Armed With Solely a Digital camera: The Life and Dying of Brent Renaud

As I wrote in my capsule assessment for this 12 months’s SXSW curtain raiser, Armed Solely With a Digital camera: The Life and Dying of Brent Renaud is a movie that Craig Renaud, Brent’s brother (and my buddy for the previous dozen years, ever since I met the tight-knit siblings masking their now defunct Little Rock Movie Competition) ought to by no means have needed to make and instigated by an occasion no household ought to ever need to dwell by way of. And that places Brent’s family members within the grieving firm of untold numbers of households world wide — the exact same folks the award-winning battle zone documentarian (alongside his youthful sibling) devoted his life to, a life he misplaced on March 13, 2022 whereas masking Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It’s a shocking 37-minute eulogy, made all of the extra palpable by way of Brent’s personal phrases and cinematography, to a brother and lifelong filmmaking associate, a dogged journalist and finally a sufferer of battle. In flip it’s additionally a strong tribute to all battle zone journalists and to all victims of our endless wars.

The week earlier than the doc’s October twenty first HBO debut, Filmmaker caught up with Craig and producer Juan Arredondo, a Colombian-American photojournalist who was severely injured within the March thirteenth assault, on the Sizzling Spring Documentary Movie Competition (the place Craig introduced the siblings’ mentor Jon Alpert with the Brent Renaud Profession Achievement Award) to listen to all about cinematically honoring Brent, a multi-award-winning documentarian who like his brother most popular to stay firmly offscreen.

Filmmaker: So I’m fairly curious to listen to concerning the partnership you two have developed since Brent was killed. How is the working relationship just like and completely different from collaborating with Brent?

Renaud: Much like working with Brent, my relationship with Juan goes a lot deeper than filmmaking. Since Brent’s dying Juan has turn into like a brother to me and part of the Renaud household. We spent over three years enhancing Armed Solely With a Digital camera collectively, which was very troublesome but in addition a therapeutic course of for us each — we lean on one another when one in every of us is having a nasty day. On this line of labor you need to deeply belief your crew as a result of they’re those who enable you survive each bodily and emotionally. The bond you type could be very deep.

Juan was with Brent when he died, and he’s a really robust hyperlink for me to my brother. Brent was an unimaginable instructor, and he educated us all properly. We frequently snort once we are assembling our gear for a shoot in a methodical method, or massaging an edit meticulously, that we’re like fine-tuned robots who Brent groomed. Brent continues to be very a lot with us each time we choose up our cameras and head out for a shoot.

Arredondo: I usually say that I misplaced a buddy and gained a brother. That is how I see Craig. Over the previous three years we’ve got gotten to know one another, healed collectively, and supported each other by way of the lengthy course of of manufacturing and enhancing this movie.

Earlier than the assault that killed Brent I labored carefully with him within the area, whereas Craig supported us behind the scenes — producing, enhancing and directing our tasks. Now, having spent this time with Craig, I see how completely different the brothers are. Brent was intense, quiet and hyper-focused within the area, typically demanding however all the time driving our work ahead with goal. I admired that depth; it made our collaboration each efficient and deeply significant. Craig, in contrast, is the mellow one — simple to speak to, calm, and beneficiant in sharing his expertise and information. Over these three years we’ve shared a lot, each personally and professionally, and I’ve come to know and respect his course of, which strengthens our brotherhood.

Filmmaker: How a lot archival footage did you find yourself working with? And contemplating Brent was a quite personal individual, how did you determine what to incorporate (and never)?

Renaud: The archival footage goes all the best way again to our childhood rising up in Arkansas within the early 1970’s. Our dad and mom Lou and Georgann had a Tremendous 8 movie digicam and documented our childhood properly. My mother had stored the entire movie reels, so I used to be fortunate to have a whole lot of completely preserved footage to associate with a few of Brent’s most private revelations.

Brent was very personal, and I’d not have been snug revealing something that Brent had not disclosed publicly himself. A couple of years earlier than his dying Brent gave a speech to his Harvard Nieman classmates by which he revealed for the primary time that he had been identified with autism as an grownup. I do know this should have been extremely troublesome for Brent to face in entrance of a room of individuals and open up on this method. He had really ready two endings to his speech, and on the final minute had the braveness to speak about his autism. Luckily, Juan was one in every of his Nieman classmates that day and filmed the speech. Throughout it Brent mentioned, “The analysis of autism tells you little or no about an individual. I might be as calm as a Zen monk in a firefight or a catastrophe zone, however for years a cocktail get together in Brooklyn was completely terrifying.”

The archive additionally contains greater than 20 years of footage that Brent and I captured in battle zones world wide: locations like Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Haiti, Libya, Mexico, Honduras, Chicago, and Brent’s closing footage from Ukraine. It was an extended and difficult course of to look again by way of this footage in the hunt for Brent’s voice and presence on digicam.

