One of the most influential photos in history has come under attack in a new documentary to debut at the Sundance Film Festival.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning picture of nine-year-old Kim Phuc, taken on 8 June 1972, captures her running down a street in Trang Bang, south Vietnam as she flees an American napalm attack.
She is naked, screaming and has her hands outstretched in the haunting image. Colloquially dubbed the “napalm girl”, and officially titled The Terror of War, it sparked protests and an international conversation about the horrors of war and US military action in Vietnam.
Originally reported to have been taken for the Associated Press by photographer Nick Ut, a new documentary, The Stringer, suggests that the actual creator of the image is Vietnamese freelance photographer, Nguyen Than Nghe.
Nghe claims he was working as a driver for an NBC news crew when he visited the town of Trang Bang where he captured the image of Phuc screaming down the street. In the film, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, he reports selling the image to AP for $20 and was given a print of the photo in exchange. He says the memento was later destroyed by his wife.
Led by husband and wife Gary Knight, founder of the VII Foundation, and producer Fiona Turner, the film was directed by Vietnamese American filmmaker Bao Nguyen. It investigates these claims and concludes that Ut did not take the picture, claims that AP and Ut vehemently challenge.
“I’m not a journalist by any stretch of the imagination,” Nguyen said. “I had a healthy skepticism, as I think anyone would, going against a 53-year-old truth... But as a storyteller and a filmmaker, I thought it was my both my responsibility and my privilege to be able to uplift the story of individuals like Nghe.”
One of the primary sources corroborating the claim is Carl Robinson, who worked as an AP photo editor in Saigon at the time. He alleges that he was overruled in his judgment not to use the picture by Horst Faas, AP’s Saigon chief of photo. Faas instructed Robinson to “make it staff” and credit Ut for the photo, Robinson alleges. Both Faas and Yuichi “Jackson” Ishizaki, who developed the film, are dead, while Robinson, 81, was dismissed by the AP in 1978.
“I didn’t want to die before this story came out,” Robinson told the Sundance audience during a Q & A after the screening. “I wanted to find (Nghe) and say sorry.”
However, witnesses interviewed by AP, including renowned correspondents such as Fox Butterfield and Peter Arnett and the photo’s subject herself, Phuc, say they are certain Ut took the photo. AP says its requests to see the full materials and evidence of the claim have been denied. They alleged being unable to speak to Robinson unless “under certain conditions”, preventing them from taking “swift action”.
“As recently as December, we reiterated our request to see the filmmakers’ full materials and they did not respond, nor did they include AP’s full response in the film,” Lauren Easton, an AP spokesperson, said on Sunday (26 January).
“We were surprised and disappointed that the film portrayed AP as having reviewed the film’s materials and being dismissive of the allegations, which is completely false.”
AP added: “We cannot state more clearly that The Associated Press is only interested in the facts and a truthful history of this iconic photo.”
The film also follows a forensic investigation into the source of the image using evidence from the scene. INDEX, a French forensics team, were enlisted to determine the likelihood of Ut taking the photo and conclude that it was highly unlikely that he took the image.
At a screening, Nghe joined filmmakers as he said “I took the photo” to applause from the audience, but did not explain why he waited to make the claim until now.
Ut’s attorney, James Hornstein, said: “In due course, we will proceed to right this wrong in a courtroom where Nick Ut’s reputation will be vindicated.”
