Summary: In the spring of 2003, just before President Bush declared that the United States would go to war with Iraq, documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim and her crew set up their cameras inside Al Jazeera, the satellite news network for the Arab world. Though US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld accuses Al Jazeera of lying in its news reports, CONTROL ROOM tells a different story. Candid interviews with some of Al Jezeera's leaders--like Sudanese journalist Hassan Ibrahim who formerly headed the BBC Arab News service, and senior producer Samir Khader who talks openly about his respect for American values--offer an Arab perspective on the US and the war. Meanwhile, Americans such as NBC correspondent David Shuster and Central Command press officer Lt. Josh Rushing, both working in Qatar, offer another point of view. Through various interviews, Al Jazeera is presented as a grass-roots organization devoted to being an independent news source. In addition, it is not afraid of showing the brutality of war. The station airs shocking footage of the devastation caused by US bombings, showing the resultant carnage of Iraqi civilians, Iraqi soldiers, as well as US soldiers. The Al Jazeera reporters dissect US news reports, which rarely contain coverage of this nature, pointing out how information is packaged to exclude certain truths. When asked her opinion of objectivity, Al Jazeera producer Deema Khatib calls it a mirage, which is a powerful statement about the foggy nature of truth as interpreted by the media. A fascinating look inside Al Jazeera, CONTROL ROOM will challenge viewers to question what to believe from the news they receive.

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Startling and powerful, Control Roomis a documentary about the Arab television network Al-Jazeera's coverage of the U.S.-led Iraqi war, and conflicts that arose in managed perceptions of truth between that news media outlet and the American military. Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com) catches the frantic action at Al-Jazeera headquarters as President Bush stipulates his 48-hour, get-out-of-town warning to Saddam Hussein and sons, soon followed by the network's shocking footage of Iraqi civilians terrorized and killed by invading U.S. troops. Al-Jazeera's determination to show images and report details outside the Pentagon's carefully controlled information flow draws the wrath of American officials, who accuse it of being an al-Qaida propagandist. (The killing of an Al-Jazeera reporter in what appears to be a deliberately targeted air strike is horrifying.) Most fascinating is the way Control Roomallows well-meaning, Western-educated, pro-democratic Arabs an opportunity to express views on Iraq as they see it--in an international context, and in a way most Americans never hear about. --Tom Keogh

Main Language:	English
Release Date:	October 25, 2004
Runtime:	87 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	T V D 3516
Keywords:	Room, General, Control, Drama
Genre:	Drama