The film documents the beginning of the second Gulf war from Al-Jazeera’s headquarters in Qatar and introduces us to the people behind the scenes of the Middle East’s only independent news station. Its top journalists (many of whom were schooled in Western universities and cut their teeth as BBC reporters) talk openly about trying to maintain their journalistic integrity while drawing ideas from their own political passions. They are driven to get the real story, but once they do, the Iraq war looks a lot different when covered from an Arab perspective. There are civilian casualties, flawed American policies and Red Cross reports warning of a humanitarian crisis. “I’ve lived in America and the Middle East, and I was always amazed at how differently they each covered the same events,” says Noujaim. “I made this film because I feel, now, it’s crucial that there’s some kind of understanding between the cultures.”
