In the spring of 2003, just before President Bush declared that the United States would go to war with Iraq, documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim and her crew set up their cameras inside Al Jazeera, the satellite news network for the Arab world. Though US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld accuses Al Jazeera of lying in its news reports, CONTROL ROOM tells a different story. Candid interviews with some of Al Jezeera's leaders - like Sudanese journalist Hassan Ibrahim who formerly headed the BBC Arab News service, and senior producer Samir Khader who talks openly about his respect for American values - offer an Arab perspective on the US and the war. Meanwhile, Americans such as NBC correspondent David Shuster and Central Command press officer Lt. Josh Rushing, both working in Qatar, offer another point of view. Through various interviews, Al Jazeera is presented as a grass-roots organization devoted to being an independent news source. In addition, it is not afraid of showing the brutality of war. The station airs shocking footage of the devastation caused by US bombings, showing the resultant carnage of Iraqi civilians, Iraqi soldiers, as well as US soldiers. The Al Jazeera reporters dissect US news reports, which rarely contain coverage of this nature, pointing out how information is packaged to exclude certain truths. When asked her opinion of objectivity, Al Jazeera producer Deema Khatib calls it a mirage, which is a powerful statement about the foggy nature of truth as interpreted by the media. A fascinating look inside Al Jazeera, CONTROL ROOM will challenge viewers to question what to believe from the news they receive.
