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DIRECTOR'S NOTES
An Arab-American, Control
Room director Jehane Noujaim
has lived in and embraced both cultures. Her curiousity
about Al-Jazeera was sparked when the station was
roundly criticized by the U.S. government. Yet when
she traveled home to Egypt, her father would be watching.
"If Al-Jazeera makes
so many governments upset, yet is really loved by
the population as a whole, they must be doing something
right."
Traveling to and
from both countries she saw that the same international
story would be presented in very different ways. "I've
always questioned how is it possible to have a peaceful
world, people talking to each other and understanding
each other when there are completely different views
being told to people."
Noujaim traveled to Qatar, Al-Jazeera's main headquarters
and the location of the U.S. Central Command three
weeks before the war began to examine the media's
vital war in writing history.
She was awed by U.S. Central Command, which she describes
as a 'news factory'. "We
were sitting in the middle of the desert 700 miles
away from Baghdad, thousands of miles from the Pentagon
where all the decisions were happening, and yet all
of the news was coming out of this place."
Abdallah Schleifer, executive producer of Control
Room led Noujaim to the one of the film's most compelling
characters, Lt. Rushing, a public affairs officer
at Central Command. "He
had perhaps the most difficult job of all the press
officers - he had to explain to the Arab press what
the U.S.'s position on the war was in the face of
constant confrontation with vastly different points
of view."
Convincing the staff at Al-Jazeera
to participate was difficult because the network doesn't
encourage publicity, especially with the often critical
Western media. Noujaim spent a week sitting in Al-Jazeera's
cafeteria where she finally connected with two the of
the film's central characters, Hassan Ibrahim and Samir
Khader. Both agreed to participate because "they
felt like we were trying to understand how the news
was being created at Al-Jazeera and at Centcom rather
than trying to forward some agenda."
"The
journalists (at Al-Jazeera) were like any others trying
to do their job. The exciting thing about it was that
it really felt like they were on some kind of a mission.
They see themselves as pioneers in media in the Arab
world."
But their job was a little different from the hordes
of foreign journalists who traveled to Qatar to cover
the story. "You have
an Iraqi translator at Al-Jazeera translating Bush
as he announced the freeing of the Iraqi people, and
then calling home to see if his family was okay -
the war was really a part of their lives."
Noujaim saw the strong emotions that the scenes of
war elicited from the crew there. It reminded her
of American reporters covering 9/11. "This
- I think - is why Al-Jazeera reporters focused so
much on the victims of war, which they were harshly
criticized for."
Foreign journalists working at
Centcom were very reluctant to participate because
many had signed contracts with their networks stating
that they would not voice their personal opinions
about what was happening during the war. Noujaim attributes
the 'climate of fear' to the firing of journalist
Peter Arnett for talking to Iraqi Television.
Tom Mintier, a senior correspondent at CNN was one
of the few to talk openly with her. "He
was always questioning Centcom's methods of operation."
The film captures a tense moment when Mintier accuses
the press officers at Central Command of 'burying
the lead' when they offer the media details of Jessica
Lynch's rescue on the same day American troops entered
Baghdad.
Noujaim says that she really got access to the heart
of the story through her characters. "With
all of them there was an element of surprise. We never
knew how they'd react."
FILM
CREW BIOGRAPHIES
JEHANE NOUJAIM, DIRECTOR
Jehane Noujaim began as a photographer and filmmaker
in Cairo, Egypt, where she grew up. She moved to Boston
in 1990, where she attended Harvard University and
graduated magna cum laude in Visual Arts and Philosophy
in 1996. Earlier that year, Noujaim was awarded the
Gardiner fellowship, under which she directed Mokattam,
an Arabic film about an Egyptian garbage-collecting
village. She then joined the MTV News and Documentary
division as a producer for the documentary series
Unfiltered.
Noujaim left her producing job at MTV to produce and
direct Startup.com
in association with Pennebaker Hedgedus Films. The
highly acclaimed documentary has won numerous awards
including the DGA and IDA Awards for best documentary.
She has since worked in both the Middle East and the
U.S. as a director and cinematographer on various
documentaries including Born
Rich (Jamie Johnson), Only
the Strong Survive (D.A.
Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus), and Down
from the Mountain (D.A.
Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus & Nick Doob).
ABDALLAH SCHLEIFER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Professor Schleifer is the publisher and senior editor
of Transnational Broadcasting Studies (TBS) an electronic
journal at www.tbsjournal.com,
and is the director of the Adham Center for Television
Journalism and a distinguished lecturer in mass communication
at the American University in Cairo. Prior to joining
the AUC faculty, Schleifer served as NBC News Cairo
Bureau Chief and Middle East producer/reporter based
in Beirut. He has covered the Middle East for American
and Arab media for over 20 years. In 1997-8, on sabbatical
leave from AUC for the academic year, Schleifer signed
on for a one-year assignment to reorganize the ART
Broadcast and Production Center in Avezzano, Italy
as its managing director.
ROSADEL VARELA, PRODUCER (USA)
Rosadel Varela has over ten years of experience in
both film and television. Early in her career she
worked at MTV Networks in the News/Documentary and
Production divisions as a freelance producer. Some
of her credits include Unfiltered,
The Video Music Awards,
The State,
House of Style,
and many programs for the True
Life documentary series.
In 1998, she became a member of the highly selective
Directors Guild of America Assistant Director Training
Program. There, she worked alongside directors such
as Woody Allen, Penny Marshall, John Singleton, and
Nicole Holofcener. On the television side, she worked
on some of the most successful television series in
history including Law &
Order and Sex
& the City. Varela
graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut
and holds a Producers Certificate from the Business
of Entertainment Program at NYU.
HANI SALAMA, PRODUCER (Middle East)
Hani Salama is currently completing his Master’s
Degree in Journalism at the American University in
Cairo. He was awarded the prestigious Kamal Adham
Fellowship for Television Journalism and has worked
as a freelance producer for NBC, CNBC, MBC, and as
a cameraman for BBC, CBC and MTV.
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