a Tribute to Brent Renaud (October 13, 1971 to March 13, 2022)
Update (03.16.2022): Craig Renaud has published a tribute to his brother in Time Magazine.
Update (03.16.2022): Craig Renaud and Christof Putzel are in Poland now. All funds raised up to $10,000 will go towards getting Brent’s remains and his filming partner, Juan, out of Ukraine and back home in the U.S. The remainder will go to the family to use as they see fit or donated to journalism. Don’t have ETH to buy an NFT edition? Send USD to Mami Renaud on PayPal (@mamikrenaud).
I took this picture last night while walking the snowy streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant. They call it “Bed-Stuy” and I live here now because of my late friend, Brent Renaud.
The time was 7:45pm on a Sunday and I was on foot not because I was coming home from a day of brunching but because I was on a mission. I was on a mission to tell Jeff, Brent’s brownstone neighbor, that our mutual friend had been shot and killed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
After a year and half of my wife (Kennedy McDaniel) and I living as nomads, we landed in New York. New to town, I texted the person I admire the most in New York. Weeks later he offered his home in Bed-Stuy for Kennedy and I to stay. It was Summer 2021 and he was editing a documentary in the town he called home, Little Rock, Arkansas.
“I don’t care if you pay anything” he offered unexpectedly (I convinced him otherwise). Arriving in his vacant home, I found out we had not one but two floors and the entire garden to ourselves in a magical community of the world, Bed-Stuy. I immediately mowed his lawn.
In 2012 I met Brent through Craig Renaud, his brother and partner in documentary films. They were in their 6th year of the Little Rock Film Festival. Having spent years producing documentary films for HBO, Al Jazeera, and New York Times, they found a way to bring their friends and new filmmakers alike into town.
While the LRRF quickly became my favorite event of the year, it wasn’t why I wanted to know more about Craig and Brent. They had just their second duPont-Columbia Award for an 11 minute video on Surviving the Haiti Earthquake (2012). From wounded war veterans in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics to exposing Mexican drug cartels, the Renaud brothers films had a distinct style absent of music or voice overs, preferring to let viewers into the room rather than behind a screen.
Here’s a few of their documentaries to watch:
- Off to War (Discovery 2004 - International Documentary Association Award), a 10-part series about the volunteers of the Arkansas National Guard in Iraq while peering into how the absence impacts their families left behind, the first documentary ever with this dual war-home perspective.
- Dope Sick Love (HBO 2005), a love story of two drug addicts in New York
- Arming the Mexican Cartels (2011 - duPont-Columbia Award), an incredible piece with access of both sides of Mexico’s war on drugs.
- Shelter (Vice News 2018), a view into a New Orleans homeless shelter for kids where mental health and social issues push the limits of problem not solved with just food and a roof
- Last Chance High (Vice News 2010 - Peabody Award), a series on where kids go after being kicked out of every other school in Chicago.
Beyond documentaries, Brent took photos and was working on a Masters in Fine Arts in writing - an incredible idea that someone this experienced was still challenging himself to grow. Here’s a recent piece “Learning from Little Rock: A Look at Black Lives Matter Protests and the Role of Local News”. Check out their website for a complete list of films, projects, and photography as well.
These films and the men behind their lens drew me into something. Their films do not document what they saw, they document where we do dare not to look.
Years after meeting I regularly find myself searching on foot alone with my camera - not to document but for me to finally see. That night was no different. On February 9th, 2013, I spoke about the Renaud Brother’s in the eulogy for my late wife, Dr. Cynthia Caceres-Baker.
“There are people in this room that are already changing the world. There is one of the best documentary filmmakers in the world in this room. Him and [Brent] just won a duPont-Columbia Award which is the functional equivalent of an Oscar For Best picture [for documentaries]. [They] bring light to the darkest places in the world and trumpeting the world's most treasured organizations.” (Edited for clarity)
A week ago I saw a post from Ukraine on the Renaud Brother’s instagram and I honestly was afraid to engage with it. A few weeks prior, Brent had stopped by my new place in Bed-Stuy. His visits were always brief but full of stories about his next missions. He’d spend the last year working on a project for Time about refugees all over the world. From Africa to Central and South America, Brent’s light was now shining on Ukraine.
These videos. These pictures. And, these stories paint a portrait of humans across the world and provide a mirror into a giant of a journalist and artist.
On March 13, 2022, soldiers tried to tear apart Brent Renaud’s portrait of the refugees in Ukraine. Thankfully, ideas Brent shed light on cannot be torn apart.
To Craig
Craig, I have no way to thank you for how you took me under your wings when Cynthia passed. Having experienced a lot of loss behind the lens with Brent, you asked the questions and offered the wisdom I needed most. I hope these words can return something to you - I am with you.
This Tribute is an NFT.
This tribute has been minted as an NFT to provide some permanence to Brent’s ideas. Any funds received from sale of this NFT or editions will be donated to causes supporting journalism.
List of Tributes
Below is a list of notable tributes with excerpts from press and friends alike. If you know of others to note, please DM me at @lwsnbaker on Twitter so I can add them.
WARNING: One post from a correspondent includes a picture of the late Brent Renaud under a blanket.
The New York Times
The New York Times, a key outlet for the Renaud Brother’s, pays tribute.
Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University
The Neiman Foundation published a tribute after their initial article on Brent’s passing. Both are comprehensive approaches and incredibly well written.
Here the tribute does the best at cataloging the impact of Brent and Craig’s work.
From the initial news, “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.” Nieman curator Ann Marie Lipinski.
Wikipedia
After Brent’s passing, his Wikipedia page came to life as multiple authors furiously pressed his life into the world’s encyclopedia.
Stephen Bailey
“Instead of seeing people as good or bad, it was as if he saw a world filled with beautiful people and places under tragic circumstances. He spent his life showing us that this is true.” (link)
President Володимир Зеленський
Володимир Зеленський, President of Ukraine’s, letter to Craig and the family.
Simon Ostrovsky
“He was the kind of documentary filmmaker everyone wants to be but few ever actually become” Simon Ostrovsky, PBS Newshour Special Correspondent, tribute (link)
Jane Ferguson
Post from correspondent and witness in Ukraine.
Matthew Teague
Matthew Teague, another Nieman Fellow, on Twitter (link)
Vice News
Vice News, a long time outlet for the Renaud Brother’s, pays tribute (link).
White Water Tavern
White Water Tavern, a local watering hole for artists in Little Rock, pays tribute.
Carolyn Gregoire
Carolyn Gregoire’s tweets and tribute in The Buddhist Review Tricycle*.*
Newsy
Boston Globe
(Added March 24, 2022)
“His work often took him to some of the most dangerous places on earth. He did so knowing the risks, trying to minimize them as much as possible. He died covering a war, but to describe him as a war correspondent is too limiting. He was a humanity correspondent.
…Truth is the first casualty of war. Those determined to tell it, like Brent Renaud, are often next in line.”
Washington Post
The Washington Post includes a number of noteworthy quotes from Nan Renaud, Christof Putzel, Jon Alpert, and others.
CNN
CNN’s coverage includes a quote from Christof Putzel, a friend and partner of the Renaud Brother’s in “Arming the Mexican Cartels", a duPont-Award winning documentary.
"What I said when we accepted our award was, the only thing bigger than Brent's balls are his heart. And I stand by that. That's what kind of journalist he was," said Putzel.
Committee to Protect Journalists
Committee to Protect Journalists' statement
Governor Asa Hutchinson
Arkansas Governor statement
Facebook Posts
Facebook is full of tributes. Here is a link to the search for his name.
My initial tribute
Finally, here is my initial tribute on Twitter.