October 17, 2025 • 21 mins
Today’s episode of THE SOUNDS OF FILM features Tom Needham’s interview with director Craig Renaud and producer Juan Arredondo discussing the powerful HBO Original documentary short, ARMED ONLY WITH A CAMERA: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BRENT RENAUD. The film tells the remarkable and heartbreaking story of filmmaker and journalist Brent Renaud, who was killed by Russian soldiers while covering the war in Ukraine—becoming the first American journalist to die in the conflict.
The vérité documentary follows Craig Renaud as he recovers his brother’s body and final footage from Ukraine, weaving together decades of the brothers’ reporting from global conflict zones including Iraq, Haiti, Somalia, and Central America. The result is a moving testament to Brent’s fearless commitment to truth and his empathy for those caught in the chaos of war. Produced by Juan Arredondo and executive produced by HBO Documentary Films and DCTV, Armed Only With a Camera is both a deeply personal story and a tribute to journalists who risk their lives to show the human cost of violence. The documentary premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award in the Documentary Short category, and debuts Tuesday, October 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and streams on Max.
About The Sounds of Film
The Sounds of Film is the nation’s longest-running film and music-themed radio show, broadcasting for over three decades. Hosted by Tom Needham, the program offers in-depth interviews with leading directors, composers, and thought leaders from around the world. Past guests have included Laurie Anderson, Ernest Dickerson, Hal Hartley, Barbara Kopple, Chuck D and Howard Shore.
Listeners can hear The Sounds of Film on all major podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio. The show continues to explore the intersection of art, politics, and social justice through conversations with today’s most compelling filmmakers and musicians.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, this is Tom Needham and you are listening to the sounds of
film. Today we're speaking with
director Craig Reynold and producer Juan Arredondo about
the HBO documentary short Armed Only with a Camera, The Life and
Death of Brent Reynold. The powerful film chronicles the
extraordinary career and tragic death of film maker Brent
(00:21):
Reynold, the first American journalist killed covering the
war in Ukraine, and serves as a moving tribute to journalists
who risked their lives in pursuit of truth.
Thanks guys for joining us on The Sounds of Film.
Thank you so much for having us.Thank you so much for having us.
Yeah, this is a powerful film. First off, I'm very sorry for
(00:42):
your loss. This must have been a very tough
film to make. Thank you.
Thank you so much. For saying that, yeah.
Well, tell me a little bit aboutyour decision to make this
movie. Well, it happened in an instant,
you know it Brent was was killedwhen when Brent and Juan came
(01:05):
under attack by by Russian soldiers.
And at that moment, you know, the project we had been making
turned into a project where we were making a film about Brent.
And, and because we were part ofthat story then then it became a
very personal difficult film to make.
But, you know, we felt like thisis something Brent would have
(01:27):
wanted us to do. You know, Brent and I'd had many
conversations over our 20 plus years of covering conflicts
about the what ifs, You know, what if one of us were killed or
what if one of us were kidnappedor injured or detained?
And we always talked about, you know, don't leave each other
behind and keep filming. And so, and the moment that I
found out that Brent had been killed, that was just something
(01:50):
that felt like the right thing to do was to pick up a camera
and, and keep telling the story that Brent had started in
Ukraine and to to pay tribute tohim and, and also pay tribute to
all the journalists that do thiswork and, and that have lost
their lives doing it. Can you just give us a little
summary of some of the things that Brent has done in his life?
(02:12):
He had a remarkable career. Yeah, We've covered.
Brent has, you know, since 9:11.I would say that Brent has
covered pretty much every major conflict that has taken place
since 9:11. You know, and that includes an
entire year embedded with the Arkansas National Guard in Iraq.
That includes Afghanistan, Mosul, Libya, Somalia, Haiti,
(02:37):
Mexico, Egypt during the Arab Spring, many, many places.
You know, he's he's never stopped doing this work since he
first picked up the cameras. So in 25 years, he's pretty much
covered most conflicts and in addition to that made a lot of
people know about that work because of this film now.
(02:59):
But we've also done a lot of films for HBO and and other
networks where we have covered issues in the United States.
You know, we've done films in high schools in the United
States and we've done stories about addiction in the United
States. So, so both domestic and abroad,
Brent, Brent has always been very intense in his work and
(03:20):
very focused in. So for those that haven't seen
the film yet, can the two of youshare a little bit about what
was so special in terms of his skills as a filmmaker?
