Michael Putzel

American filmmaker killed in Ukraine

Posted by Michael Putzel • March 21, 2022

Brent Renaud, an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work took him all over the world, was killed March 13, 2022, when Russian forces fired on his car at a checkpoint outside the capital city of Kyiv in the opening days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He was the first foreign journalist killed reporting the war that has devastated Ukrainian cities.

In a personal letter to the Renaud family, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote: “A talented and brave journalist, Brent lost his life while documenting human tragedy, devastation and suffering of the millions of Ukrainians…May Brent’s life, service and sacrifice inspire generations of people all around the world to stand up in fight for the forces of light against forces of darkness.”

Renaud, 50, who grew up in Little Rock, Ark., had been working for more than a year on a film about refugees and migrants fleeing violence. He was shot heading toward a bridge where he learned Ukrainians were trying to escape from Russian air and artillery attacks.

Juan Arredondo, a video journalist traveling with Renaud, told The Associated Press: “We crossed the first bridge in Irpin (and) were going to film other refugees leaving. We got into a car; somebody offered to take us to the other bridge; we crossed the checkpoint, and they started shooting at us.” Arredondo, a native of Columbia, who was severely wounded in the attack, underwent several surgeries and was awaiting doctors’ clearance to be evacuated to the United States. Kyiv Police Chief Andrey Nebitov said at the scene, “Brent Renaud paid with his life for trying to highlight the aggressor’s ingenuity, cruelty and ruthlessness.”

After traveling to Ukraine to bring his brother home, Craig Renaud said, “I’m convinced that Brent and Juan were targeted as journalists, and Brent was ruthlessly murdered.”

Brent Renaud and Arredondo met when both won coveted Nieman Fellowships for journalists to spend a year at Harvard auditing classes, participating in Nieman events and collaborating with other fellows. Brent helped Arredondo, a professional still photographer from Colombia, learn videography to capture his subjects in motion.

From his hospital bed in Lviv, Arredondo told Brent’s mother in Little Rock, “Brent was professionally demanding, but as a friend, he was kind and encouraging, and he pushed me to become a better professional.” He also recalled that they met in 2018, when Brent “shows up at my apartment one night and says, ‘I lost my keys. Can I crash with you? And by the way, I have my dog, Chai, with me.’

It was classic Brent, and his family said he always had Chai with him when he could. He rescued the dog from Conway Animal Welfare and K-9 Camp Laughlin.

Brent, with his younger brother Craig, co-founded Renaud Brothers, a small film company that won many national and international awards for their documentaries about human suffering around the world. They apprenticed with Jon Alpert, a legendary documentary filmmaker in New York.

The brothers also co-founded 501 Films, the Little Rock Film Festival and the Arkansas Motion Picture Institute. They made films for HBO, NBC, Discovery, PBS, The New York Times, VICE News and others. “Last Chance High,” an eight-part series for VICE Media, told the story of the difficult students at Moses Montefiore Academy, most of whom had been expelled from any other school for aggressive behavior. They were among the most at-risk youth on Chicago’s violent-prone West Side, and the film portrayed them as they were and sought the sources of their troubles. The film won a Peabody Award that, with the duPont-Columbia Award, is considered the highest tribute for excellence in documentary filmmaking.

Through Alpert, the brothers formed a lasting bond with another young reporter, Christof Putzel, who frequently was the on-film face and voice of their projects exploring the lives of the least fortunate. Together they won a duPont-Columbia Award for “Arming the Cartels,” a cross-border exposé of how lax U.S. gun laws enable the sale and smuggling of U.S. weapons to Mexican drug cartels in which innocents often get caught in the crossfire.

Putzel accompanied Craig Renaud to Ukraine to recover Brent’s body and stayed behind to look after Arredondo in hopes he could be evacuated soon.

When Putzel learned of his close friend’s death, he told CNN, “Renaud was the best war journalist I think ever existed. Brent had this ability to go anywhere, get any story, listen and communicate what was happening to people who wouldn’t otherwise see it. His death is a devastating loss to journalism today.” He explained in an interview with GBH Boston: “Brent had courage like nobody I’ve ever seen, yet at the same time had this heart to go in where he knew he was needed, and he was so incredibly careful and focused…I don’t know many people who can do that.”

Among other assignments, Renaud covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the devastating 2011 earthquake in Haiti and political turmoil in Egypt and Libya.

