{"id":129953,"date":"2025-09-03T15:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/129953\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T15:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:05:08","slug":"netflix-acquires-the-stringer-controversial-doc-about-famed-photo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/129953\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix Acquires ‘The Stringer,’ Controversial Doc About Famed Photo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Netflix<\/a> has acquired Bao Nguyen<\/a>\u2019s controversial documentary The Stringer<\/a>: The Man Who Took the Photo, a film that challenges the authorship of one of the most famous images ever taken of the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe photo, informally dubbed \u201cNapalm Girl,\u201d which shows a naked girl running in agony down a road in the village of Trang Bang in June 1972 after a napalm attack by the U.S. military, has always been attributed to Nick Ut, a photographer for the Associated Press<\/a>. But the documentary, based on a forensic analysis and testimony from some surviving AP staffers, says it was really a local stringer who took it, a man named Nguy\u1ec5n Th\u00e0nh Ngh\u1ec7. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Title under the two-word title The Stringer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA former Saigon photo editor reveals a secret he\u2019s been plagued with for 52 years, setting off a gripping two-year investigation into the truth behind one of the Vietnam War\u2019s most iconic photographs,\u201d notes the film\u2019s logline. \u201cAcclaimed war photographer Gary Knight and a small team of journalists embark on a relentless search to locate and seek justice for a man known only as \u2018the stringer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Photographer<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tPhotographer Nguy\u1ec5n Th\u00e0nh Ngh\u1ec7m (at right) on the day the \u201cNapalm Girl\u201d photo was taken.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n

\n\tNguyen earned an Emmy nomination for his 2024 The Greatest Night in Pop, which Netflix released. His credits include Be Water and the upcoming film Jimi about late guitarist Jimi Hendrix.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I first heard Nguy\u1ec5n Th\u00e0nh Ngh\u1ec7\u2019s [the stringer\u2019s] story \u2013 a quiet Vietnamese photographer who believed he had taken a photograph that changed the world \u2013 I set out on a journey to listen, and to understand,\u201d Nguyen said in a statement. \u201cI hope The Stringer opens a space for curiosity and reflection, giving a voice to a generation of Vietnamese who never thought their memories held value. Through our partnership with Netflix, I\u2019m honored to share this film with the world, including viewers in Vietnam, and give Mr. Ngh\u1ec7\u2019s story the visibility and dignity he\u2019s long been denied.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUt, who retired after a long career with the AP, has steadfastly maintained he took the photo of the girl, Kim Phuc Phan Thi. She was so badly injured in the incident that she was in no position to make a call herself on who took the photo that became a worldwide sensation after its publication.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe AP investigated the claims made in the film, drawing no firm conclusions on the question of authorship of the image. It continues to give photo credit to Ut. However, World Press Photo conducted an independent investigation into the authorship of \u201cThe Terror of War\u201d as the photo is formally known. \u201cTheir technical and forensic findings determined there was enough evidence to suspend Nick Ut\u2019s authorship from the award-winning photograph, a first for the organization,\u201d Netflix says. An article on the World Press Photo site says the organization\u2019s role \u201cis not to act as a final judge or arbiter, but to foster space for difficult, honest conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe photo won the Pulitzer Prize and the World Press Photo of the Year award in 1973.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDirector Bao Nguyen<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix\/photo by Ray Lavers<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo<\/a> is directed by Bao Nguyen and produced by Fiona Turner and Terri Lichstein. Executive producers include Gary Knight, Sue Turley, Grace Lay, Michael Y. Chow, Alex Cotraviwat, Kevin Lin, Nina and David Fialkow, Andrew Reid, William Reid, Sam Reid, Jeremy Gardner, Jeff Zimbalist, James Costa, and Trevor Burgess.<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix has not said when it plans to release the documentary on its platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has acquired Bao Nguyen\u2019s controversial documentary The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo, a film…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[2724,82359,88,206,217,40345,82360],"class_list":["post-129953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-associated-press","tag-bao-nguyen","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-netflix","tag-the-stringer","tag-the-stringer-the-man-who-took-the-photo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}