Brett was the the most compassionate and the most.
Hard work yes so well, but I could say is that you know when
I worked with him and I worked for him the last couple of
years, I met him as a as an image fellow and at Harvard and
(03:43):
one of those things that struck me was how good of a storyteller
he was. But then later when I started
working with him, it was his compassionate towards the people
that we interview how focused hewas on telling their story on
getting to know them very well so sort of this type of of of
(04:04):
documentary filmmaking or journalism.
It takes a long, long time to doit.
It requires multiple times visiting and getting to know
their subjects. So by the time that Brent would
show up, it felt like almost having a conversation with
someone that they already knew very long time.
So that gave very good access tointimate moments, but also for
(04:28):
him to be able to find those moments where show their
humanity and even despite of thesituations that he often cover.
So that's how I remember when I worked with him.
What was the original film in Ukraine meant to be?
So it was, it was a it was a series on refugees around the
world. We were looking at the state of
(04:51):
refugees in different countries.We had first started in the
middle in Central America with the massive migration of people
coming through Central America into the US So visited Greece to
one of the largest refugee camps.
And by the time we were planningour third trip is when the
invasion of Russia happened in Ukraine in February.
(05:13):
Of. 2022 And so that's when we, you know, decided that it was
important to cover that by the time we got there, which was
already a week into the into theconflict, we had seen already
the numbers swell. It was already 2 million
refugees, Ukrainians fleeing their country and seeking asylum
(05:34):
into Poland. So that's what drove us to, to,
to wanted to tell that story. Can you give me a little insight
into why here in America, unlessyou're watching a documentary
like this, we just don't see a lot of images on the news of
what's going on in Ukraine, and very often in other wars too,
(05:55):
depending on the the war that we're talking about.
It's frustrating sometimes to really find out exactly what's
going on. Why is it like that?
I don't, I, I, I don't know if Inecessarily think that that's
our case. I think, I think we, we do show,
maybe we don't show the, the crudeness of, of, of war.
(06:17):
Sometimes it gets lost on the headlines.
I think these days we're findingourselves bombarded with a lot
of information. But I think at the beginning or
at least of the start of the warin Ukraine, we did see some of
those initial images of how indiscriminate was the bombing.
It was, you know, Russians claimed that the bombing was
(06:38):
directed to towards the government or the military
targets, but it wasn't. You know, a lot of we, when we
were there, we documented some of those bombings hitting
civilians homes. And I think maybe the, the news
outlets and, and I, I don't knowwhat their programming looks
like, but that's the reason why we invest so much time in doing
(06:59):
documentary specifically. We believe this is a form that
can help us really dive deep into these communities or into
these conflict areas and be ableto tell the story more in
length. Sometimes if you only look at
the headlines, it can go very quickly and almost every week
there's a different story. But when we started this, we
(07:20):
didn't think that the conflict, we assumed the conflict was
going to end soon. And we're already into 3 1/2
years of that and still being extended.
And, and so I don't, I can't speak for the networks why they
sometimes don't focus on this conflict.
But I I believe there are many efforts from film makers and
(07:40):
independent journalists who are continue to visit Ukraine, go
back to Ukraine and are living in Ukraine and are telling those
stories. Well, Craig's story is amazing
and and the work that you all dois incredible.
This film concentrates on Craig and in the film we get to see
(08:01):
the recovery of his body and I, I just wanted to ask you, why
was that an important element toinclude in this documentary?
Well, Brett, it yeah, Brett, Brett and I had conversations
about this. And I just, you know, on my way
to get my brother out of Ukraine, I had a conversation
(08:21):
with my family, you know, and I was dreading this moment of, of
going in to see my brother's body.
I, I knew it was not going to bepretty 'cause he had been shot
in the neck. And I asked my family if they
were comfortable with me filming.
You know, we, we even talked about Emmett Till's family and,
and his grandmother's decision to, to have an open casket and
(08:44):
show his body. And, you know, we just felt like
you can't sanitize the violence and horrific things that
happened to people in war. And, and Brent and I covered 20
years of conflicts and, and filmed these things.
Why should it be any different when my brother was killed?
And, and so I talked to my family about it and we made the
(09:04):
decision that I would film it. And, and we felt that that was
important to put out there, thatpeople needed to see what
happened to him and how he was targeted as a journalist.
