John C Lyons
Veteran
you guys should definitely check this one out. I believe it just came out yesterday on DVD:
http://operationfilmmaker.com/index.html
Soon after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, a young and charismatic film student, Muthana Mohmed, stands in the rubble of the city's film school and explains to an American television audience that his dream of becoming a filmmaker has been destroyed - first by Saddam Hussein, then by American bombs. This brief, fortuitous appearance on MTV changes Muthana's life forever. Watching in the United States, actor/director Liev Schreiber stops channel surfing, utterly captivated. Feeling guilty about a war he opposed, Schreiber decides to extend to the unknown Iraqi the opportunity of a lifetime - to come to Prague to work on an American movie, Everything is Illuminated. On set, frustrated expectations complicate the relationship between Muthana and his American benefactors in what becomes a cross-cultural endeavor gone awry. Filmmaker Nina Davenport becomes increasingly entangled in the young Iraqi's life as his visa is about to expire and the threat of returning to Baghdad looms. Operation Filmmaker, revealing on several levels, addresses the power dynamics between the American filmmaker and her Iraqi subject, unfolding as an engaging parable about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. (from IMDb)
my thoughts -- as a filmmaker myself trying to get people to see my work and catch a break, it was great to see how pretty much everyone in the industry that Muthana crossed paths with really reached out to help him. with both connections and $. and equally it was just so damned frustrating to seem him drop the ball time and time again with the opportunities given. this is a unique documentary and i really enjoyed it.
http://operationfilmmaker.com/index.html
Soon after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, a young and charismatic film student, Muthana Mohmed, stands in the rubble of the city's film school and explains to an American television audience that his dream of becoming a filmmaker has been destroyed - first by Saddam Hussein, then by American bombs. This brief, fortuitous appearance on MTV changes Muthana's life forever. Watching in the United States, actor/director Liev Schreiber stops channel surfing, utterly captivated. Feeling guilty about a war he opposed, Schreiber decides to extend to the unknown Iraqi the opportunity of a lifetime - to come to Prague to work on an American movie, Everything is Illuminated. On set, frustrated expectations complicate the relationship between Muthana and his American benefactors in what becomes a cross-cultural endeavor gone awry. Filmmaker Nina Davenport becomes increasingly entangled in the young Iraqi's life as his visa is about to expire and the threat of returning to Baghdad looms. Operation Filmmaker, revealing on several levels, addresses the power dynamics between the American filmmaker and her Iraqi subject, unfolding as an engaging parable about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. (from IMDb)
my thoughts -- as a filmmaker myself trying to get people to see my work and catch a break, it was great to see how pretty much everyone in the industry that Muthana crossed paths with really reached out to help him. with both connections and $. and equally it was just so damned frustrating to seem him drop the ball time and time again with the opportunities given. this is a unique documentary and i really enjoyed it.
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