Control Room (2004) on Netflix
NR20041h 24mDocumentaryWar
Al Jazeera, a news channel based in Doha, covers the invasion of Iraq for Arab viewers. Its producers and correspondents report the story as US officials call the coverage propaganda.
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- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.6/105,378 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Qatari channel Al Jazeera becomes the most popular news outlet in the Arab world. Its staff, among them senior producer Samir Khader and journalists Hassan Ibrahim and Dima Khatib, handle the war's images, including Iraqi civilian casualties and footage of captured American soldiers, which draw complaints from Washington. A few miles away at US Central Command, press officers present the American side of the same war, and reporters embedded with US units live and work alongside the troops under a Pentagon policy of March 2003. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld calls the network's reporting propaganda, while Iraq's information minister, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, accuses it of carrying American propaganda instead.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Control Room (2004)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director Jehane Noujaim, with little funding or equipment, traveled to Doha, Qatar, after failing to reach Al Jazeera, and waited weeks in the network's guard office before getting a meeting, arranged through Abdallah Schleifer. She was first allowed to film for only three days.
- Noujaim raised just $US60,000 for the film, which she said she made "as cheaply as she could", and shot it in 30 days in the Middle East, staying in an inexpensive Pakistani hotel in Doha with cinematographer Hani Salama.
- The BBC was originally to fund the film, but Noujaim's plan was passed to BBC director Ben Anthony, who made Al Jazeera Exclusive. Anthony got exclusive access to the Al Jazeera newsroom, leaving Noujaim to shoot elsewhere, including the control room that gave her film its title.
- Four editors from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds volunteered six months of their time to edit the film, and payback for everyone involved depended on how well the documentary was received.
SPOILER
Critics questioned the film's sequence showing Al Jazeera cameraperson Tariq Ayoob killed by a US A10 aircraft, asking whether a US aircraft really fired the missile or whether footage from a completely different incident had been rearranged.- Noujaim said walking around with a broomstick as a boom mic and a half-broken camera was an advantage: the crew looked like a very low budget, non-threatening production and could stay small.
