Brent Renaud, Crusading Filmmaker, Is Killed at 50

Brent Renaud, who with his brother Craig formed a Peabody Award-winning documentary film team that drew attention to human suffering, often working with major news organizations like The New York Times, was fatally shot in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, on Sunday. He was 50.

A Ukrainian news agency said Mr. Renaud had been shot by Russian troops.

His death was confirmed by Craig Renaud, who was not with him in Ukraine at the time.

He said Brent was working for MSNBC and the television and film division of Time magazine on one segment of a multipart series about refugees around the world called “Tipping Point.”

Migration under desperate circumstances was a recurring subject for Brent, who with Craig also made documentaries about Haitians deported from the United States and children fleeing poverty and danger in Central America.

His broader interest was in using dramatic storytelling, the study of policy and reportorial legwork to come to grips with anguish in its most dramatic forms — war, drug addiction, gang violence, homelessness and environmental calamity.

He and Craig won their Peabody for “Last Chance High,” which tells the story of a school in Chicago whose students suffer from emotional disorders and have been expelled from other public schools in the city.

Over time, Brent had gained expertise in reporting safely in dangerous situations.

In a 2013 interview with Filmmaker magazine, he described risking his life for his work — repeatedly being attacked by thugs while reporting on a crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, for instance, and drawing fire from soldiers in Cambodia when the car he was riding in busted through a military checkpoint.

“It is important when covering conflict to understand the politics and the players involved,” he said. “You have to know where it is relatively safe to be, and when.”

Brent Anthony Renaud was born on Oct. 13, 1971, in Memphis, and he grew up in Little Rock, Ark. His father, Louis, was a salesman, and his mother, Georgann Freasier, was a social worker.

In addition to his brother, Brent’s survivors include his parents.

A full obituary will be published soon.