Al-Jazeera Exclusive
( plays with The Blind Orchestra )
[ALJAZ]  Nonfiction Features of 2003

Great Britain, 2003, 60 min, Color, BetaSP
In English, Arabic with English subtitles
International Premiere

DIR: Ben Anthony
EXEC PROD: David Belton
PROD: Ben Anthony
ED: Karen O'Connor
  
Film Resources
  Al-Jazeera Exclusive and The Blind Orchestra are part of the same program. Both films are included in the price of admission.


The so-called "Second Gulf War" did nobody any real credit, but the BBC emerged with an enhanced reputation for fairness and objectivity, at least when compared with the US news-gathering teams. Only after the major assault on Saddam's Iraq ended was it revealed that the BBC went further than licensing images from the Qatar-based satellite station al-Jazeera to provide some sense of the Arabic perspective on events. The Corporation also sent producer Ben Anthony to the station to record the processes that brought al-Jazeera's coverage of the conflict to the screen. His film (made for the often distinguished BBC series Correspondent) offers a unique and extremely valuable insight into the Arabic view of the Coalition's invasion of Iraq.

Anthony's camera records a number of key moments: the day when Saddam's ministers tried to ban al-Jazeera, the al-Jazeera decision to screen images of American and British corpses, the "accidental" bombing of the hotel in Baghdad where al-Jazeera's reporters were based and the reaction of al-Jazeera staff to the death of its reporter in that blast. We see a professional (but underfunded) newsroom in operation and we witness them catching other broadcasters pirating their material. In short, Anthony's Al-Jazeera Exclusive does what all the best documentaries do: it show you things that no-one else is showing you.
 - Tony Rayns
 
Screening Schedule
 Date Time Venue Tickets 
 Sat, Sep 27 6:00 pm Granville 7 Cinema 5 $9.00   
 Wed, Oct 1 10:30 am Granville 7 Cinema 5 $7.00   
 Thu, Oct 2 10:00 am Pacific Cinémathèque $7.00   
   
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