And, and, you know, Brent was the first American killed in
Ukraine at the beginning of thatconflict.
But since he's was killed, you know, this, this situation of
(09:25):
journalists being targeted and, and killed to silence the truth
has become worse and worse. There's been over 100
journalists killed every year since Brent's been gone.
The Committee to Protect Journalists just put out a
statement of that, that it's theworst that it's ever been since
they've been in existence. And so, you know, not just
paying tribute to Brent, I felt like we had to, to, to turn our
(09:48):
cameras to this issue so people see how serious of a problem
this is. It's very unusual in life for
brothers to work on anything together unless there's a family
business or something like that,and the work that the two of you
did is really special. Can you tell us a little bit
about your relationship and why you decided decided to work
together in this field? Yeah, I mean, from the moment I
(10:13):
was born, you know, my brother has been there.
He's he's 2 1/2 years older thanme.
You know, a lot of people mistake us as twins because I
think our personalities have become so similar.
Just our entire lives were, werespent together.
And even at a young age, you know, at 10 years old, my
brother had his first camera that my dad had given to him.
(10:35):
And, and we always had cameras around.
My brother listened to the BBC Radio at night and we always,
you know, had in our mind that we wanted to travel the world.
And then we we stumbled upon a film by John Alpert.
It was a very well known documentary filmmaker and, and
Brent was inspired by his work and we ended up interning for
(10:55):
him and then editing for him formany, many years and started
filming with him. And then 9/11 happened and that
took us overseas to, to start covering conflicts.
But the second my brother told me that he wanted to be a
documentary filmmaker, I just, Iwanted to follow my old brother
and, and work closely with him. And and that's what we did for
(11:17):
25 years until he was killed. Can you tell me a little bit
about what kind of precautions Ajournalist needs to take when
they're going into war, and why it's been increasingly more
dangerous recently? Yeah, it's, it's always been
something that is, you know, that we have to take very
(11:37):
seriously. You know, we, we have never been
cavalier about it. We always take a lot of
precautions. You know, a lot of times,
especially as independence, you are going into war zones without
as much financial support as youwould like to have.
And, and so we we try to plan itout where we're not cutting
corners, but it is harder as an independence a lot of times to
(11:59):
cover conflicts. So, you know, it's always a
calculated risk. I mean, we're always going to
put ourselves in very risky situations, but we always tried
to do it with really thinking itthrough.
And, you know, we have all survived many situations that we
probably should not have survived.
And Brent managed to get through25 years of being on many, many
(12:22):
front lines and surviving. But it's just one, one
miscalculation can cost you yourlife.
And that's what happened with Brent.
You know, I don't, I don't thinkI took it as seriously as I
should have when the Ukraine conflict broke out.
You know, we, we thought Brent was going to go in and, and find
a family of refugees to follow out of Ukraine to show what was
(12:44):
going on in that conflict. And, you know, each day he kept
pushing a little further in withJuan to get closer to where
people were fleeing. And you know, they found
themselves at the wrong place atthe wrong time where the capital
had been surrounded by Russian soldiers and and they were
targeted and ambushed. And that's all it takes is 1
(13:04):
mistake for for one of us to lose our lives.
Have the two of you found yourself in dangerous positions
in the past before this? Oh, yes, many, many times.
And you'll see that in this film.
You know, part of this film is, is looking back over 25 years of
work in conflict zones and you'll see ambushes and, and
(13:28):
other very close calls. So, yeah, I've, I've, I've lost
count of how many times that we have have been in direct
conflict ourselves and found ourselves barely surviving.
And and you know, that goes for one and, and everybody that that
does this work, I'm sure has hadvery similar situations.
And do you feel more compelled to continue this work or do you
(13:50):
have any hesitation? Now, well, I've been inspired by
Juan. I mean, I'd love for Juan to
answer this question because I watched him go through 13
surgeries recovering from from his wounds and then immediately
the second that he could walk was right back out in the field
with his camera working again. Juan, can you tell us about
that? Sure, sure.
So I, I was injured so I was shot in, in my in the back and
(14:15):
that bullet I still had still lunge on my leg on my right leg.
So I had to, I went under go 13 surgeries.
I think that the most difficult one was trying to reverse the
colostomy. I had a colostomy back for
almost 10 months and also my leg.
