a The new documentary, which has been controversial on Saturday nights at the Sundance Film Festival, has been opposed to one author of the most famous news photograph taken so far and has been accepted for over 50 years. I'm asking the history I have come to.
In Bao Guen's “Stringer”, a journalist and a group of investigators are colloquially known as “Napalm Girl” (the Vietnamese War that activates the US anti -war movement). He claims that it was not taken by Woy. , AP communication staff photographers have long been credited by news groups.
This image, which was officially entitled “Fear of War,” was taken on June 8, 1972, and burned with a naked 9 -year -old girl named Van Tee Kim Hook. Several children who have been suffering are depicting the Napalm bullet attack in the village of South Vietnam. 。 AP Communication and UT have many years of claiming that UT, who was 21 years old, had taken this photo, which won the Puritzer Award, gained reputation as a photo journalist, and in 2017. I had a brilliant career until I retired.
However, “Stringer” introduces another story. This symbolic photo was actually taken by another photographer who was on the scene that day. He was a Vietnamese driver of NBC, Guen Tine Ge, and sold his photos to AP communication as a freelancer, a “stringer.” This claim is from Saigon's former AP photo editor, Karl Robinson, and Horst Firth, the director of the co -author, changed the credit in the image before sending a photo. He claims that he had ordered him. It will be seen by millions of people within a few hours.
In the movie, Robinson claims that he has been guilty of belonging errors for many years, and has to search for an unreliable “stringer” when he turned 80. “I didn't want to die before the story was released,” he said in a question and answer after the movie premier screening at Park City. “I wanted to say I'm sorry to find him,” Robinson in 2010 for the first time in contact with the suspicion of the documentary chief investigator and narrator Gary Night. About 10 years later, Night, a co -founder of VII Photosha, a journalist fellow Fiona Turner, Terry Richsteine, and Le Van have begun a survey on the claim. He moved to the United States and led them to the ge who is currently living in California. Emotional Ge admits that he took the picture. “I worked hard for that, but he had to get everything,” he said in the movie.
Stringer paper is said to be a complex, arbitrary and dignified person, but the only AP communication staff photographer who was on the scene was him, or Ut's older brother, Hin Tine Me, himself. He was guilty of sending him to the office, and argued that he might have credited Uto. Nights and other movie participants suggest that racism also played a role. “I don't think so [the AP] Night would have done that, “said Knight. Firth has been allegedly suspected of being unjustly attributed because the non -employees, especially the Vietnamese, were “outsiders in their own country.” They knew that no one would listen. “
AP communication refused to participate in the project, Controversy In a long report published a few days before the premiere of Stringer, he stated that he was the author of Jut. “Recognizing that a movie that challenges this historic record has been produced for the past six months, AP communication has been conducting a unique investigation, which supported the historical explanation that Uto was a photographer. Is in the statement. “Because there is no new persuasive evidence that contrary to this, there is no reason to believe that AP communication has taken a picture.”
The AP communication talked to seven people on the street in Camban or on the Saigon bureau on that day, but argued that they had not been approached by the documentary team or had to sign a confidentiality contract first, so they refused to participate. did. One witness argued that the documentary team had disagreed and never contacted him again. in Page 23 reportsAP communication explains its own research process, including negative archives, oral history, and visual timelines.[s] There is almost no evidence of the source of photos, “the fact that Robinson, who was described as a former employee who was” dissatisfied “, did not mention this story in 2019's reminiscence.
According to filmmakers, Jut did not respond to multiple comments. According to James Hornstein, a college lawyer. LA Times “It is outrageous that the VII Foundation provided a platform to a man who has a clear revenge that has been smoldering for more than 50 years.”
Hornstein also provided a statement from Kim Hook, who did not remember the Napalm Bullet attack. “I have refused to participate in this incorrect attack on Nick Ut, which Robinson raised in the past few years … I will never participate,” the Gary Knight movie is a lie. I know. “
The film gathers several witnesses to support the explanation of Ga and sold to Firth with a photo of $ 20. The older brother claims that he brought the film to the AP communication. Johnny's daughter. Robinson says he had to follow the story and regretted it. Robinson's former photo journalist colleague. Investigators have also consulted with French NGO forensic medicine experts. index On that day, it turned out that the possibility that the AP communication took the picture based on another image that he credited to him has been found “very low”, and he puts his symbolic shot.
At the premiere, Director Guen, Knight, and Ge, who appeared as a surprise guest, have evoked long and impressive standing ovations and defended their own surveys and explanations. “We were obliged to investigate and thoroughly thoroughly as possible,” said Night. “Our story is here. It's here to see it, here for AP and everyone else to see.”
“Thank you very much for coming to see the movie. I took the photo,” said Ge. “I can't express my feelings after this, but I just want to express my gratitude.”
Director Guen, who claims to be a guardian of the strict investigation, grew up in this movie near 17 degrees and fled from Vietnam during the war, saying, “I go to another country to live my life. Dedicated to refugees. Life was different, but there were stories that had never been shared in the past. “
Guen said that the film was encouraging the audience to think about “unpleasant truth”, and Night has taken the same position. “We need to examine ourselves when we have any doubts about our occupation,” he says. “If you look at yourself, ask a tough question, and become more open and honest about what is happening in your profession, we will all be stronger.”
