Saturday, January 24, 2004
Another slow-ish film day. I didn’t want to get up early so slept in, posted Friday’s blog, and went to see The Control Room directed by Jehain Noujaim, a woman whose mother is from the US and whose father is Egyptian.
This is another one to skip your parent’s 50th anniversary for. I’m not kidding. Worth not only the $10 I paid for the ticket, but the airfare and hotel, too.
The Control Room is a documentary about al-Jazeera, the Arab world’s most popular news outfit, during the beginning of the war on Iraq. It takes place in Quatar, Al Jazeera’s home country, as well as CentCom (“sounds like sit-com” says one journalist), which is the US military’s press central for the war.
It was compelling, start to finish, because for the first time, we get to see an Arab point of view outside of what Mr. Rumsfeld has to say. To start off, in case you believe Donald, Mr. Rumsfeld claims that Al-Jazeera is the “mouth piece of Osama bin Laden” (and that’s a direct quote). In fact, Al-Jazeera wants to encourage free speech in the Arab world and is “officially” banned in many Arab countries because Al-Jazeera criticizes the governments of many countries for not being more democratic.
The most memorable moment of the film for me came out of the ongoing intimate interviews with one particular US soldier responsible for dealing with the press at CentCom. This soldier opened himself in an unexpected way when he was being interviewed about Al-Jazeera showing the dead and captured US soldiers.
He said that when he saw dead Iraqi people on Al-Jazeera, he didn’t feel very much. However when he saw the dead US soldiers, he was so angry. He realized the hypocrisy of this and said that seeing these deaths make him angry about war but that he’s not yet convinced that war isn’t sometimes necessary.
Not your usual military rhetoric.
I was impressed with the complexity and depth of all the people in the film (except Mr. Rumsfeld of course).
I was more impressed with the Q&A afterwards because the main Al-Jazeera correspondent from the film was present with the director on stage. It was a spirited, passionate discussion afterwards, including a question from three marines in the audience who asked why there weren’t any images showing Iraqi children giving the US soldiers flowers.
I wanted to yell, “I feel like that’s all we see in the US!” But I was humbled later when I went up to the director (with 20 others) and watched the same marine go up to the Al-Jazeera correspondent and tell him that he thought that the world needs Al-Jazeera and that he hoped that the correspondent didn’t take offense. I caught that moment on my digital camera in film & audio. I had my camera turned into portrait mode and need help figuring out how to rotate it. Can nyone help with this one?
I also got the whole Q&A on digital audio but I need to clean it up. Once I tinker with it, I’ll share it here.
Our second film was The Land Has Eyes about a young woman living on Rotuma, an island that’s part of Fiji but is 300 miles south of Fiji. I expected to like it but didn’t. It disappointed on many levels. This film was 90 minutes but should have been a 40 minute short. It was poorly edited, acted, and scripted. Don’t waste any of your money or time on this one, and I won’t waste any more of your time writing about it.
Tomorrow are three award winners:
The Corporation, Audience Favorite for World Cinema Documentary
Super Size Me, Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Directing
Primer, Grand Jury Prize for Drama as well as the Alfred P. Sloan winner for portrayal of a scientist
I’ll blog about those when I get a chance either Sunday night or Monday after I get home (or at the airport if there’s internet access available). I will also have some reflections to post a couple of days after I get back. This has been an amazing experience and I’ve had some thoughts running around in my head and heart that I’d like to share with you later.
This is another one to skip your parent’s 50th anniversary for. I’m not kidding. Worth not only the $10 I paid for the ticket, but the airfare and hotel, too.
The Control Room is a documentary about al-Jazeera, the Arab world’s most popular news outfit, during the beginning of the war on Iraq. It takes place in Quatar, Al Jazeera’s home country, as well as CentCom (“sounds like sit-com” says one journalist), which is the US military’s press central for the war.
It was compelling, start to finish, because for the first time, we get to see an Arab point of view outside of what Mr. Rumsfeld has to say. To start off, in case you believe Donald, Mr. Rumsfeld claims that Al-Jazeera is the “mouth piece of Osama bin Laden” (and that’s a direct quote). In fact, Al-Jazeera wants to encourage free speech in the Arab world and is “officially” banned in many Arab countries because Al-Jazeera criticizes the governments of many countries for not being more democratic.
The most memorable moment of the film for me came out of the ongoing intimate interviews with one particular US soldier responsible for dealing with the press at CentCom. This soldier opened himself in an unexpected way when he was being interviewed about Al-Jazeera showing the dead and captured US soldiers.
He said that when he saw dead Iraqi people on Al-Jazeera, he didn’t feel very much. However when he saw the dead US soldiers, he was so angry. He realized the hypocrisy of this and said that seeing these deaths make him angry about war but that he’s not yet convinced that war isn’t sometimes necessary.
Not your usual military rhetoric.
I was impressed with the complexity and depth of all the people in the film (except Mr. Rumsfeld of course).
I was more impressed with the Q&A afterwards because the main Al-Jazeera correspondent from the film was present with the director on stage. It was a spirited, passionate discussion afterwards, including a question from three marines in the audience who asked why there weren’t any images showing Iraqi children giving the US soldiers flowers.
I wanted to yell, “I feel like that’s all we see in the US!” But I was humbled later when I went up to the director (with 20 others) and watched the same marine go up to the Al-Jazeera correspondent and tell him that he thought that the world needs Al-Jazeera and that he hoped that the correspondent didn’t take offense. I caught that moment on my digital camera in film & audio. I had my camera turned into portrait mode and need help figuring out how to rotate it. Can nyone help with this one?
I also got the whole Q&A on digital audio but I need to clean it up. Once I tinker with it, I’ll share it here.
Our second film was The Land Has Eyes about a young woman living on Rotuma, an island that’s part of Fiji but is 300 miles south of Fiji. I expected to like it but didn’t. It disappointed on many levels. This film was 90 minutes but should have been a 40 minute short. It was poorly edited, acted, and scripted. Don’t waste any of your money or time on this one, and I won’t waste any more of your time writing about it.
Tomorrow are three award winners:
The Corporation, Audience Favorite for World Cinema Documentary
Super Size Me, Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Directing
Primer, Grand Jury Prize for Drama as well as the Alfred P. Sloan winner for portrayal of a scientist
I’ll blog about those when I get a chance either Sunday night or Monday after I get home (or at the airport if there’s internet access available). I will also have some reflections to post a couple of days after I get back. This has been an amazing experience and I’ve had some thoughts running around in my head and heart that I’d like to share with you later.