(14:36):
You know, the neurologist said that it takes months, if not
years for nerves to regenerate. So right now, I guess the first
year was a little difficult. The first couple months after
coming back from Ukraine, I wasn't able to walk properly.
I wouldn't feel my leg. And then with rehabilitate with
(14:57):
their physical therapy, I was able to get back the the
sensation of, of my leg and being able to walk.
But I think it was a four monthsinto the recovery that I went
back into the field. So I went to do a story for New
York Times Magazine and I felt it was important to do work
(15:18):
again so I can find the purpose again, to find myself useful and
to be able to continue to tell stories of people on the
margins. And so finally, my last surgery
was in December of 2022. And ever since that, I fully
recover. My leg sometimes acts up, but
(15:41):
that's, that's OK. It's, it's part of the process
of recovering. And that, you know, that
experience has not persuaded me in any way to stop doing what I
do. I think I actually believe for
me that what we do matters more now than ever, especially what
is happening to the status of journalism, journalism around
(16:02):
the world. So I think it's important that
we continue to do the work. That's incredible.
I'm so glad that you're doing better, the two of you, after
after covering all these different conflicts around the
world, have you come to any kindof personal conclusions in terms
about war in in countries in in conflict that you'd like to
(16:24):
share from your experience? I mean, it's a pretty simple
conclusion that war is is horrible and terrible.
And I've, in my 25 years of covering war, I've never seen
anything positive come out of it.
I've, I've seen, you know, horrific outcomes from it and
places all over the world. You know, and we were always
(16:47):
focused not on trying to get to the front lines to show people
or soldiers shooting at each other.
Our focus was always trying to get to the people that were
caught in the middle of these conflicts.
And I think that is my take awayis that when these wars happen,
the people that suffer the most are the civilians on the ground
and and children on the ground, you know, and and you know,
(17:09):
that's another thing that just keeps us going back to do this
work. I mean, once you see that, you
just feel like you want to try to do anything you possibly can
to bring attention to it so thatwe stop repeating these these
wars over and over again that that cause so much suffering.
Yeah. And Juan, do you want to add
anything to that? Yeah, yeah.
(17:31):
To, to, to Craig's point, I think one of the reasons that
we, we go to these places is because people can go to the
wars. And so it's our job to, and the
reason we're there is so we can show people the horrors of wars
so it doesn't happen. And if people realize what goes
on in these in these areas, in these conflicts and the toll
(17:52):
that war has on people, they were definitely not empower
leaders or politicians to make those decisions.
And what's happening now is we're seeing more and more
leaders and authoritarian governments and governments
attacking journalists because exactly that they don't want
those truth to be shown. So I think that's why it's
(18:14):
important for us to continue to show this.
I by no means will be naive to think that we will ever stop
war, but we are there because wewant people to see what is
happening. Hopefully that is a call to
action in whatever shape or form, whether to help, assist or
to go out and. Vote or or.
(18:34):
Or make decisions that will helpand stop that from happening.
So would you say in different conflicts that your position is
just anti war and and for peopleor do you sometimes take a
position on the politics of a war?
100% anti war. Anti war, yeah.
(18:56):
And if if anything, this film isthat is, is to show that we that
Brent was anti war, that he was on the side of those people who
were suffering and the victims of of of those horrors of war.
And and I think, you know, I'd stand by that as well.
That's our creed. We are anti war.
Tell me about Brent. What do you hope people
(19:16):
remember? I hope people that can see his
compassion, you know, he, you will see in the film, it was
revealed by my brother that, youknow, late in life, he was, he
was diagnosed with, with autism.And I think Brent had a, a
quietness and an intensity and asweetness and a purity to him
(19:36):
that I've, I've never seen and this work.
And, and so I just, I'm, I'm happy that we were able to show
the world who he was and, and how pure he was in his approach
of just trying to help people and, and trying to use his
camera to bring attention to conflicts around the world.
And, and I hope Brent's story can be a larger tribute to all
(19:58):
fallen journalists that risked their lives to to try to.
To raise awareness to to what takes place in conflicts.
Yeah, I would, I would, I would second that.
And also to show, I mean, this is also a tribute not only to
Brent's legacy but also to the fallen journalists that we have
seen an increased attack on journalists.
