Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud

Mar 9, 2025

0h 39m

★ 7.2

Overview

On March 13, 2022, filmmaker Brent Renaud was killed by Russian soldiers, 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.

Genres

Documentary

Drama

Production Companies

HBO Documentary Films

Downtown Community Television Center

Renaud Brothers Films

Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud Trailers

Cast

Self

Brent Renaud

Self

Craig Renaud

Self

Jon Alpert

Self

Juan Arredondo

Self (archival footage)

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Self (archival footage)

Anderson Cooper

A chronicle of the civil uprising against the regime of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych that took place in Kyiv in the winter of 2013/14. The film follows the progress of the revolution: from peaceful rallies, half a million strong in the Maidan square, to the bloody street battles between protesters and riot police.

0.0

The Last Photograph

Invalid Date

An ex-DEA operative must return to the mountains of South America in an effort to find his missing niece and nephew, following the brutal murders of their diplomat parents. Enlisting the help of a washed-up junkie war photographer, the only person to have seen the face of the killers, he sets out, determined to find the children and the truth, but soon learns he must also face the ghosts of his past.

7.4

War Photographer

Nov 1, 2001

Documentary about war photographer James Nachtwey, considered by many the greatest war photographer ever.

6.7

Under Fire

Oct 21, 1983

Three U.S. journalists get too close to one another and their work in 1979 Nicaragua.

8.1

Full Metal Jacket

Jun 26, 1987

A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

7.0

In My Father's Den

Jun 11, 2004

War journalist Paul Prior returns to his New Zealand hometown after his father’s death, rekindling strained relationships with his brother and memories of a troubled past. He befriends Celia, a curious and aspiring writer, who shares a fascination with his world. When Celia mysteriously disappears, Paul becomes the prime suspect, forcing him to confront buried secrets and uncover the dark truths of his family and community.

7.5

Myrnyi-21

Feb 22, 2023

The story of trust and its absence against the background of events unfolding in Eastern Ukraine in early 2014. The main topic is revealed through the prism of the Luhansk border base, whose fighters the separatists and Russian special services tried unsuccessfully force to betray their country.

0.0

In Ukraine

Feb 18, 2023

Bombed-out streets, destroyed Russian tanks, evening meals in an Underground repurposed into a shelter. Image by image, the directors push beyond easily reproducible images of war to enter the reality the country has experienced since February 24, 2022.

7.4

Before the Rain

Jun 9, 1994

The circularity of violence seen in a story that circles on itself. In Macedonia, during the war in Bosnia, Christians hunt an ethnic Albanian girl who may have murdered one of their own. A young monk who's taken a vow of silence offers her protection. In London, a photographic editor who's pregnant needs to talk it out with her estranged husband and chooses a toney restaurant.

6.9

Slava Ukraini

Feb 22, 2023

One year after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy takes us to the heart of the combat through this war diary made during the second half of 2022. From Kharkiv and Bakhmut to Kherson, in the aftermath of the city’s liberation, this documentary bears witness to the ravages of war through the testimonies of soldiers, chronicles of the front and portraits of civilians, and shares with us the struggle of the Ukrainian people.

10.0

Evacuation

Mar 11, 2021

In 2014, the war begins. Immediately, a system of evacuation of the wounded and killed is being built, the outpost of which is the Dnieper - it is here that the first will be delivered, it is here that they are still received. Tatiana Guba has been coordinating the evacuation for 5 years. She is called "Mom Tanya". Thousands of people are grateful to her for her life. Serhiy Kryvorotchenko, director of the Dnipro Airport, has deployed a helicopter evacuation system since the beginning of the war. Eugene Titarenko, the film's director, in 2014-2015 was part of a volunteer medical battalion, communicates with the heroes of the film about the evacuation system. The viewer will see the whole way of saving lives, will be directly in the vortex of events and will understand how many people are involved in the process of saving one person.

7.2

Hotsunlight

Aug 11, 2021

Lugansk region, May 2014. The Novozhilov family, by chance, finds itself in the thick of events in Lugansk. Vlad Novozhilov is a former participant in the war in Afghanistan. He knows firsthand what war is. Having seen enough of the horrors of war in his time, in principle he does not even want to touch a weapon. In a situation, he sees only one way out - to leave the country. But you can't run away from the war, the border is already closed. To save his family, he will have to make difficult moral choices.

8.0

20 Days in Mariupol

Jul 14, 2023

As the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war's atrocities.

7.7

We Will Not Fade Away

Nov 3, 2023

For five teenagers living in the conflict-ridden Donbas region of Ukraine, a Himalayan expedition provides a brief escape from reality. A portrait of a generation that, in spite of everything, is able to recognise and celebrate the fragile beauty of life.

0.0

Eastern Front

Apr 13, 2023

On February 24, 2022, Yevhen, together with his friends, volunteered to join the first aid squad on the front line. They provided life-saving support and evacuation of the wounded. This film reveals the experiences of these young men for six months full of drama, despair, fear, hatred, bitterness, love, and, most importantly, faith in victory.

0.0

Immelmann Turn

Apr 18, 2022

After the downing of the Ukrainian plane, the crew members find themselves in the occupied territory of Donbas and are forced to get out of there alone, for which they will have to turn the "double Immelmann" with their lives. The mother of one of the crew members, who is trying to help her son escape from captivity.

7.0

Russians at War

Sep 5, 2024

Anastasia Trofimova, a Russian-Canadian filmmaker, gains unprecedented access to follow a Russian Army battalion in Ukraine. Without any official clearance or permits, she earns the trust of foot soldiers and embeds herself over the span of a year with one battalion as it makes its way across Eastern Ukraine. What she discovers is far from the propaganda and labels pushed by the East or West: an army in disarray, soldiers disillusioned and often struggling to understand what they are fighting for.

7.7

Stay Online

Mar 28, 2024

Katia, a volunteer from Kyiv fighting against the invasion of Ukraine, uses a laptop donated to the resistance and comes into contact with the young son of the computer’s original owner, who is desperately in search of his missing parents. Her attempts to help the child will see her risk all she holds dear.

6.5

King Lear: How We Looked for Love During the War

May 3, 2023

Due to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, tens of thousands of Ukrainians, fleeing the war, found refuge in Uzhhorod in western Ukraine. The local director decides to attract non-professional actors -displaced people - in bringing his dream into life - to stage the King Lear play. The theatrical performance helps them find themselves and their purpose in a new world where there is war, and the director finds an answer to the eternal question of what love is and why this world should not perish.

5.5

Heartbeat

May 10, 1987

A surrealistic journey into the experiences and reflections of a documentary filmmaker as he evaluates the people and places that have made up his life. Alternatively, a 65 minute feature made up of songs from Don Johnson's record of the same name.

Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud Trailers