Startling and powerful, Control Room is 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 Room allows 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. The station has revealed (and continues to show the world) everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration did not want it to see.
Control room is a rate film that is both timely and timeless: timeless because it ecplores the ancient and complex relationship between the western and Arab worlds, timely because it reveals how satellite television has changed the way wars are reported- from news providers, driven by the patriotism of their audiences, to army information officers, driven by military objectives. Control room is a seminal documentary that explores how truth is gathered, presented, and ultimately created by those who deliver it.