Brent Renaud

Brent Renaud
Brent Anthony Renaud (October 2, 1971 – March 13, 2022) was an American journalist, documentary filmmaker, and photojournalist. Renaud worked with his brother Craig to produce films for outlets such as HBO and Vice News, and was a former contributor to The New York Times. According to Ukrainian officials, he was killed on March 13, 2022, by Russian soldiers while covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Irpin city near Kyiv.
Life and career
Renaud was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. His mother, Georgann Freasier, was a social worker, and his father, Louis Renaud, was a salesman. Renaud earned his bachelor's degree in English literature from Southern Methodist University and a master's degree in sociology from Columbia University.
He lived and worked in Little Rock and New York City. In collaboration with his brother Craig, Brent Renaud produced a series of films and television programs, mostly focusing on humanistic stories from the world's hot spots. From 2004 to 2005, the Renaud brothers filmed the Discovery Channel series Off to War, which covered Arkansas reservists in the Iraqi conflict and their families.
The brothers also covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the political crises in Egypt and Libya, conflicts in Africa, Mexican drug war, and the refugee crisis in Central America. They won several awards in television and journalism, including two DuPont-Columbia Awards and a Peabody Award in 2015 for their video series "Last Chance High." The brothers directed the documentary Meth Storm, released in 2017 by HBO Documentary Films. In 2019, Renaud was appointed a visiting professor at the University of Arkansas. Renaud was a 2019 Nieman Fellow. Together with his brother, he was a grantee of the Pulitzer Center. They also founded the Little Rock Film Festival. Co-producer for the documentary series Life of Crime: 1984-2020, which was also nominated for a Peabody Award in 2021.
Death
According to Ukrainian officials, Renaud was shot and killed by Russian soldiers in Irpin, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, while covering the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Two other journalists were injured and taken to a hospital. One of them later said in a video published by an Italian journalist on Twitter that the journalists were filming civilians evacuating over one of the bridges in Irpin when they were targeted by soldiers who shot Renaud in the neck. It was the first reported death of a foreign journalist in the 2022 war in Ukraine.
Filmography
Warrior Champions: From Baghdad to Beijing, 2009 documentary film directed by Brent and Craig Renaud
Off to War (series) (2004)
Dope Sick Love (2005) documentary film; directed by Felicia Conte, Brent Renaud, and Craig Renaud
Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later (2007) documentary film
Last Chance High (2015; series)
Meth Storm (2017)
Shelter (2018) documentary film
References
External links
Brent Renaud's Appearances on Democracy Now!
Brent Renaud, First U.S. Journalist Killed in Ukraine War, Honored at New NYC Documentary Cinema, Democracy Now!
1971 births
2022 deaths
American male journalists
Assassinated American journalists
American photojournalists
20th-century American journalists
21st-century American journalists
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
20th-century American photographers
21st-century American photographers
American documentary film directors
Journalists from Arkansas
Journalists from Tennessee
Writers from Nashville, Tennessee
Writers from Little Rock, Arkansas
Nieman Fellows
Peabody Award winners
University of Arkansas faculty
Southern Methodist University alumni
Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Journalists killed while covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Civilians killed in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Deaths by firearm in Ukraine