OCTOBER 2, 1971 — MARCH 13, 2022
50 YEARS, JOURNALIST, FILMMAKER
Brent Renaud had travelled the world documenting the ongoing moral quandaries of the people. He was fatally shot whilst on a filming mission in Ukraine. He was targeted by the Russian military. Shot in the neck from their assault rifles, he passed away on March 13, in Irpin. Brent was the first foreign journalist killed during the 2022 war in Ukraine.
For over 15 years, Brent had been telling stories, showing faces of those who suffered from the global conflicts and catastrophes. His documentaries, through unobscured portraits, delved into numerous social issues. He masterfully married compassion with reporting. Migration under desperate circumstances was his regular subject. He spent a year filming a multipart series «Tipping Point» focused on the refugee experience from ten countries, including Ukraine. He witnessed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti, political uprising in Egypt and Libya, the battle of Mosul, extremism in Africa, cartel violence in Mexico, and youth refugee crisis in Central America.
Born on October 2, 1971 in Memphis, a city in the south of the US, raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. His father was a salesman, his mother — a social worker. Brent earned his master’s degree in sociology from Columbia University in the late 1990s. While in New York, he started working at Downtown Community Television Center, an organization producing documentaries and teaching film production. This was the start of his career.
Brent used an energy-saving approach in his work. It would let the videographer stay mobile, flexible and keep relatively easy access to the subject he was filming. He usually dedicated over a year to one issue of interest. He took his time. He did not resort to hiring a whole crew, or using a whole lot of equipment that only served as a distraction — tripods, lighting rigs. It was imperative for him to be as close as possible, to be able to see things from the object’s vantage point. Brent was enigmatic and insightful. Some said that the look on his face often made people think he knew something the others did not. His friends claimed that Brent had a unique and quite mystical
gift. Like a chameleon, he could fit in with any crowd — any part of the world, any group of people.
He could, with no trouble at all, resemble the locals. He could access through any checkpoint without a shade of suspicion from the guards strapped with AK-47s. Together with his brother Craig, he founded a small film production company Renaud Brothers. They collected numerous awards for documentaries covering human struggles around the globe. The Renaud brothers made documentaries for HBO, NBC, Discovery, PBS, The New York Times, VICE News. An 8-episode series «Last Chance High» won a Peabody award, the most prestigious award a documentary director can receive. The film was also highly praised by the critics of Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Forbes, USA Today, New York Times, Filmmaker Magazine, Los Angeles Times and American Cinematographer.
Brent devoted himself to examining the lives of the least fortunate. His documentary «Off to War» (2005) tells a story of the US National Guard servicemen from Arkansas deployed in Iraq. In his picture «Between Borders: American Migrant Crisis» (2015), he followed Honduras teenagers who attempted to travel on foot to the US. In his «Shelter» (2016), Brent, over the course of a year, depicts the lives of young inhabitants of New Orleans inside the shelter for homeless teens and those affected by human trafficking. Footage from «Libya on the brink», an episode of «Vice», aired live in 2016; it is a story of the US bombing the ISIS training facility. In Brent’s opinion, one should always strive for the heart of the story. He did his best to come as close as possible, not to highlight the conflict, but the people and their trials.
Brent had been to basically every war zone. Threatened with guns, rusty cells, iron bars, interrogation rooms — he had seen it all. He had been incarcerated. He had dealt with the thug attacks in Cairo, he was under fire from the soldiers in Cambodia. He had heard people being tortured. But the only thing he cared for and went far and beyond for was the story. Brent was 50. He favored black jeans and plain T-shirts. He often wore a leather jacket and carried
a shoulder bag stuffed with notes and cameras. He lived in New York, a tidy one-bedroom apartment on the eleventh floor. He had a playful side few people ever saw: he liked to dance on the balcony. He had a longtime girlfriend, Veronica, who he desired to have kids with one day. A pit-bull terrier mutt named Chai was his beloved dog. They were pretty much inseparable. Brent had a collection of vintage motorcycles that he loved to work on as much as he loved riding them.
Ukraine was Brent’s last assignment. All his life, the journalist reported the stories that most of the people turned a blind eye to; he died reporting a story that the whole world watched unfold.
