Control Room (2004)

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Frequently demonized in the United States as a propaganda machine for Islamic extremists, the Qatar based Al Jazeera news network is the subject of Control Room, a fascinating, even-handed documentary from Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim. Through interviews with Al Jazeera journalists and producers, who come off as passionate about reporting the very human costs of the Iraq war accurately and fairly, without kowtowing to either the region’s repressive governments or the U.S. military, Control Room offers viewers an enlightening glimpse of the Arab world’s view of the conflict.

Granted access to both Al Jazeera’s headquarters and Centcom, the U.S. military run media center in Iraq, Noujaim follows Al Jazeera staffers in their efforts to separate the facts from the spin about the war’s civilian casualties. Well aware that they’re regarded as the mouthpiece of the enemy by many pro war politicos, the men and women of Al Jazeera are first and foremost journalists, deeply committed to presenting the unvarnished truth about the successes and failures of the U.S. led invasion. Of course, maintaining their journalistic objectivity is often difficult, particularly when an errant American rocket kills an Al-Jazeera correspondent in Baghdad. His death briefly gives rise to fears that the U.S. military is targeting Al Jazeera, but aside from this grief-influenced accusation, Noujaim’s interview subjects mostly refrain from lambasting the United States. In fact, world weary Al Jazeera senior producer Sameer Khader confides that he still plans to send his children to American universities so they can pursue the American Dream.

Perhaps the most intriguing exchange in Control Room occurs between the amiable journalist Hassan Ibrahim and military press liaison Lt. Josh Rushing. Without firebrand rhetoric or condescension, Ibrahim patiently explains to Rushing how and why the Arab world remains suspicious of the U.S. led overthrow of the universally despised Hussein. What’s surprising and heartening is the friendship that slowly develops between Ibrahim and the sincere and idealistic Rushing, who drops the military party line long enough to consider the emotional and psychological toll of the war on Iraqi civilians. Rushing’s newfound empathy with the plight of the Iraqis stands in stark contrast to the attitude of another military press liaison, who refuses to acknowledge that the U.S. turned a blind eye to the looting of Baghdad’s museums.

While Noujaim never comes out and openly criticizes the American military’s ongoing occupation of Iraq, Control Room cannily juxtaposes scenes of wartime devastation with clips of Donald Rumsfeld at his most bombastic (and disingenuous, given recent revelations). But her primary focus remains on the journalists from Al Jazeera and the West who strive to report on all aspects of the war, rather than just the images and news items the U.S. military spoon feeds the international press. In these scenes, Control Room has a quietly subversive power that’s extremely compelling.

Structurally, Control Room could be it a lot tighter. It tends to meander and doesn’t always give a clear sense of the war’s chronology. The film would also be stronger if Noujaim had established how Al Jazeera came to be the Middle East’s sole free news network. In the end, however, Noujaim’s documentary is an invaluable record of the media’s role in a war that some analysts have likened to the “quagmire” of Vietnam.

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