(20:19):
The year that we were in Ukrainewas around 100 journalists
killed around the world, but only in the last couple of and
ever after they the Gaza conflict started, Israel Gaza
conflict started is about 200, more than 230 journalists that
have been killed. So this is a tribute to those
fallen heroes because that's, you know, they're risking their
(20:41):
lives to tell those stories and realities.
Well, Craig and Juan, I want to thank you so much for doing all
that you do and this film armed only with a camera.
The Life and Death of Brent Rinald is on HBO.
I want to highly recommend it. And the work that you're doing
is so important. We need more people like you.
(21:02):
Thank you so much. Thank you.
We really appreciate your time. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for your time.
Hi, this is Tom Needham and you are listening to the sounds of
film. Today we're speaking with
director Craig Reynold and producer Juan Arredondo about
the HBO documentary short Armed Only with a Camera, The Life and
Death of Brent Reynold. The powerful film chronicles the
extraordinary career and tragic death of film maker Brent
(00:21):
Reynold, the first American journalist killed covering the
war in Ukraine, and serves as a moving tribute to journalists
who risked their lives in pursuit of truth.
Thanks guys for joining us on The Sounds of Film.
Thank you so much for having us.Thank you so much for having us.
Yeah, this is a powerful film. First off, I'm very sorry for
(00:42):
your loss. This must have been a very tough
film to make. Thank you.
Thank you so much. For saying that, yeah.
Well, tell me a little bit aboutyour decision to make this
movie. Well, it happened in an instant,
you know it Brent was was killedwhen when Brent and Juan came
(01:05):
under attack by by Russian soldiers.
And at that moment, you know, the project we had been making
turned into a project where we were making a film about Brent.
And, and because we were part ofthat story then then it became a
very personal difficult film to make.
But, you know, we felt like thisis something Brent would have
(01:27):
wanted us to do. You know, Brent and I'd had many
conversations over our 20 plus years of covering conflicts
about the what ifs, You know, what if one of us were killed or
what if one of us were kidnappedor injured or detained?
And we always talked about, you know, don't leave each other
behind and keep filming. And so, and the moment that I
found out that Brent had been killed, that was just something
(01:50):
that felt like the right thing to do was to pick up a camera
and, and keep telling the story that Brent had started in
Ukraine and to to pay tribute tohim and, and also pay tribute to
all the journalists that do thiswork and, and that have lost
their lives doing it. Can you just give us a little
summary of some of the things that Brent has done in his life?
(02:12):
He had a remarkable career. Yeah, We've covered.
Brent has, you know, since 9:11.I would say that Brent has
covered pretty much every major conflict that has taken place
since 9:11. You know, and that includes an
entire year embedded with the Arkansas National Guard in Iraq.
That includes Afghanistan, Mosul, Libya, Somalia, Haiti,
(02:37):
Mexico, Egypt during the Arab Spring, many, many places.
You know, he's he's never stopped doing this work since he
first picked up the cameras. So in 25 years, he's pretty much
covered most conflicts and in addition to that made a lot of
people know about that work because of this film now.
(02:59):
But we've also done a lot of films for HBO and and other
networks where we have covered issues in the United States.
You know, we've done films in high schools in the United
States and we've done stories about addiction in the United
States. So, so both domestic and abroad,
Brent, Brent has always been very intense in his work and
(03:20):
very focused in. So for those that haven't seen
the film yet, can the two of youshare a little bit about what
was so special in terms of his skills as a filmmaker?
Brett was the the most compassionate and the most.
Hard work yes so well, but I could say is that you know when
I worked with him and I worked for him the last couple of
years, I met him as a as an image fellow and at Harvard and
(03:43):
one of those things that struck me was how good of a storyteller
he was. But then later when I started
working with him, it was his compassionate towards the people
that we interview how focused hewas on telling their story on
getting to know them very well so sort of this type of of of
(04:04):
documentary filmmaking or journalism.
It takes a long, long time to doit.
It requires multiple times visiting and getting to know
their subjects. So by the time that Brent would
show up, it felt like almost having a conversation with
someone that they already knew very long time.
So that gave very good access tointimate moments, but also for
(04:28):
him to be able to find those moments where show their
humanity and even despite of thesituations that he often cover.
So that's how I remember when I worked with him.
What was the original film in Ukraine meant to be?
So it was, it was a it was a series on refugees around the
world. We were looking at the state of
(04:51):
refugees in different countries.We had first started in the
middle in Central America with the massive migration of people
coming through Central America into the US So visited Greece to
one of the largest refugee camps.
