Jehane Noujaim, creator of the documentary “Control Room” about the Arab news network Al-Jazeera, told a group of about 60 students, faculty and community members Monday that Americans are missing an important perspective on the war in Iraq.
“The American news never seemed to get at why we’re going in there (Iraq),” Noujaim said at the speech in the McCormick Tribune Center. “Why aren’t we hearing what the Iraqi people are feeling?”
Noujaim, who has lived in Egypt and the United States, spoke about her experiences directing, producing and filming “Control Room” as part of the Center for International and Comparative Studies’ Islam in the World series. She said the main idea for the film was to show Al-Jazeera’s point of view.
“How is this news being made?” she asked. Al-Jazeera, she said, is the largest, most-viewed channel in the Arab world, so she felt it was important to know the answer.
Noujaim chronicled the process of getting access to Al-Jazeera and the difficulties she encountered. Over a few days, she taped more than 300 hours of footage, which was eventually shrunk down to an hour-and-a-half movie.
During the question-and-answer session, Noujaim was asked about Al-Jazeera’s trustworthiness as a news source.
“I don’t think any single news source is a trustworthy source of news,” she said. But she said she believes Al-Jazeera has changed since the beginning of the Iraq war, especially because of changes in its management. It has been forced to be tougher on journalists’ fact-checking to ensure that what is being reported is accurate. She also noted Al-Jazeera’s bias toward Sunni opinion in Iraq.
Several students said the speech was enlightening to media and war issues in the Arab world.
“In general American thought, I don’t think people realize the immediacy of (the war in Iraq),” Music freshman Daphne Nichols said. “I decided I wanted to inform myself and tell some people back home about it.”
Weinberg freshman Jason Gutstein said he attended the lecture to learn about Al-Jazeera’s effect on the media in general. He said he appreciated the viewpoint Noujaim offered.
“It takes really courageous people to go out and really find out the stories even when they are pressured to show a specific point of view,” he said.
Noujaim also spoke about her current projects, including a film about a Lebanese man. She said she makes films because she feels that other people are interested in what she has to say and she enjoys the investigative process.
“You get to be this little spy,” she said.
Reach Christina Amoroso at [email protected].
