Oscar run is bittersweet for brother and friend who made film after death of journalist Brent Renaud

It's a bittersweet Academy Awards season for documentarians Craig Renaud and Juan Arredondo

LOS ANGELES -- When Craig Renaud's big brother and collaborator in covering years of wars and humanitarian crises Brent Renaud was killed by Russian forces firing on his vehicle in the first weeks of the war in Ukraine, he was thrown into a world of horrible loss and uncertainty.

One thing was clear, though. He needed to keep filming. His brother would've expected nothing else.

“It was a conversation we had a lot. What would we do if somebody was killed? And it was a promise to each other that we would keep filming and telling the story,” Oscar nominee Craig Renaud said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We have been covering this for almost 20 years in wars with other people. Why would it be any different when it happens to one of us?”

The result, three years later, was “Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud” and an Academy Award nomination for best documentary short film. It's brought mixed feelings for Craig Renaud and his producer and collaborator on the film Juan Arredondo, a photographer seriously wounded in the attack who was working with Brent Renaud on a project about refugees for Time Studios.

“I don’t think this is the documentary that we wanted to be celebrated for,” Arredondo said. “I don’t think I ever dreamed of doing a documentary about my friend dying.”