Controversy Swirls, Legal Threats Fly After Sundance Documentary ‘The Stringer’ Questions Origin of Iconic ‘Napalm Girl’ Photo
variety.comBrent Lang Executive Editor It’s one of the most famous photographs ever taken. In it, a 9-year-old girl runs down a road in South Vietnam, naked, her skin burning from a napalm attack as she shrieks in agony.
It’s a searing encapsulation of the tragic consequences of war, as well as a potent reminder that the victims of these conflicts are often the youngest and most vulnerable among us.
But “The Stringer,” a controversial documentary that debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, claims that Nick Ut, the Associated Press photographer who won a Pulitzer Prize for taking the shot outside the town of Trang Bang, wasn’t the photo’s author.
Instead, the film alleges that Nguyen Thanh Nghe, a freelancer and a driver for NBC, actually captured the image, popularly known as “Napalm Girl,” and has been denied recognition for decades.
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