Vietnam War Doc ‘The Stringer: The Man Who Took The Photo’ Trailer
by Alex Billington
November 11, 2025
Source: YouTube
“It matters who pressed the shutter.” Netflix has debuted an official trailer for an acclaimed documentary film titled The Stringer: The Man Who Took The Photo, which first premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The film is a fascinating deep-dive investigation in who exactly deserves the credit for taking a famous photo during the Vietnam War. The photo in question is the iconic “The Terror of War” shot with a screaming young girl published by the NY Times in 1972. 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 photos. Acclaimed conflict photographer Gary Knight and a small team of journalists embark upon a relentless search to locate and seek justice for a man known only as “the stringer” – a local Vietnamese photographer named Nguyen Thanh Nghe. This doc is a look into his story, the rest of his life, and how the photo was attributed to another photographer in the first place. Nguyen Thanh Nghe was also in attendance at the Sundance premiere, where he stated: “I took the photo.”
Official trailer for Bao Nguyen’s doc The Stringer: The Man Who Took The Photo, from YouTube:
📸 Based on the Vietnam War photograph “The Terror of War” (originally taken on June 8th, 1972), more commonly referred to as Napalm Girl, depicting Phan Thi Kim Phuc running from a napalm attack, the documentary film questions whether it was credited to the correct photographer. It presents a two-year investigation on the matter, arguing that a photo stringer named Nguyen Thanh Nghe actually took it rather than the officially credited photographer Nick Ut who sold the shot to the Associated Press. The Stringer: The Man Who Took The Photo, aka simply The Stringer, is directed by Vietnamese American doc filmmaker Bao Nguyen, director of the doc films Live from New York!, Be Water, and The Greatest Night in Pop previously, plus TV series including “Open Secrets”. It’s produced by Fiona Turner, Terri Lichstein. This initially premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Netflix will debut Nguyen’s The Stringer doc streaming on Netflix worldwide starting November 28th, 2025 this fall. Who’s interested?
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