And by the time we were planningour third trip is when the
invasion of Russia happened in Ukraine in February.
(05:13):
Of. 2022 And so that's when we, you know, decided that it was
important to cover that by the time we got there, which was
already a week into the into theconflict, we had seen already
the numbers swell. It was already 2 million
refugees, Ukrainians fleeing their country and seeking asylum
(05:34):
into Poland. So that's what drove us to, to,
to wanted to tell that story. Can you give me a little insight
into why here in America, unlessyou're watching a documentary
like this, we just don't see a lot of images on the news of
what's going on in Ukraine, and very often in other wars too,
(05:55):
depending on the the war that we're talking about.
It's frustrating sometimes to really find out exactly what's
going on. Why is it like that?
I don't, I, I, I don't know if Inecessarily think that that's
our case. I think, I think we, we do show,
maybe we don't show the, the crudeness of, of, of war.
(06:17):
Sometimes it gets lost on the headlines.
I think these days we're findingourselves bombarded with a lot
of information. But I think at the beginning or
at least of the start of the warin Ukraine, we did see some of
those initial images of how indiscriminate was the bombing.
It was, you know, Russians claimed that the bombing was
(06:38):
directed to towards the government or the military
targets, but it wasn't. You know, a lot of we, when we
were there, we documented some of those bombings hitting
civilians homes. And I think maybe the, the news
outlets and, and I, I don't knowwhat their programming looks
like, but that's the reason why we invest so much time in doing
(06:59):
documentary specifically. We believe this is a form that
can help us really dive deep into these communities or into
these conflict areas and be ableto tell the story more in
length. Sometimes if you only look at
the headlines, it can go very quickly and almost every week
there's a different story. But when we started this, we
(07:20):
didn't think that the conflict, we assumed the conflict was
going to end soon. And we're already into 3 1/2
years of that and still being extended.
And, and so I don't, I can't speak for the networks why they
sometimes don't focus on this conflict.
But I I believe there are many efforts from film makers and
(07:40):
independent journalists who are continue to visit Ukraine, go
back to Ukraine and are living in Ukraine and are telling those
stories. Well, Craig's story is amazing
and and the work that you all dois incredible.
This film concentrates on Craig and in the film we get to see
(08:01):
the recovery of his body and I, I just wanted to ask you, why
was that an important element toinclude in this documentary?
Well, Brett, it yeah, Brett, Brett and I had conversations
about this. And I just, you know, on my way
to get my brother out of Ukraine, I had a conversation
(08:21):
with my family, you know, and I was dreading this moment of, of
going in to see my brother's body.
I, I knew it was not going to bepretty 'cause he had been shot
in the neck. And I asked my family if they
were comfortable with me filming.
You know, we, we even talked about Emmett Till's family and,
and his grandmother's decision to, to have an open casket and
(08:44):
show his body. And, you know, we just felt like
you can't sanitize the violence and horrific things that
happened to people in war. And, and Brent and I covered 20
years of conflicts and, and filmed these things.
Why should it be any different when my brother was killed?
And, and so I talked to my family about it and we made the
(09:04):
decision that I would film it. And, and we felt that that was
important to put out there, thatpeople needed to see what
happened to him and how he was targeted as a journalist.
And, and, you know, Brent was the first American killed in
Ukraine at the beginning of thatconflict.
But since he's was killed, you know, this, this situation of
(09:25):
journalists being targeted and, and killed to silence the truth
has become worse and worse. There's been over 100
journalists killed every year since Brent's been gone.
The Committee to Protect Journalists just put out a
statement of that, that it's theworst that it's ever been since
they've been in existence. And so, you know, not just
paying tribute to Brent, I felt like we had to, to, to turn our
(09:48):
cameras to this issue so people see how serious of a problem
this is. It's very unusual in life for
brothers to work on anything together unless there's a family
business or something like that,and the work that the two of you
did is really special. Can you tell us a little bit
about your relationship and why you decided decided to work
together in this field? Yeah, I mean, from the moment I
(10:13):
was born, you know, my brother has been there.
He's he's 2 1/2 years older thanme.
You know, a lot of people mistake us as twins because I
think our personalities have become so similar.
Just our entire lives were, werespent together.
And even at a young age, you know, at 10 years old, my
brother had his first camera that my dad had given to him.
(10:35):
And, and we always had cameras around.
