine Entertainment about the heroes of COVID And that was the first documentary I worked with with Craig and Brent.
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Alison Stewart
Craig, you have been incredibly in, in incredibly dangerous situations over the course of your career. How did you decide when the risk was worth taking?
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Craig Renaud
It was always about, you know, the story and the impact for us. You know, it was always about can, can our presence make a differ. Can we get the access to the story in a way that is unique? You know, for example, when we did off to War in Iraq, which was a 10 part series for Discovery Channel, we embedded for an entire year with the Arkansas National Guard. But we were able to embed from Arkansas with really, really good access. And we grew up in Arkansas. And so that was an example of when we asked that question, you know, are we going to offer something to, to the story about, about this particular war or conflict that other people can't, you know, and that really always had to do with can we get to the people that are caught in the middle of these conflicts and tell their story accurately and with compassion.
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Alison Stewart
Juan, why did you make the decision to work in situations where death was a possibility?
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Juan Arredondo
I think it's. Well, like I would say that that's not a choice that we easily make. I think my career slowly took me to cover some post war conflicts, especially in Latin America. And you, I guess slowly you become known that you're able to work in these areas. I do know that I'm very calm, especially when situations Are, are that chaotic. And I had the confidence of all the years that Craig and Brent brought to, to doing documentaries. And so when we started to do this independent film about the status of refugees around the world and we heard of the invasion of Russia into Ukraine, Bren called me and said, hey, we're thinking of going. And I said, of course I'm coming with you. So there is a calculated risk that we, we take. But as, as Craig said, are always, and our mind is always what can we bring to the story. And if being there gives voices to the people who are caught in these conflicts, then for us it's worth the risk.
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Alison Stewart
We're speaking about the documentary Armed Only with a Camera. It chronicles the life and death of Brent Renault, the first American journalist to be killed covering the war in Ukraine. My guests are director Craig Renaud and producer Juan Arredondo. It's available to stream now on hbo.
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Juan Arredondo
Max.
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Alison Stewart
Max. The film doesn't actually begin with Brent's death. It goes way, way back to him documenting people choosing to make their way to the north. He's seen walking through a river between Guatemala and Mexico, following a person on his quest. I'll give this to you, Craig. How did you decide this is how you wanted to start the documentary?
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Craig Renaud
Well, that was actually a great note from a very amazing editor Gene at hbo, who, you know, when we were getting towards the very end of this editing process, you know, we had watched this thing, you know, hundreds of times and for a long time we started with Ukraine, you know, where we just threw people right into the conflict that killed Brent. And we felt like we needed to see Brent and understand him, hear his voice and understand his compassion before, before viewers find out that he was killed. And that moment was so perfect because it's Brent doing what he did well, which is thrusting himself right into what is going on. If these young people are crossing a river, he's going to be right there with his shoes and pants off, crossing the river right there with them. And then you see him do this compassionate interview with a 16 year old kid from Honduras who had been on his own since he was 10 years old, had lost his parents and was trying do this journey year after year after year. And so we just felt like that really represented Brent's compassion and a way to start that film before you get the tragic news that he was killed in Ukraine.
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Alison Stewart
Juan, what do you remember about the attack that day? What stands out in your memory about that day?
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Juan Arredondo
It's now, after these years I've been able to kind of look back, I think it was the moments that we both share, I guess the lighter moments given that situation and the heaviness of the conflict and what we were witnessing. But we would just have little moments in our rooms or. I remember Brent was starting his MFA in writing. He wanted to become a writer and write novels, write movies, write scripts. And I remember him being stressed out because he just didn't know what to write about for his class, and he had to meet a deadline, and we're in the middle of in Ukraine, and he couldn't think of anything. And I said, but what do you mean? We're just here. Why don't you write about the people that we just interview? And so I remember him asking, can you pull out one of the interviews and get the audio? And I see if I can get it translated, because I want to start writing about that. So I always go back to those lighter moments because that's what bonded us. That's what brought us together and what kept us safe and insane in those moments. So I like to go back and just think of those little moments.
