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September 23, 2005
Control Room Update
In Control Room (my review), Jehane Noujaim's 2004 documentary about the coverage of the Iraq war by the Al Jazeera television network, former US Marine captain Josh Rushing (at the time of the film he was a lietenant, as I recall) emerges as one of the more compelling characters in the film. While he is initially optomistic about the war effort, Rushing also demonstrates a willingness to engage in dialogue with the Al Jazeera reporters who are quite literally watching a different war, one that is informed by a much different history. In one of the film's final scenes Rushing agrees to dinner with Sudanese journalist Hassan Ibrahim in a scene that illustrates the possibilities for dialogue.
After the film, it was widely reported that Rushing left the Marines because he was unhappy with their media management. Now, according to The Guardian, Rushing has joined al-Jazeera International. It's certainly interesting to see Rushing's evolution in terms of his relationship to Al Jazeera, which he characterized as an Arab version of Fox News in one scene in Control Room (via Newslab).
Posted by chuck at September 23, 2005 1:01 PM
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Tracked on September 26, 2005 9:23 AM
Comments
Oooh! Oooh! Oooh! I've been meaning to email you about this film for weeks to see what you thought of it. Thanks for linking to that earlier review.
Posted by: Clancy at September 23, 2005 3:47 PM
Sure, nice timing. Have you seen it yet? If so, what did you think?
Regarding my film reviews: I need to think about a better way of organizing them. I have a search function and the "movie review" category, but, to name one example, I really like Amardeep's sidebar with its links to many of his film and music and book reviews....
Posted by: Chuck at September 23, 2005 9:42 PM
that's amazing that he's joined al-jazeera! fantastic.
Posted by: cynthia at September 26, 2005 9:15 AM
Yeah, I was pretty amazed as well. I'll be curious to see what he does with that position...
Posted by: Chuck ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://chutry.wordherders.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 26, 2005 10:42 AM