Control Room
I just finished watching a documentary film called Control Room. I tell you, it's a must watch! Truly moving and entertaining.
It is a film documenting the events at the media operations center at the US Central Command (CentCom) in Doha, Qatar during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. It's been out since 2004 and has been broadcast on a few channels. The film, although made by an independent film maker, has a main focus on Al-Jazeera (the growing and supposedly modern Arab TV network) which paves the way for an alternative perspective on things than which the patriotic US TV networks bombard us all with. It follows through the events with snippets of riveting conversations between people at CentCom. It features interviews with a US Press Officer named Josh Rushing, a senior producer at Al-Jazeera named Samir Khader and journalist Hassan Ibrahim also with Al-Jazeera as the main characters along with minor snippets from a lady producer at Al-Jazeera, a dude at CNN and a few others.
I just took to the bother of naming these fellows because their conversations truly enriched the experience of the film. I especially adore the comments and conversations it showed with the very articulate and intelligent Samir Khader. The US Marine, Josh Rushing, has since left the Marines and joined Al-Jazeera International, which is quite amusing since he is seen making comments throughout much of the film about how detestable the things Al-Jazeera was showing was. However, there is a particular moment later in the film as the war progressed, where he reflects on a moment where he realized that he was offended by the images of dead/injured Americans on Al-Jazeera yet wasn't so much bothered when he saw western media showing equally, if not more horrific, images of Iraqi people. The film also follows the events surrounding the death of a Al-Jazeera reporter in Baghdad due to a direct bombing of the Al-Jazeera office by a US war plane. Lots of tears and anger but all keep calm for the most part despite that they all think it was an intentional attack by the US.
Anyway, that is too much of a spoiler. Grab the film at your local video store (unlikely in Male' :p) or scrounge around the net for it. A little birdie tells me its on Rapidshare
It is a film documenting the events at the media operations center at the US Central Command (CentCom) in Doha, Qatar during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. It's been out since 2004 and has been broadcast on a few channels. The film, although made by an independent film maker, has a main focus on Al-Jazeera (the growing and supposedly modern Arab TV network) which paves the way for an alternative perspective on things than which the patriotic US TV networks bombard us all with. It follows through the events with snippets of riveting conversations between people at CentCom. It features interviews with a US Press Officer named Josh Rushing, a senior producer at Al-Jazeera named Samir Khader and journalist Hassan Ibrahim also with Al-Jazeera as the main characters along with minor snippets from a lady producer at Al-Jazeera, a dude at CNN and a few others.
I just took to the bother of naming these fellows because their conversations truly enriched the experience of the film. I especially adore the comments and conversations it showed with the very articulate and intelligent Samir Khader. The US Marine, Josh Rushing, has since left the Marines and joined Al-Jazeera International, which is quite amusing since he is seen making comments throughout much of the film about how detestable the things Al-Jazeera was showing was. However, there is a particular moment later in the film as the war progressed, where he reflects on a moment where he realized that he was offended by the images of dead/injured Americans on Al-Jazeera yet wasn't so much bothered when he saw western media showing equally, if not more horrific, images of Iraqi people. The film also follows the events surrounding the death of a Al-Jazeera reporter in Baghdad due to a direct bombing of the Al-Jazeera office by a US war plane. Lots of tears and anger but all keep calm for the most part despite that they all think it was an intentional attack by the US.
Anyway, that is too much of a spoiler. Grab the film at your local video store (unlikely in Male' :p) or scrounge around the net for it. A little birdie tells me its on Rapidshare
