Netflix’s Trailer for ‘The Stringer’ Doesn’t Pull Any Punches

Netflix has published a new trailer for the explosive documentary, The Stringer, that challenges the long-standing claim that Nick Ut took the famous “Terror of War” photo, often referred to as “Napalm Girl.”

Directed by Bao Nguyen and produced by photojournalist Gary Knight of The VII Foundation, The Stringer premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and alleges that Nick Ut could not have taken the famous photo. Instead, the documentary claims that a local stringer, Nguyễn Thành Nghệ, took the picture, which is arguably among the most famous and influential photographs ever taken.

As soon as the documentary premiered, it sent shockwaves through the photo industry, especially among photojournalists and photojournalism organizations.

The Associated Press, which published the photo under Ut’s name in June 1972 and the following year won the Pulitzer Prize for the work, performed an extensive investigation into the photo’s creation and ultimately decided not to remove Ut’s credit for the photo, citing its inability to definitively conclude that Ut did not take the photo despite what it considered to be contradicting evidence.

“No one is disputing the accuracy of the image, nor that the image is AP’s. The goal of this investigation is purely to establish an accurate historical record. No one who worked for AP involved on either side of this story remains at the company. All have died, retired, or left. A team of AP journalists has spent almost a year investigating this image, which for more than 50 years was believed to have been taken by Huynh Cong Ut, known as Nick Ut,” the AP’s report claims.

However, throughout its extensive investigation, the AP determined that the famed photo was unlikely to have been taken with a Leica M2, as Ut has long claimed. The AP determined that the image was likely captured with a Pentax camera. Further, any proof that Ut had a Pentax with him on that fateful day has proven impossible to obtain more than 50 years later.

The AP’s 97-page report nonetheless disputes many claims made in The Stringer, including its reconstruction of the scene that purports to prove that Ut could not have physically captured the famous photo. This claim is central to the film’s premise.

Basically, the AP could not prove that Ut took the photo, nor could it prove he didn’t, so it maintained the attribution.

“The investigation raised significant questions about some aspects of the story told over the years. But to remove a photo credit and overrule AP journalists of the past who were entrusted to honestly assign that credit requires a high bar of proof of wrongdoing. The fact that many of those journalists (as well as many witnesses) have since died and thus can’t present a defense makes that standard even more imperative,” the AP concludes. “AP’s standards say ‘a challenged credit would be removed only if definitive evidence… showed that the person who claimed to have taken the photo did not.’

“That evidence analyzed in AP’s investigation does not clear that bar. Thus, the photo attribution will remain as is.”

Other organizations arrived at different conclusions, including World Press Photo, which controversially suspended Ut’s credit. This decision led to significant backlash among professional photographers.

In early September, speaking at Visa pour l’Image in France, Ut maintained that he took the photo to a standing ovation.

PetaPixel has repeatedly requested a screener of The Stringer from its creators to no avail. However, since The Stringer will arrive on Netflix on November 28, the wait is nearly over. PetaPixel intends to discuss the film after its debut on Netflix, and discuss it within the broader context of the allegations levied against Ut and how the photography community has reckoned with them.

Critics who have seen The Stringer at festivals have described the film’s evidence as compelling and its conclusions powerful, although not necessarily incontrovertible.

It is undoubtedly a powerful trailer and an exceptionally challenging, emotional situation for everyone involved, even more than 50 years after the photo’s capture.