We’re verité filmmakers educated by the legendary documentarian Jon Alpert, so Brent was very seldom on digicam. Typically we’d go down black holes for months, digging for these excellent moments that will finest present viewers how compassionate a filmmaker Brent was. My favourite is a scene in Somalia that usually might need hit the edit room ground. Brent was in a hospital filming the aftermath of the worst automotive bomb in Somalia’s historical past when a severely wounded Somalian man known as out and requested him his title. What he mentioned to Brent subsequent brings me to tears each time I hear it as a result of it speaks volumes about him and offers me hope for humanity within the midst of battle: “The best way you maintain that digicam…you might be doing it out of your coronary heart. It actually means rather a lot. You and I, we are able to change this world if we needed to. Imagine that.”

Arredondo: I used to be serving to Craig with the archival footage, and one of the difficult components was going by way of tons of of hours of their work in Iraq. This was a 12 months of footage, tons of of hours of photographs, and what made it difficult was discovering moments when Brent would seem on digicam. Craig usually identified scenes the place Brent might need been filmed, and even in lots of of those moments he can be within the shot and never say a lot. Nevertheless, recognizing these moments, which you’ll be able to see within the movie, reveals his humanity and empathy for the folks he was documenting.

Filmmaker: In relation to retaining secure in battle zones, how have issues modified for journalists in recent times? (Clearly, figuring out oneself as press not solely doesn’t assure security however can really get you killed in lots of locations.) Have the suggestions likewise developed?

Renaud: In keeping with the Committee to Shield Journalists (CPJ), that is essentially the most lethal time for journalists since they started amassing knowledge greater than three a long time in the past. Since Brent’s dying in 2022, greater than 100 journalists have been killed yearly.

I bear in mind in 2010 Brent and I filmed a narrative for the New York Instances known as The Most Harmful Beat: Juárez, Mexico. Journalists had been being killed with impunity in Mexico, principally for tales that linked politicians to the drug cartels. El Diario newspaper in Juárez had simply misplaced one other reporter — Armando Rodriguez had been gunned down in entrance of his eight-year-old daughter whereas taking her to highschool. Brent requested Pedro Torres, the editor of El Diario, What sort of accountability do you’re feeling because the editor as you ship reporters out on a regular basis? Pedro’s response has all the time caught with me: “It’s a giant accountability, however I take care of it. I’ve to. With out journalists there is no such thing as a democracy.”

After filming that story in Juárez, Brent and I walked over the bridge to El Paso and breathed a sigh of aid that we had survived one other harmful project. I all the time deeply admired journalists in locations like Mexico, who had been courageous sufficient to maintain reporting whereas being so weak to having their family members in danger. I feel I took as a right that I’d all the time be capable of get on a airplane and return to the protection of the USA. I’m very involved about the place we’re heading at this second — not simply abroad as journalists are being focused and executed, however at house the place the First Modification is being examined like by no means earlier than.

Arredondo: The foundations are shifting continuously, as we’ve seen in current months, each right here and overseas. Journalists are more and more changing into targets. We’re witnessing not solely assaults on freedom of speech, but in addition direct assaults on press freedom — efforts to dictate what we are able to and can’t cowl. In response, information organizations and advocacy teams such because the Committee to Shield Journalists and Reporters With out Borders are working to organize and shield reporters. They supply coaching, assets and instruments to assist journalists acknowledge potential risks, consider dangers, and develop contingency plans.

Filmmaker: I’m additionally very curious to listen to concerning the Brent Renaud Basis mentorship program. How can potential mentors and mentees turn into concerned?

Renaud: Our household actually needed to proceed Brent’s legacy of mentorship by way of the inspiration. Brent and I first discovered find out how to be filmmakers from our unimaginable mentor Jon Alpert. Brent was additionally a fantastic mentor to many rising filmmakers all through his profession. My manufacturing crew as we speak is made up of filmmakers who had been mentored by Brent, and they’re serving as mentees for the inspiration. Potential mentors and mentees can contact us by way of the Basis web site.

Our board has additionally not too long ago been discussing what position the Basis can play in giving help to journalists who cowl conflicts, particularly as they’ve come below rising assault up to now few years. We’ve got been partnering with the Committee to Shield Journalists and the James Foley Basis in the course of the rollout of Armed Solely With a Digital camera to boost extra consciousness round this problem. We’re additionally planning to create therapeutic areas for journalists after they return house from masking conflicts. Juan and I are nonetheless going by way of that therapeutic course of since we misplaced Brent, and we need to be there for different journalists who’re dealing with traumatic experiences.

Filmmaker: Moreover serving as a tribute to Brent, what do you hope the movie’s lasting influence might be?

Renaud: We ended the movie with a card that reads, “In reminiscence of Brent Renaud and the numerous journalists who gave their lives in pursuit of reality and peace.”

Brent was by no means centered on merely attending to the frontlines of conflicts, and I consider that’s true for many of the journalists who gave their lives attempting to make clear the reality. Brent needed greater than anything to inform the tales of harmless individuals who had been caught in the course of battle. I hope that Brent’s story and his compassion for others can contribute to lasting peace on this planet.

Arredondo: By providing an intimate portrait of Craig and his household’s loss we additionally hope to pay tribute to all fallen journalists and their family members. Since Brent’s dying, these previous three years have been among the many deadliest for journalists worldwide. With this movie we hope to depart a long-lasting reminder of the dangers journalists take to deliver reality to the general public, and of the significance of defending those that perform this work.