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HBO Premieres 'Armed Only With a Camera,' Honoring Slain Journalist Brent Renaud

The short film revisits his reporting life to confront the peril journalists face in war zones.

Overview

  • The under-40-minute vérité documentary, co-directed by Craig Renaud, debuts on HBO on October 21, 2025.
  • The film interweaves two decades of Brent Renaud’s reporting with unfiltered material from the aftermath of his 2022 killing in Ukraine.
  • Renaud, a 50-year-old filmmaker from Little Rock, was shot by Russian soldiers while covering the invasion, becoming the first foreign journalist killed in that conflict.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Pentagon issued tributes at the time, reflecting his standing as an award-winning reporter with duPont-Columbia and Peabody honors.
  • The short closes with a dedication to Renaud and to journalists who have died pursuing truth, situating his story within a wider pattern of fatalities in conflict zones.