|
Comment on this article |
View comments |
Email this Feature
|
|
Review :: Media |
|
Film Review: "Control Room" |
Current rating: 7 |
by Scott Mylxine
Email: mylxine (nospam) hotmail.com |
22 Aug 2004
|
|
Jehane Noujaim's new documentary "Control Room" gives an English speaking audience the opportunity to see the war in Iraq from the perspective of the Arab media. "Control Room" will open locally at the Cinema 4 in Gulf Breeze on August 27th. |
|
Egyptian-American independent film maker Jeahane Noujaim has produced an essential and incredibly provocative film that gives the American public a riveting look at the war in Iraq. "Control Room", released a year after George Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq, presents the war not from the eyes of Fox News, CNN, NBC, or any of the other outlets that we all watched from one time or another. Instead, this film shows the war from the standpoint of the Arab world's most-watched and often criticized news outlet, Al-Jazeera.
Al-Jazeera, for those unfamiliar with the network's inception, came about after the dust of the first American Gulf War had settled. CNN had given much of the Arab government’s free access to their news on a limited contract. When it came time to renew the contract (not for free this time), the Arab world had a choice: either keep getting the news of the world from the American-owned CNN, or start their own news network.
The Emir of Qatar was approached with the idea of having that country become the host nation for what would be an independent, pan-Arab news outlet. Because of the small size of the country and its limited international role (not to mention its enormous wealth), the organizers generally felt that the network would be able to operate on a level of independence mostly unheard of at the time in the Arab world. The network would thus in turn give the Arab people something that was relatively new to much of the region: freedom of the press.
In 1996, Al-Jazeera was born. And since its birth it has become, arguably, the most controversial news network on the planet. When it first aired it was infamous for angering Arab and Middle Eastern governments who had been used to dealing with sympathetic, state-owned news outlets, and were not prepared for other Arabs reporting candidly on "touchy subjects." With its strong criticism of human rights issues, its pan-Arab message, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and its focus on reform in the Middle East; among government officials, Al-Jazeera made few friends. This resulted several times in the network being forced to leave the countries of which governments it was critical. While the network was beginning to make a strong impact on the consciousness of the region, outside of the Arab world few even know of its existence.
That is until September 11th, 2001.
Since then, Al-Jazeera has become a household name around the globe. Seen by many as the voice of the Arab people, it has been seemingly in the eye of a constant political storm. Living up to the adage that good journalists have few friends, the network would soon find itself in the sights of yet another angry government.
While ignoring the obvious biases that its own reporters had, since 9/11 the Bush administration has been amongst the most vocal in charging that the network is inherently "anti-American" in its biased reporting. Even going so far as to say the network is the mouthpiece of Osama bin-Laden for airing his video statements after 9/11. During the war in Afghanistan, Al-Jazeera's offices were destroyed by an American missile attack. The American military said that although the attack was a mistake, their journalists shouldn't have been in the war zone in the first place.
Then came the next war-if the US Government was angry with al-Jazeera after Afghanistan, they were furious with the network in Iraq.
What were they mad about? They were mad that the news the Arabic-speaking people were getting was not friendly to the American's motives for the war in Iraq. They were called "pro-Saddam" (even though Saddam Hussein had booted them out during his rule for being "pro-American"). They were criticized for showing civilian casualties. They were criticized for showing dead Americans. They were criticized, basically, for being critical of the war in a way that American journalists were not. They were undermining the American war effort, at least on the propaganda front. They were criticized for showing the war in Iraq, not as the pro-American media was showing it to their audiences back home, but as Arabs reporting on an invasion of an Arab country by a western superpower.
And this is what "Control Room" is: the war in Iraq from the Arab perspective. That is, how the Arab world saw the war from their living rooms in Kuwait City, Tripoli, Medina, Ramallah, Doha, and Cairo; and of course Baghdad.
Jehane Noujaim, director of "Control Room," went to great lengths to bring a human side to the journalism that made the war what we know it today. It is rare that we get to see just how the news is made, and it was fascinating to see the war from this perspective. Fascinating and disturbing.
