The Reel Review
In March 2022, 50-year-old Brent Arnaud became the first American photojournalist killed in Ukraine, shot in the head while filming families fleeing from invading Russian soldiers just outside of the capital, Kyiv. This documentary short briefly recaps Arnaud’s incredible career as a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker.
The film, directed by his younger brother, photojournalist Craig Renaud, is an emotionally moving tapestry of Renaud’s death, his own words describing life as an autistic child growing up in Arkansas, and the many places where he covered the worst of humanity – wars in Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the horrific refugee crisis caused by drug gangs in Honduras and even gun violence in downtown Chicago.
This film is a emotional 37 minute watch, as deeply intimate moments are captured of Renaud’s body and its preparation for the flight back home to Arkansas, along with the intense pain experienced by Arnaud’s family and surviving colleague/friend, Juan Arredondo. This film is a haunting portrait of a kind, gentle soul that just wanted to shine a spotlight on the darker aspects of humanity.
REEL FACTS
• Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Arnaud has been nominated for a 2026 Oscar for Best Documentary Short.
• Brent Arnaud’s beloved dog Chai, a Dalmatian/Pit Bull mix, died just a few months before Arnaud was killed in Ukraine.
• Juan Arredondo has been teaching multimedia journalism at Rutgers University-Newark since spring 2023.