My brother listened to the BBC Radio at night and we always,
you know, had in our mind that we wanted to travel the world.
And then we we stumbled upon a film by John Alpert.
It was a very well known documentary filmmaker and, and
Brent was inspired by his work and we ended up interning for
(10:55):
him and then editing for him formany, many years and started
filming with him. And then 9/11 happened and that
took us overseas to, to start covering conflicts.
But the second my brother told me that he wanted to be a
documentary filmmaker, I just, Iwanted to follow my old brother
and, and work closely with him. And and that's what we did for
(11:17):
25 years until he was killed. Can you tell me a little bit
about what kind of precautions Ajournalist needs to take when
they're going into war, and why it's been increasingly more
dangerous recently? Yeah, it's, it's always been
something that is, you know, that we have to take very
(11:37):
seriously. You know, we, we have never been
cavalier about it. We always take a lot of
precautions. You know, a lot of times,
especially as independence, you are going into war zones without
as much financial support as youwould like to have.
And, and so we we try to plan itout where we're not cutting
corners, but it is harder as an independence a lot of times to
(11:59):
cover conflicts. So, you know, it's always a
calculated risk. I mean, we're always going to
put ourselves in very risky situations, but we always tried
to do it with really thinking itthrough.
And, you know, we have all survived many situations that we
probably should not have survived.
And Brent managed to get through25 years of being on many, many
(12:22):
front lines and surviving. But it's just one, one
miscalculation can cost you yourlife.
And that's what happened with Brent.
You know, I don't, I don't thinkI took it as seriously as I
should have when the Ukraine conflict broke out.
You know, we, we thought Brent was going to go in and, and find
a family of refugees to follow out of Ukraine to show what was
(12:44):
going on in that conflict. And, you know, each day he kept
pushing a little further in withJuan to get closer to where
people were fleeing. And you know, they found
themselves at the wrong place atthe wrong time where the capital
had been surrounded by Russian soldiers and and they were
targeted and ambushed. And that's all it takes is 1
(13:04):
mistake for for one of us to lose our lives.
Have the two of you found yourself in dangerous positions
in the past before this? Oh, yes, many, many times.
And you'll see that in this film.
You know, part of this film is, is looking back over 25 years of
work in conflict zones and you'll see ambushes and, and
(13:28):
other very close calls. So, yeah, I've, I've, I've lost
count of how many times that we have have been in direct
conflict ourselves and found ourselves barely surviving.
And and you know, that goes for one and, and everybody that that
does this work, I'm sure has hadvery similar situations.
And do you feel more compelled to continue this work or do you
(13:50):
have any hesitation? Now, well, I've been inspired by
Juan. I mean, I'd love for Juan to
answer this question because I watched him go through 13
surgeries recovering from from his wounds and then immediately
the second that he could walk was right back out in the field
with his camera working again. Juan, can you tell us about
that? Sure, sure.
So I, I was injured so I was shot in, in my in the back and
(14:15):
that bullet I still had still lunge on my leg on my right leg.
So I had to, I went under go 13 surgeries.
I think that the most difficult one was trying to reverse the
colostomy. I had a colostomy back for
almost 10 months and also my leg.
(14:36):
You know, the neurologist said that it takes months, if not
years for nerves to regenerate. So right now, I guess the first
year was a little difficult. The first couple months after
coming back from Ukraine, I wasn't able to walk properly.
I wouldn't feel my leg. And then with rehabilitate with
(14:57):
their physical therapy, I was able to get back the the
sensation of, of my leg and being able to walk.
But I think it was a four monthsinto the recovery that I went
back into the field. So I went to do a story for New
York Times Magazine and I felt it was important to do work
(15:18):
again so I can find the purpose again, to find myself useful and
to be able to continue to tell stories of people on the
margins. And so finally, my last surgery
was in December of 2022. And ever since that, I fully
recover. My leg sometimes acts up, but
(15:41):
that's, that's OK. It's, it's part of the process
of recovering. And that, you know, that
experience has not persuaded me in any way to stop doing what I
do. I think I actually believe for
me that what we do matters more now than ever, especially what
is happening to the status of journalism, journalism around
(16:02):
the world. So I think it's important that
we continue to do the work. That's incredible.