The documentary follows Al-Jazeera's reporters from the build-up to the war, to Baghdad's near destruction, through the collapse of Saddam's regime and the looting of Iraq's museums that followed, to Bush on the deck of an US aircraft carrier declaring his "Mission Accomplished."
While there were light moments in the film, much of it was painful to watch. Tearful scenes of Iraqi families dealing with the loss of family members and several images of Iraqi and American dead, much of which will probably be new to most American audiences.
"Control Room" also shows first hand the frustrations over the war in the Al-Jazeera reporters, and the toll the war exacted on the people that covered it. In one of the most painful scenes of the documentary, the wife of Tariq Ayoub, an Al-Jazeera reporter who was killed in a US attack, sobbingly tells her husband's colleagues that they must keep doing what they are doing, telling the truth of the war. This was one of many painful moments in the film.
The film also shows the reaction of international journalists to the attack on the Palestine Hotel, home to much of the international press corps and the attack Al-Jazeera's Baghdad offices by US forces.
Some of the heaviest fighting of the war in Iraq was fought on the public relations front. This documentary covers this aspect of the war, how the Americans waged the PR campaign behind the scenes, and how the Arab journalists covered a foreign war against fellow Arabs.
The film follows three main characters, Samir Khader, a senior producer at Al-Jazeera; Hassan Ibrahim, an ex-BBC journalist now working for Al-Jazeera; and a young Marine press officer, Lieutenant Rushing, who is working to give the official American stance on the war.
Where this film shines most is in its attack on the myth of objectivity in journalism. Everyone in this film had their own opinions, just like everyone in the real world. The media is often burdened with the notion of this myth, but almost always unable to escape its individual biases. The people who are covered in this film make no bones about their own biases, yet they all seem to be desperately trying to see where the other side is coming from. Whether it is Lt Rushing talking candidly to Hassan Ibrahim, the bearishly friendly al-Jazeera journalist, about his own emotional tug of war with the images of dead Iraqi civilians as opposed to the images of dead American soldiers. Or whether it is Ibrahim talking amongst his colleagues about his hatred for the war, but his personal confidence in the American people's ability to be the ones who will eventually stop their own war machine.
"You cannot think of a journalist in an abstract way," says Samir Khader, the bald, chain-smoking producer in a moment of insight. "He is first of all a human being. He has his own mentality, his beliefs, the demands of his editorial line. The American media covered the war exactly like us."
Noujaim's film gives the American public a rare chance to see how the Arab world saw the war on Iraq. Moments like Bush giving his "Mission Accomplished" victory speech on the deck of an aircraft carrier as they are being translated live into Arabic were indeed fascinating to say the least. Couple this with the images of all the dead that this war has produced, Iraqi and American, that the public has been by far shielded from and it truly brings the audience a side to history that we Americans will rarely see with our classically myopic view of international affairs.
Above all, "Control Room" expresses the frustration amongst Middle Easterners with the war in Iraq and American dominance over that region. Reacting to criticisms Al-Jazeera's journalists had received from the Bush administration over its perceived biases, Hassan Ibrahim says about America, "You are the most powerful nation. You can crush everyone, I agree. But don’t ask us to like it."
It's unfair that we live in a world where Michael Moore's films, with their limited knowledge of foreign policy will get all the glitz, glamour, and cineplexes (and the viewers that go along with that). While a film of "Control Room's" caliber will only see the art houses in the big cities. One can hope that when "Control Room" has its video release it will be seen by a wide audience and have the impact it deserves.
There are few more important issues right now than for Americans to understand how the rest of the world sees them. This film is an important step in that direction. |
See also:
http://www.controlroommovie.com
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
|
This work is in the public domain. |
|
Re: Film Review: "Control Room" |
by Scott Mylxine
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
23 Aug 2004
|
|
There's an interview with the director of this film coming to the NWFIMC in the next few days. |