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Alison Stewart
Craig, in this documentary, you include footage of your brother's body. Some of the footage was captured right after he was killed. Some of it you filmed yourself. Why did you feel that it was important to include those images of Brent?
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Craig Renaud
Well, I just kept asking myself what I thought Brent would do in those moments. And. And so it was very hard to. To film those images, but it was not hard to know in my heart what I thought Brent would have done. You know, I mean, and like you said, we've been in many, many dangerous situations over our 20 years of doing this work, and many conversations of the what ifs, you know, what if one of us are killed or were kidnapped? And we always promised each other that we wouldn't leave each other behind and that we would keep filming. So when this happened, you know, I just felt like the right thing to do, to pick up my camera and keep filming what happened to Brent, you know, And I wanted to not only pay tribute to my brother, but I felt like I had to pay tribute to all the fallen journalists that do this work, especially at a time where, you know, they're being killed at a rate that's higher than ever. You know, Committee to Protect Journalists said this is the highest that it's ever been in terms of deaths and risk to journalists since they've started keeping number for the past three decades. And so I felt like this was a bigger story than just Brent and that we needed to show people the risk that these journalists take, but also their compassion and what they're trying to do, which is bring the truth in a time when we really need the truth, you know, and help people understand who's being impacted by these conflicts. And. And ultimately, I think most journalists and filmmakers are trying to bring peace through their. Their cameras or their pen.
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Alison Stewart
Craig, were you able to. To, I guess, compartmentalize when you were filming?
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Craig Renaud
I was. You know, for better or for worse, this is something you learn to do. You know, after 20 years of doing this work, you become pretty good in the moment of. Of putting these things in. In boxes and compartmentalizing, and you deal with the grief and the pain of it later. You know, it was particularly hard with it being my brother, but I. I do think I kept leaning on that. On that skill that I developed over so many years of. Of doing this. And, you know, and then we. We edited this film for three years, and that was a very difficult process. You know, it was Juan and myself at my house looking through archival footage of Bren and healing through this process. You know, I mean, one minute we're editing a scene where Brent's in a casket and he's dead, and the next minute you hit play and he's crossing a river. He's very much alive. And, you know, so I think for us, it was healing. And then, you know, my executive producer on this, John Alpert, is a legendary documentary filmmaker. He taught Brent and I everything we knew, and he came on board to this project to help me get through it. You know, I mean, I would. I would get lost for months at a time in the footage, and John would need to keep pulling me back and getting me refocused. So it was quite a process. But I'm happy with what we came out with in the end.
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Alison Stewart
The film is called Armed Only with a the Life and Death of Brent Renault. I've been speaking with director Craig Renaud, Brent's brother, and producer Juan Arredondo, who was injured in the same attack that killed Brent. We'll have more in just a minute. This is all of it. This is all of it. I'm Alison Stewart. Before the break, we were talking about the new documentary short Armed Only with a Camera, the Life and Death of Brent Renault. Brent was a war zone photojournalist and filmmaker, and in 2022, he became the first member of the Western press to be killed while covering the war in Ukraine. The film was directed by Craig Renaud, Brent's brother, and produced by Juan Arredondo, who was injured in the same attack that killed Brent. Let's get back into that conversation. Juan, you are also in the film, in the hospital, you looked like you were in a great deal of pain. What do you remember about that moment when they turned on the camera?