I'm so glad that you're doing better, the two of you, after
after covering all these different conflicts around the
world, have you come to any kindof personal conclusions in terms
about war in in countries in in conflict that you'd like to
(16:24):
share from your experience? I mean, it's a pretty simple
conclusion that war is is horrible and terrible.
And I've, in my 25 years of covering war, I've never seen
anything positive come out of it.
I've, I've seen, you know, horrific outcomes from it and
places all over the world. You know, and we were always
(16:47):
focused not on trying to get to the front lines to show people
or soldiers shooting at each other.
Our focus was always trying to get to the people that were
caught in the middle of these conflicts.
And I think that is my take awayis that when these wars happen,
the people that suffer the most are the civilians on the ground
and and children on the ground, you know, and and you know,
(17:09):
that's another thing that just keeps us going back to do this
work. I mean, once you see that, you
just feel like you want to try to do anything you possibly can
to bring attention to it so thatwe stop repeating these these
wars over and over again that that cause so much suffering.
Yeah. And Juan, do you want to add
anything to that? Yeah, yeah.
(17:31):
To, to, to Craig's point, I think one of the reasons that
we, we go to these places is because people can go to the
wars. And so it's our job to, and the
reason we're there is so we can show people the horrors of wars
so it doesn't happen. And if people realize what goes
on in these in these areas, in these conflicts and the toll
(17:52):
that war has on people, they were definitely not empower
leaders or politicians to make those decisions.
And what's happening now is we're seeing more and more
leaders and authoritarian governments and governments
attacking journalists because exactly that they don't want
those truth to be shown. So I think that's why it's
(18:14):
important for us to continue to show this.
I by no means will be naive to think that we will ever stop
war, but we are there because wewant people to see what is
happening. Hopefully that is a call to
action in whatever shape or form, whether to help, assist or
to go out and. Vote or or.
(18:34):
Or make decisions that will helpand stop that from happening.
So would you say in different conflicts that your position is
just anti war and and for peopleor do you sometimes take a
position on the politics of a war?
100% anti war. Anti war, yeah.
(18:56):
And if if anything, this film isthat is, is to show that we that
Brent was anti war, that he was on the side of those people who
were suffering and the victims of of of those horrors of war.
And and I think, you know, I'd stand by that as well.
That's our creed. We are anti war.
Tell me about Brent. What do you hope people
(19:16):
remember? I hope people that can see his
compassion, you know, he, you will see in the film, it was
revealed by my brother that, youknow, late in life, he was, he
was diagnosed with, with autism.And I think Brent had a, a
quietness and an intensity and asweetness and a purity to him
(19:36):
that I've, I've never seen and this work.
And, and so I just, I'm, I'm happy that we were able to show
the world who he was and, and how pure he was in his approach
of just trying to help people and, and trying to use his
camera to bring attention to conflicts around the world.
And, and I hope Brent's story can be a larger tribute to all
(19:58):
fallen journalists that risked their lives to to try to.
To raise awareness to to what takes place in conflicts.
Yeah, I would, I would, I would second that.
And also to show, I mean, this is also a tribute not only to
Brent's legacy but also to the fallen journalists that we have
seen an increased attack on journalists.
(20:19):
The year that we were in Ukrainewas around 100 journalists
killed around the world, but only in the last couple of and
ever after they the Gaza conflict started, Israel Gaza
conflict started is about 200, more than 230 journalists that
have been killed. So this is a tribute to those
fallen heroes because that's, you know, they're risking their
(20:41):
lives to tell those stories and realities.
Well, Craig and Juan, I want to thank you so much for doing all
that you do and this film armed only with a camera.
The Life and Death of Brent Rinald is on HBO.
I want to highly recommend it. And the work that you're doing
is so important. We need more people like you.
(21:02):
Thank you so much. Thank you.
We really appreciate your time. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for your time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Male Room with Dr. Jesse Mills
As Director of The Men’s Clinic at UCLA, Dr. Jesse Mills has spent his career helping men understand their bodies, their hormones, and their health. Now he’s bringing that expertise to The Male Room — a podcast where data-driven medicine meets common sense. Each episode separates fact from hype, science from snake oil, and gives men the tools to live longer, stronger, and happier lives. With candor, humor, and real-world experience from the exam room and the operating room, Dr. Mills breaks down the latest health headlines, dissects trends, and explains what actually works — and what doesn’t. Smart, straightforward, and entertaining, The Male Room is the show that helps men take charge of their health without the jargon.