MOVIES: AL-JAZEERA FROM INSIDE

The Arab news station Al-Jazeera has been described by the Bush administration as a "mouthpiece for Osama bin Laden," by Middle East leaders as a conduit for American propaganda and now by film critics as a catalyst for the most successful documentary of the year. "Control Room," directed by American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, broke documentary box-office attendance records in New York when it opened May 21 and is expected to pick up more steam (and get more people steamed) when it opens nationwide in select theaters Friday. "The name Al-Jazeera is of automatic interest to Americans," says Noujaim, 30, who graduated from Harvard and coproduced the award-winning documentary "Startup.com." "It's so demonized, even hated, yet no one really knows anything about it. But you figure if they're pissing everyone off--Americans and Arabs--they must be doing something right."

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."