Armed Only With A Camera: The Life And Death Of Brent Renaud Review – Poignant, Emotional, Real
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Tuesday, 14 October 2025 13:53
- Written by Janet Walker
Armed Only With A Camera: The Life And Death Of Brent Renaud, from HBO Documentary Films, presents a tribute to the life of documentarian Brent Renaud, who lost his life while documentary the horror of war in Ukraine.
The documentary opens, with Brent Renaud walking with an orphan from Honduras, on his way to the United States, and as he explains, at 16, he is alone, with no one to depend on except himself. And thus begins the journey into the life and times, and ultimately death, of Brent Renaud.
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On March 13, 2022, filmmaker Brent Renaud was killed by Russian soldiers, shot point blank, the first American journalist to die while reporting on the war in Ukraine. His younger brother and collaborator, Craig Renaud, recovered Brent's body and his final recordings from Ukraine and brought them back to their childhood home in Arkansas.
As Brent's journey to his final resting place unfolds, the film chronicles the years he and his brother spent covering some of the world's most dangerous conflicts.
For those who are not familiar with the Renaud brothers documentaries, we begin to see footage that most networks refuse to air, the horrors of air strikes, maiming and mutilating children, car bombs while reporting in Somalia, exploding slicing off limbs, the unimaginable suffering in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, where the quake added extreme suffering to an already sorrow filled people, and of course the agony and anguish of the Ukraine war.
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The documentary also returns to the Renaud brothers childhood, rural Arkansas, companions right from the start. Connected through more than blood, the Renaud brothers shared a passion for people, for showing the world the humanity, the human condition, of people who, by no fault of their own, are subject to despair.
The authentic film includes harrowing footage of the brothers' reporting from around the globe, including time embedded with the Arkansas National Guard in Iraq. Despite bearing witness to devastating loss and suffering, fearlessly covered stories from the front lines, and empathically capturing war's impact on the innocent.
Unflinching in its depiction of death, loss, and the toll of war, the film is the testament to the critical value of wartime reporting and a tribute to journalists, who dare travel behind enemy lines or into conflicts, declared or undeclared, providing on-the-ground, life-threatening coverage of world events.
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By the end of the short documentary, we understand the challenges journalists confront today. Journalism has become one of the most dangerous professions in the world, and as the film ends, we see memorials of those lost from countries around the globe who dared expose or report corruption or challenge the takeovers and invasions of cities, towns and countries.
Weaving throughout the film, is the funeral for Renaud, an uncommon man in an uncommon profession, his life touched many, and we hear from them during the service.
A poignant, authenticate, tender, and heartbreaking film, Armed Only With A Camera: The Life And Death Of Brent Renaud, is a must see. Be warned, it is graphic, and emotional.
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Country: U.S.
Language: English.
Release Date: Tuesday, October 21 (9:00-9:40 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO.
Runtime: 40 minutes.
Director: Craig Renaud, Brent Renaud.
Producer: Craig Renaud, Brent Renaud, Juan Arredondo.
Executive Producer: Jon Alpert, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Tina Nguyen.
Featuring: Craig Renaud, Brent Renaud.
Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.
