Documentary Names Photographer Who It Says Really Captured ‘Napalm Girl’ Image

A documentary which claims that Nick Ut did not take The terror of warbetter known as Napalm girlbroadcast last night and named Vietnamese photographer Thanh Nghe.

The terror of war was taken in Trang Bang, South Vietnam, on June 8, 1972, and shows Phan Thi Kim Phuc running toward the camera to escape a napalm blast. This is arguably the most famous image from the Vietnam War and one of the most famous photos of all time.

Executive producer of The silt Gary Knight – himself a seasoned photojournalist – says The Los Angeles Times that the story “questions my profession and establishes the truth in my profession.”

The film’s claims come from former Associated Press photo editor Carl Robinson who was working in the Saigon office the day the photo was taken.

The established history of The terror of war He says that upon seeing the photo, Robinson thought the image’s full-frontal nudity made it unusable. But his decision was rejected by the head of photography in Saigon, Horst Faas.

“This story is not about Carl,” Knight tells the LA Times. “We interviewed 55 people, 45 of them on camera, and carried out forensic research, which was tested. So we don’t rely on Carl’s story. This was just the beginning of the journey. And whether or not AP chooses to refer to Carl as a disgruntled employee, that doesn’t make him a bad witness in and of itself. Many whistleblowers are in the same situation. So we wouldn’t have made a film based solely on one man’s accusations. This is not journalism.

The film names Thanh Nghe, driver of a NBC News the crew, as a real photographer. Director Bao Nguyen says Nghe hasn’t come forward because he is an immigrant who hasn’t been able to tell his story.

“The life that many refugees and immigrants have left behind when they arrive in a strange and foreign place, they are expected to have the same agency to tell their stories and tell their stories, but it’s not the same thing”, Nguyen says The Los Angeles Times. “This film is in many ways a reckoning with this assumption that, ‘OK, if Nghe had this truth for so long, why didn’t he say something?’

“But can you imagine coming to a new culture, a new place, just trying to take care of your family and operating in a system that they don’t understand and believe they don’t belong to? Documentary films specifically have a responsibility to try to recognize all of these misrepresentations and systems that have existed.

Associated Press denials

AP claims that over the past six months, it has conducted its own “careful research” into its response to the upcoming documentary.

In the 23-page report, the US news agency claims to have spoken to seven eyewitnesses either at the scene of the photograph or at the Saigon office, and none of them questioned Ut’s paternity. by Napalm Girl.

The agency adds that it has gathered all the photographic and cinematic evidence to create a visual timeline of the day, but acknowledges that the picture is not complete due to the analog era in which the event took place.

In his review of The Stringer, daily screen reveals that Index Investigations from Paris has also “painstakingly reconstructed what happened that day”. This evidence would place Ut away from the photography scene. PetaPixel haven’t seen the movie yet.

“I support research and forensics,” Knight says. The Los Angeles Times. “I think Nghe is the only person who was in the right place to take this photo.”

UT attorney James Hornstein tells The Los Angeles Times that the allegations upset the photographer “personally and emotionally”. Hornstein adds that it is “scandalous” that production company VII Foundation has provided a platform for Robinson who is “clearly pursuing a vendetta that has been brewing for over 50 years.”

The girl in the photo, Kim Phuc, calls the documentary an “outrageous and false attack on Nick Ut”, adding that she “would never participate in Gary Knight’s film because I know it’s false”.