Documentary Award
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Operation Filmmaker2007
In the wake of "Operation Iraqi Freedom," American actor Liev Schreiber had an idealistic notion: to rescue an Iraqi film student from the rubble of his country and bring him to the West to intern on a Hollywood movie. It promised to be a heartwarming tale, a small victory out of the troubled mission of the U.S war in Iraq. But as in the war itself, "good" intentions yielded unintended consequences, and even this operation doesn't go according to plan. Director Nina Davenport becomes personally involved in Schreiber's charitable effort, and soon finds herself embroiled in a complex moral quagmire and all-consuming power struggle between filmmaker and subject. OPERATION FILMMAKER is an engaging, sometimes comical political parable, taking the viewer on a riveting ride from Baghdad to Hollywood.
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Member Reviews (1)
This film shows a group of famous people trying to do something charitable and ultimately looking very clueless and opportunistic. It's a really interesting complex situation because now that he's out of Iraq and publicly associating with Americans the main character is in danger of being killed if he returns, so his only option is to go to school and then hopefully get himself a job in the arts that can get him a visa. Of course this is something very hard to do and this film does a wonderful job of showing how these myths of the best of the best being worthy of survival and being symbols of hope for many who don't have those opportunities often fall apart in reality, because they really are nearly unattainable situations that make the heartwarming kind of movie that the director assumed this would be.