Putzel’s wife, the writer  Carolyn Gregoire, offered another key to what she called Renaud’s “strange gift” of being accepted by others as one of their own.

“In the hours since we received the gut-wrenching news of his death,” she wrote in the magazine Tricycle, “I realized that it was because Brent had virtually no ego. Because of this, he was permeable. Absent of the obsessive self-focus that preoccupies most of us, most of the time, Brent was free to literally become the other. The depth of his empathy allowed him to become a shape-shifter and a border-crosser. One who sees in the dark and walks between worlds. He could journey a thousand miles in someone else’s shoes, whether that person was a refugee, a terrorist, a heroin addict, a murderer, or a child soldier.”

Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of the Nieman Foundation, said: “Brent’s filmmaking was exceptional, and what made it so was not just his abundant skill but a kindness and deep humanity he brought to his work. He told us that what he sought in his journalism was ‘thoughtful stories about disenfranchised people,’ and he lived up to that credo every day. His death is a devastating loss.”

Brent Anthony Renaud was born on Oct. 2, 1971, in Memphis, and grew up in Little Rock, Ark., where he graduated from Hall High School.  His father, Louis, was a salesman, and his mother, Georgann Freasier, a social worker.

Renaud received his undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and a master’s degree from Columbia University Teacher’s College. While in New York in the late 1990s, he began working with Alpert at the Downtown Community Television Center that produces documentaries and teaches filmmaking. Craig, three years younger than Brent, was an anthropologist living with an indigenous tribe in Costa Rica when he wished he had a camera. He went to visit his big brother, who “had fallen in love with documentary film and was interning with Alpert. He moved into Brent’s apartment, “sleeping on a lawn chair until it broke. Then I moved to the couch.” They both went to work for Alpert and, after 9/11, began traveling to conflict zones, “not chasing the adrenaline rush,” Craig said, “but always driven by characters people who did not have a voice and found themselves in extreme situations.”

Brent was a slim, low-key man with a wry smile, passionate about his work but also devoted to his family. He became a father-figure to his two nephews when their father died, taking them on college tours, paying for their summer programs, attending their sports games and school graduations, even inviting them on filming trips.

“Brent used to say: ‘Everyone has to have at least one cool uncle and one creepy uncle,” said Taylor Adams, a Navy helicopter pilot who recently returned from a deployment. “So, naturally, he tried to stake his claim as creepy uncle by sending us pictures of his face much too close to the camera with his hair resembling Einstein’s. But he couldn’t ever shake the fact that he was truly cool, caring, loving, and devoted. On off-road trucking trips, he let his nephews sit in the front seat when we weren’t old enough yet (and telling us not to let Mom know)…There will always be a hole in my heart.”

Nephew Peyton Adams, now enrolled in the Navy Rescue Swimmers School, emailed that when he accompanied his uncle on a film trip to the mountains of Peru, Renaud stole a pair of his socks to use as gloves after insisting it wouldn’t be very cold on the trip.

“Brent was funny, generous, curious, playful and humble, with a heart as big as his passions,” said Renaud’s sister, Michele Renaud Purifoy, who teaches at the Anthony School in Little Rock. “He had an innate ability to communicate with anyone and everyone. Although a man of few words, he would open his heart and mind to help others.” Craig and Mami Renaud remember Brent as an incredible uncle to their son Tai. “Their bond was special; he would do anything for Tai,” Craig added. “Brent will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the best documentary filmmakers to ever pick up a camera. But I’ll remember him most as my brother and best friend. I will miss him terribly.”

Renaud also had a soft spot for animals, especially Chai, a constant companion when Renaud was hiking, camping or working on his vintage motorcycles.

To unwind, Renaud enjoyed seeing live bands at the funky White Water Tavern in Little Rock. He caught a show there the night before he left on his last trip.

Renaud is survived by his parents Georgann Freasier, Louis Renaud; brother Craig Renaud, sister Michele Renaud Purifoy, and nephews Taiyo Renaud, Taylor Adams and Peyton Adams.

Visitation will be held between 5pm – 7pm, Friday, March 25th, 2022 in The Great Hall Gym at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, 4823 Woodlawn Drive, Little Rock.

Funeral service will be held at 1pm, Saturday, March 26th, 2022 in The Sanctuary at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to The Brent Renaud Journalism Foundation: 360 N. Ridge Road, Little Rock, AR 72207

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Obituary by Ann Blackman and Michael Putzel, with the assistance of the Renaud Family