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Juan Arredondo
So we were. I was evacuated, and I was evacuated by Doctors Without Borders. I don't think I would be here if it wasn't for all the medical teams and professionals that without any. Any need or without paid and just. Just obviously from their willingness to help a stranger that got me through those many surgeries. I was evacuated and taken to Lviv from Kiev. And we've been in touch. I remember calling Craig as soon as the incident happened and telling him that we were shot. So I was in constant contact with Craig and. And I knew he was going to go live. Eve. And I didn't think of much when. When I saw Kristoff, who was the camera person at that, coming with Craig, I didn't think much of it. I mean, I think we knew that that was the right thing to do. I was also recording myself the few times that I was conscious because I was under a lot of pain medication and sedated. I would. I would turn the camera on myself or around me just to. So I can have a record of what happened, also to share that with Craig and my mother. But. But I just, you know, I thought it was the most natural thing to do. And I wasn't aware of the camera at that moment because I. I just. I was so, so sorry of. Of I. Of seeing Craig not knowing what to say. And in the film, I think that's all I can only say is I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I keep repeating that to him, but it was very comforting to hug him and to see a familiar face at that point. I know he had to continue to try to get Brent's body out, and I had to be taken to Poland to continue my recovery.
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Alison Stewart
We're talking about the documentary Armed Only with a Camera. It chronicles the life and death of Brent Renault, the first American journalist to be killed covering the war in Ukraine. My guests are director Craig Renaud and producer Juan Arredondo. It's available to stream now on hbo. Max. Craig. When you look at the footage, one thing that stands out is how close Brent kept his shots on the faces of his subject. He puts the camera pretty close to them and he just lets them speak. Why do you think this was the kind of approach to filmmaking that you. You developed with him?
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Craig Renaud
Yeah, I mean, you know, we are very well Trained documentary filmmakers, verite documentary filmmakers, where, you know, we really try hard not to put our voices in as much as possible and. And try to be as objective and pure to the story as we possibly can. And. And the best way to do that is allowing people to speak. You know, we. We spent about a decade learning from John Alpert. He's one of the greatest at doing this type of film work. And then. And then it's something that we've developed over our 20 years of being in these high intense moments with people. And we just always felt like the best way to not put ourselves in these films is to just allow people to speak. And we felt that was the way for viewers to feel the humanity of the people that are suffering in these moments and not put a voiceover or facts or those kind of things. It's like putting a human face on the numbers that we hear about in these conflicts, you know, whether that's Haiti or Iraq or Afghanistan. It's just trying to put viewers right there with the person. And we film in the moment. You know, we don't sit people down and do interviews where we talk about something that happened in the past. We are experiencing it with them as they are going through it. And that makes it even more dangerous, the type of work that we do. Like, the reason Brent was killed is because he wanted to stay five extra days to find that perfect family to follow out of Ukraine. You know, starting on Wednesday. I was talking to Brent every day. I think you're ready to come back. You should come back. And he just kept saying, no, not quite. I haven't quite found the story that I need. And he just kept day after day extending his trip until Sunday. And they had just blown up a bridge in our peen, and Juan and Brent had to get out of their vehicle to try to get forward to meet people, got into the car of a civilian who gave them a ride, and then they were targeted and came under attack. But essentially, that question that you ask of, like having people right there present, that was so essential for Brent's storytelling, to be right there with people as they were actively fleeing Ukraine.
- [19:32]
Alison Stewart
We feel as we get to know Brent in this documentary, that there's so much. There's so much to relate to him. And I think the fact that you talked about him having a diagnosis of autism was really interesting in the film. He said, in the film, I hope I'm saying this right. I can be as calm as a Zen monk in a firefight or a disaster zone. But for years, a Cocktail party in Brooklyn was absolutely terrifying. Craig, how do you think that diagnosis affected his work at all, if it. If it did at all?
