Control Room (2004)

Directed by

Jehane Noujaim

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 24m

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 62 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary looks at how the Al Jazeera network and the US military covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It follows journalists and press officers on both sides as they navigate conflicting viewpoints and the realities of war reporting.

observationaltensethought-provokingneutralinformativegroundedreflectiveunbiasedsearching

What happens

Control Room is a 2004 documentary film directed by Jehane Noujaim, about Al Jazeera and its relations with the US Central Command (CENTCOM), as well as the other news organizations that covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq. People featured in the film include Lieutenant Josh Rushing, a press officer from US Central Command, David Shuster, an NBC correspondent, and Tom Mintier, a CNN correspondent. Al Jazeera was represented by Samir Khader, a senior producer, Hassan Ibrahim, a Sudanese journalist who attended U.S. universities and headed the BBC Arab News Service before joining Al Jazeera, and Dima Khatib, a Syrian journalist and a producer at Al Jazeera. Samir Khader later became the editor of Al-Jazeera. Josh Rushing started working for Al Jazeera English in 2006, Shuster started working for Al Jazeera America in 2013. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2004, and was released on May 21, 2004, by Magnolia Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics, but has been criticized for bias. Noujaim has acknowledged this lack of objectivity, stating "I am not saying it is the truth, but it is our truth." The film was nominated for Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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