Control Room

Jehane Noujaim's startlingly courageous "Control Room" provides a rare window into the international perception of the Iraq War, courtesy of Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular TV news outlet. Roundly criticised by Cabinet members and Pentagon officials for reporting with a pro-Iraqi bias, and strongly condemned for frequently airing civilian casualties as well as footage of American POWs, the station showed the world everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration did not want it to see. In Noujaim's film, Al Jazeera is portrayed as the home base of dedicated journalists, whose passion for truth and open information are easily the equal of their American counterparts, and who pay a deadly price for it. "Control Room" is an astonishing film that challenges our complacency and, perhaps, our assumptions.