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Craig Renaud
Oh, I think it did. You know, I think, you know, Brent's intensity, first of all, I mean, he. He was such a intense, clearly focused person. He was so calm in these spaces. But also. I think he could also relate to people in terms of feeling a bit of an outsider. And. And, you know, I think his compassion was. Was part of. Was related to his autism as well. You know, he grew up at a time in Arkansas where nobody knew what this diagnosis was, and it wasn't until he was adult that he went and got himself diagnosed. So I. You know, growing up as kids, I just remember Brent always being referred to as difficult, you know, and. Because people just simply didn't understand him, you know, and so I think there was a level to his ability to relate other people who were. Who were dealing with these very difficult circumstances because of the experiences he had throughout his life, you know, and he. He was constantly overcoming his own fears to just be able to socialize, you know, and. And he was. He was very calm in these spaces as well. I mean, that is an accurate statement when he is saying that, that he's much calmer in a conflict zone than he is at a cocktail party. But, you know, we were blessed that Brent talked about this at Harvard among his fellow classmates during their fellowship, and we had this audio of him revealing that. I don't. I don't know that I would have been comfortable talking about it if Brent had not revealed it himself, because I know that must have been so difficult for him to talk about. So. Yeah, it's something that's unique about him, and it adds another level to the story to understanding who he was and why he was particularly gifted in this space.
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Alison Stewart
I have to ask you, Craig, you were brothers. Brothers disagree sometimes. What kind of disagreements did you have when you were making films?
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Craig Renaud
I mean, what's interesting is we never disagreed in filmmaking, you know, and, like, we were always on the same page with filmmaking. You know, we would disagree about silly, silly stuff that brothers. It probably most of our fights as brothers, as adults was not very difficult. In the fights we had as little kids, it's just getting on each other's nerves or spending too much time with each other. But when we were filming or in the edit room, we were very much in sync, so. Yeah, but we definitely did our fair share of bickering and fighting as brothers.
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Alison Stewart
Juan, at the end of the film, we learned that more than 100 journals have been killed this year since Brent's passing. We all know this. As a journalist who has been physically harmed during reporting, what makes you the most nervous about a statistic like that?
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Juan Arredondo
Well, I think is that our profession and our colleagues are in more danger, as we've seen in the last couple of years. And I think it's not getting any better. And I'm concerned about the state of journalism because we're seeing not only in other countries, but we're starting to see here in the US that a lot of colleagues are self censoring. A lot of colonies are opting out maybe not to speak against certain things because they will be targeted. Maybe not physically like we were, but there are other means to put pressure on newsrooms and organizations and on journalists. So I am concerned because we serve a purpose and one of them is to keep the people in power in checked and also in, in our cases with our films and, and photography is to go to these places. We physically have to be there in order to capture history. I always think that that's first and foremost my, my, my job is to capture history so we don't forget what happened, so others do not deny certain things that, or atrocities that happen. But also we need to be there to give voices to the people that are in these situations. And we're civilians and we're protected under the Roman stature and we're protected as civilians. And, and we're seeing that, that those, those lines are blurry more and more. So I am concerned, I think there are organizations that are trying to help advocate for journalists to be safer and to do this work safe.
- [24:51]
Alison Stewart
Before I let you go, Craig, you established the Brent Renaud foundation to continue his legacy through mentorship. Would you tell us quickly about the program?
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Craig Renaud
Yes, thank you for talking about it. Brent was a wonderful mentor. We started our careers being mentored by John Alpert and then at the Downtown Community Television center, we were also teachers. We were always teaching young people through their pro TV program there how to become filmmakers. And it's a powerful tool to put a camera on young people's hands and teach them how to tell their own stories. So we wanted to continue that legacy. And we're also talking now about how can we be helpful to journalists who are being targeted and how do we help them deal with their trauma as well. So we're still evolving as a foundation, but you know, we want to help and keep the legacy that Brent started alive.
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Alison Stewart
That was my conversation with director Craig Renaud and producer Juan Arredondo. The film is called Armed Only with a the Life and Death of Brett Renau. And that is all of it for this hour. We'll have more documentaries to talk about after the news, including the Librarians, which follows libraries fighting back against book bans and navigating political culture wars. Plus, around the 50th anniversary of the iconic headline Forward to Drop Dead, a documentary that explores the 1975 fiscal crisis in New York. That's coming up on all of it after the news.
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