Filmmaker, Journalist Brent Renaud Killed In Ukraine Graduated From SMU
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) - Brent Renaud, an acclaimed filmmaker who traveled to some of the darkest and most dangerous corners of the world for documentaries that transported audiences to little-known places of suffering, died Sunday, March 13 after Russian forces opened fire on his vehicle in Ukraine.
Renaud graduated from SMU in 1994.
On Twitter Monday morning, SMU released a statement saying, "We join in mourning the loss of alumnus Brent Renaud, an award-winning journalist and filmmaker, killed while covering the war in Ukraine on Sunday. He'll be remembered for many things, and his friends specifically call out his empathy and compassion."
The 50-year-old Little Rock, Arkansas, native was gathering material for a report about refugees when his vehicle was hit at a checkpoint in Irpin, just outside the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Ukraine's Interior Ministry said the area has sustained intense shelling by Russian forces in recent days.
"The world has lost someone who truly cared about telling the right stories that and covering stories that not everybody was willing to go into these areas," said Thear Suzuki.
Suzuki. is heartbroken over the loss of her friend since their days together at SMU.
They both were part of a community program that offered mentoring and tutoring to kids in a low income East Dallas neighborhood.
"Even back then when we were in college he was very in tune with the suffering of people," he said.
Renaud made an impression on one of this SMU professors who remembers the type of student he was 30 years later.
SMU Senior Lecturer Dr. Bruce Levy said, "He seemed in many ways to be a very mature 20-year-old and many ways fully formed. He was a very special person and like I said he was living his values everyday."
Renaud and his brother were producing a documentary on the global refugee crisis when he was killed.
They had already won several awards for a willingness to enter dangerous war zones and bring attention to the most helpless victims of violence.
The U.S. State Department said it would not comment on Renaud's death out of respect for his family members but that consular assistance was being offered to them.
The U.S. State Department condemned attacks on news professionals and others documenting the conflict.
"We are horrified that journalists and filmmakers—noncombatants—have been killed and injured in Ukraine by Kremlin forces," the department said via Twitter. "This is yet another gruesome example of the Kremlin's indiscriminate actions."
Responding to news of Renaud's death, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called for an immediate halt to violence against journalists and civilians.
"This kind of attack is totally unacceptable, and is a violation of international law," the committee said on Twitter.
TIME released a statement deploring Renaud's death and saying he had been in the region working on a TIME Studios project focused on the global refugee crisis.
"We are devastated by the loss of Brent Renaud," the statement said. "Our hearts are with all of Brent's loved ones."
Along with his brother Craig, Renaud won a Peabody Award for "Last Chance High," an HBO series about a school for at-risk youth on Chicago's West Side. The brothers' litany of achievements include two duPont-Columbia journalism awards and productions for HBO, NBC, Discovery, PBS, the New York Times, and VICE News.
Renaud was also a 2019 Nieman fellow at Harvard and served as visiting distinguished professor for the Center for Ethics in Journalism at University of Arkansas. He and his brother founded the Little Rock Film Festival.
Among other assignments, Renaud covered wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the devastating 2011 earthquake in Haiti, political turmoil in Egypt and Libya and extremism in Africa.
Putzel, who worked with Renaud for 12 years, paid tribute to his courage and passion.
"Nowhere was too dangerous," Putzel said. "It was his bravery but also because he deeply, deeply cared."
He is survived by his brother Craig, Craig's wife, Mami, and a nephew, 11-year-old Taiyo.
(© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)