Screening + Q&A: The Stringer

A former Saigon photo editor plagued by a 52-year secret courageously makes a stunning admission, setting off a gripping two-year investigation into five decades of buried secrets behind one of the Vietnam War’s most iconic photographs. Acclaimed war photographer Gary Knight and journalists Fiona Turner, Terri Lichstein, and Lê Vân embark on a relentless search to locate and seek justice for a man known only as “the stringer.”

The work of photographers during the Vietnam War exposed the horrors committed against the civilian population to a Western audience largely unaware of the scale of the atrocities. The iconic photograph, The Terror of War, also known as Napalm Girl, was shocking in its depiction of the violence experienced by children, prompting global protests and calls to end the war. But a claim by a former Associated Press photo editor raises doubts over the image’s origins. Bao Nguyen’s film follows a relentless journey to find the truth, locating a photographer known only as ‘the stringer’ who claims he took the photo, throwing the AP photographer credit into question. In following this investigation Nguyen’s film tackles racial injustice and journalistic ethics as it questions why Vietnamese photographers’ essential contribution to this conflict have not found their place in history.

Bao Nguyen is an Emmy-nominated Vietnamese American filmmaker whose work has been seen on HBO, Netflix, the New York Times, Arte, among many others. He directed Be Water, a deep dive into the life and journey of Bruce Lee, which competed in the U.S. Documentary Competition category at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was invited to other prestigious festivals such as SXSW, Cannes, Telluride, Hot Docs, among many others. It is broadcast nationally on ESPN and is the most-watched ESPN 30 for 30 film ever. His film, The Greatest Night in Pop, a feature documentary about the making of the seminal global hit song “We Are the World,” premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and launched globally on Netflix on January 29th, where it quickly became the number one film globally on the platform. He is a 2011 PBS/WGBH Producers Workshop Fellow, an alumnus of the 2012 and 2014 Berlinale Talent Campus, a Firelight Media Fellow, and a 2022 BAFTA US Breakthrough recipient. He earned his BA in Politics/International Relations at NYU and his MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His latest film, The Stringer, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Gary Knight has been to war with the Khmer Rouge, the Taliban, the US Marines and Susan Sontag amongst others. He started his career in Indochina in the 1980s and has since become recognized as one of the most influential photojournalists working today. In 2001 he was the principal architect and co-founder of the VII Photo Agency which three years later was named the third most influential entity in photography by American Photo. Knight's photography has appeared in every major newspaper and current affairs magazine on both sides of the Atlantic and is in museum and private collections in Europe and the US. He has co-authored seven books, authored one monograph and is the editor of seven others. He founded South East Asia's first photo festival in Cambodia, chairs the World Press Photo Award and many other awards in the US, Europe and Asia. In 2010 he founded the Program for Narrative & Documentary Practice at Tufts University and met Jeff Howe when they were both Nieman Fellows at Harvard the same year.

Fiona Turner is the Director, The VII Foundation Films. Fiona is a five-time Emmy award-winning producer and documentary filmmaker. After 20 years of broadcast experience with ABC News and NBC News, much of it in war zones and areas of conflict, she now focuses her narrative storytelling on social justice and human rights issues with The VII Foundation. Her documentary feature “Eat Up” takes a personal look at what it takes for an entrepreneur to reinvent school lunches in Boston’s Public Schools. Most recently Fiona produced and co-edited The VII Foundation book, exhibition, and education project, “Imagine: Reflections on Peace.”