Netflix has has exclusively shared the trailer for the Sundance documentary film “The Stringer: The Man Who Took The Photo” with us at Next Best Picture, directed by Emmy Award-nominee Bao Nguyen (“The Greatest Night in Pop,” “Be Water”). The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and also screened at DC/DOX, Sheffield DocFest, Hamptons International Film Festival, GlobeDocs, and many more. It will be released globally on Netflix on November 28th and in select theaters on November 21st.
Plot Synopsis: A former Saigon photo editor reveals a secret he’s been plagued with for 52 years, setting off a gripping two-year investigation into the truth behind one of the Vietnam War’s most iconic photographs. Acclaimed conflict 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 “the stringer.”
Director Nguyen said, “When I first encountered the events that underpin ‘The Stringer,’ I was shocked, compelling a confrontation with uncomfortable truths that challenge our historical narratives and push against our comfort zones. For decades, the Vietnamese – like many communities shaped by war – have been asked to endure, yet endurance alone can become silence. ‘The Stringer’ seeks to recognize not only pain, but power: that we were not only subjects of history but also its witnesses and record keepers. Journalists like Gary Knight have long fought to bring obscured truths to light, and through the rediscovery of Nguyễn Thành Nghệ—a Vietnamese stringer who was overlooked for decades—we are reminded how easily certain names and nations can fade from history. As a Vietnamese-American filmmaker, I hope that ‘The Stringer’ is an exploration of understanding, dignity, and acknowledgment—a reminder that listening is empathy, witnessing is courage, and to finally take hold of the camera is to move beyond endurance toward authorship.”
Following the January 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of “The Stringer,” and all the questions it raised, World Press Photo launched an independent investigation into the authorship of “The Terror of War.” Their technical and forensic findings determined there was enough evidence to suspend Nick Ut’s authorship of the award-winning photograph, a first for the organization. The Associated Press conducted an internal investigation, which yielded inconclusive results. The AP has opted to retain Ut’s credit for the photograph. You can read the reports from World Press Photo here and AP here.
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