Oscar Nominated Doc ‘Armed Only with a Camera’ Tells Story of First American Journalist Killed in Ukraine

A short documentary film about photojournalist Brent Renaud, the first American journalist to be killed in Ukraine, has been nominated for an Academy Award.

The film Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud is directed by his younger brother, Craig Renaud, who worked alongside the photojournalist for more than two decades. It is also produced by Colombian photojournalist Juan Arredondo, who was with Brent on the day he was killed in 2022. Armed Only with a Camera is nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film this year.

Brent Renaud was a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker known for reporting from the front lines of global conflicts. Working closely with his brother Craig, the pair built a reputation for making vérité-style documentaries that focus on the lives of civilians affected by war and political violence. From 2004 to 2005, the Renaud brothers filmed the Discovery Channel series Off to War, which followed Arkansas reservists deployed to Iraq and their families back home. Over the years, the brothers also reported on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, political unrest in Egypt and Libya, conflicts in Africa, the Mexican drug war, and the migrant and refugee crisis in Central America.

Brent was continuing this work when he was killed in Ukraine on March 13, 2022. He and photojournalist Arredondo had traveled to the country to follow a family for an independent film they were producing. While reporting in Irpin, a city near Kyiv, Brent and Arredondo were shot by Russian soldiers. Arredondo was seriously wounded, but Renaud was shot in the neck and died at the scene. Craig later traveled to Ukraine to recover his brother’s body and final recordings, which he brought back to their home state of Arkansas.

Armed Only with a Camera traces Brent’s career using footage he filmed throughout his life. According to a report by The Guardian, the film also includes footage Renaud recorded on the day he was killed, capturing his final moments. Craig says the decision to tell his brother’s story through a documentary came naturally, given their shared commitment to journalism.

“We spent our entire career, over 20 years, documenting other people caught in these wars. Why would it be any different when it’s my family member or my brother being killed? It was an instinctual thing,” he tells The Guardian.

Craig adds: “When Brent died, I was at peace with his death immediately. There was no part of me that felt like this isn’t how Brent was supposed to die. You know, he was the most dedicated journalist I’ve ever known. That being the end to Brent is poetic,” he says.

The documentary serves both as a tribute to Brent and as a broader reflection on the risks faced by journalists working in conflict zones. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 2024 was the deadliest year for journalists in the organization’s history, highlighting the increasing dangers of frontline reporting worldwide.