TV-MA | 37m | Documentary | 2025
Documentary filmmaker and photojournalist Brent Renaud reported from some of the most violent places on earth. These included Iraq, Somalia, and, despite assurances you might have heard to the contrary, Chicago. Renaud died on March 13, 2022 in Ukraine, strafed by Russian bullets, as he tried to film a group of Ukrainian civilians attempting to evacuate across a bridge outside Kyiv.
That made Renaud the first international war correspondent to fall during the conflict. At least a dozen more have been killed since. Of course, Renaud’s death hit his producing partner particularly hard. That would be his brother Craig, who duly recorded the circumstances and aftermath of his death in the short documentary, “Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud.”
Craig Renaud incorporates a great deal of footage shot by his brother, so the film duly credits him as a co-director. If the late Renaud’s camera captured the moment of his death, it was mercifully excluded from the film.
However, the audience must still confront the grim footage of first responders identifying his body and loading it into an ambulance. Consequently, there is no denying the grisly reality of his death.
Visibly distraught, Craig Renaud films the difficult process of repatriating his brother’s body, believing his late sibling would want to see the truth exposed. In fact, these sequences clearly stand out as the film’s highlights.
It’s a deeply moving moment when Craig Renaud assures Juan Arredondo that he’s grateful the fellow journalist survived, even though his brother didn’t. Arredondo was seriously wounded during the same attack that killed his brother.
Fittingly, Arredondo serves as the film’s producer. Likewise, the reverence and respect shown to the late Renaud on the commercial flight carrying his remains back to his native Arkansas will choke up many viewers.
The early selection of clips from the Renaud Brothers’ prior work was somewhat injudiciously selected, particularly when they show the brothers appearing on the ideologically charged “Democracy Now.”
That was a serious editorial miscue, because the film later clearly shows the trust and rapport they forged with the Arkansas National Guardsmen, whose deployment to Iraq they documented at great length. In his moving eulogy, Iraq War veteran Lt. Col. Brian Mason declared: “They weren’t just embedded reporters. They were one of us.”
Filmmakers and Vets
Viewers can see the sensitivity and respect the Renauds brought to their coverage of the American military. The film cuts to the solemn service held for the army specialist killed in action during an Iraqi insurgent ambush that engulfed the unit Brent Renaud had been embedded in. It also establishes a tragic parallel between Brent Renaud and the uniformed men and women he documented.
That credibility helped make one of the brothers’ best feature projects possible. In the frequently touching and scrupulously nonpartisan “Warrior Champions: From Baghdad to Beijing” (not referenced in “Armed Only With a Camera”), the filmmaking brothers followed four seriously wounded veterans as they train to compete in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. Although not currently available on commercial streamers, the Renaud brothers have posted it on their YouTube page for public viewing.
Obviously, “Armed Only With a Camera” was produced with the best of intentions. Through the incorporated clips of the Renauds’ filmography, they conclusively prove the dangers inherent in documenting war zones, notably including some surprisingly intense scenes from Somalia.
Even at a thrifty 37 minutes, the film suffers from pacing issues. It also misleadingly suggests a partisanship that’s usually absent from the best of the Renauds’ work. Thematically, it shares a kinship with Sebastian Junger’s “Which Way is the Front Line from Here,” his documentary tribute to his filmmaking comrade Tim Hetherington, with whom he embedded with American troops while making the Afghanistan documentary “Restrepo.”
Arguably, Brent Renaud’s absence was felt in multiple ways. It’s poignantly appropriate that he managed to complete the story he was covering, with his brother Craig’s help, even though he became a fatal part of that story.
“Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud” is flawed but undeniably moving at times.
“Armed Only With a Camera” airs on HBO Oct. 21.
‘Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud’
Director: Craig Renaud, Brent Renaud
Documentary
MPAA Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 37 minutes
Release Date: Oct. 21, 2025
Rated: 3 stars out of 5
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