On March 13, 2022, filmmaker Brent Renaud was killed by Russian soldiers — the first American journalist to die while reporting on the war in Ukraine. His younger brother and collaborator, Craig Renaud, recovered Brent’s body and his final recordings from Ukraine and brought them back to their childhood home in Arkansas. As Brent’s journey to his final resting place unfolds, the film chronicles the years he and his brother spent covering some of the world’s most dangerous conflicts.

The vérité documentary includes harrowing footage of the brothers’ reporting from around the globe — time embedded with the Arkansas National Guard in Iraq, the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the war in Somalia, immigrants journeying from Honduras to the United States, and Brent’s final reportage from Ukraine. Despite bearing witness to devastating loss and suffering, Brent covered stories from the front lines with fearless empathy, capturing the human cost of war with unflinching clarity.

Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud serves as Brent’s ultimate testament to the critical value of wartime reporting and a tribute to journalists providing on-the-ground, life-threatening coverage of world events. As journalism becomes one of the most dangerous professions in the world, the film is dedicated to Brent and to all journalists who use their cameras to work for truth and understanding.