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Movies / On DVD / Operation Filmmaker
Operation Filmmaker

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Operation Filmmaker (2008)

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Reviews Counted:29

Fresh:26

Rotten:3

Average Rating:7.2/10

Consensus: Operation Filmmaker is a darkly funny, ironic tale of a cross-cultural exchange gone wrong.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

Genre: Education/General Interest

Theatrical Release:Jun 4, 2008 Limited

Synopsis: 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... 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 (Everything Is Illuminated). 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.--© Official Site [More]

Director: Nina Davenport

Director: Nina Davenport
Producer: David Schisgall, Nina Davenport
Composer: Sheldon Mirowitz
Studio: First Run Features

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Release:

Jan 13, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • When Hollywood gives a young Iraqi film student the opportunity of a lifetime, nothing goes according to plan, and the result is an engaging, sometimes comical political parable about do-gooder intentions gone wrong.
  • Source: Icarus Films
  •  
     
     
     

    Reviews for Operation Filmmaker

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    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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    Nina Davenport's unapologetically cunning doc exceeds the sum of its parts to become almost unmanageably allegorical and even an indictment of its own shock-and-awe premise.

    Full Review Source: Film Comment Magazine | comment Comment
    08/24/09
    Rob Nelson
    Rob Nelson
    Film Comment Magazine

    Particularly fascinating is the way in which it this documentary examines the filmmaker's relationship to the film's subject, and the role documentary filmmakers play in shaping their subjects' futures.

    Full Review Source: About.com | comment Comment
    06/27/09
    Jennifer Merin
    Jennifer Merin
    About.com
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
    04/23/09
    Peter Keough
    Peter Keough
    Boston Phoenix

    If learning about other cultures shows that we're all basically alike, Operation Filmmaker is a reminder that foreign countries have their own share of nitwits, too.

    Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
    07/25/08
    Mark Rahner
    Mark Rahner
    Seattle Times

    The antagonism between filmmaker and subject reminds us that reality is never a passive still life, but a volatile entity with its own ideas on how it is to be represented.

    Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
    07/24/08
    Bill White
    Bill White
    Seattle Post-Intelligencer

    Davenport focuses deep on the Hollywood do-gooder mentality and her own complicity in treating Mohmed as a symbol of the war and not as a flawed person.

    Full Review Source: Salt Lake Tribune | comment Comment
    07/18/08
    Sean Means
    Sean Means
    Salt Lake Tribune

    It's fearless filmmaking. And the surprising observations about cultural differences and insights into the movie production process make the whole thing worthwhile.

    Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
    07/17/08
    Jeff Vice
    Jeff Vice
    Deseret News, Salt Lake City

    What might have been a vanity project emerges as a surprisingly complicated morality tale.

    Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
    06/30/08
    Frank Scheck
    Frank Scheck
    Hollywood Reporter
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Everyone here comes out smelling bad -- that's why the film's so good.

    Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
    06/20/08
    Ty Burr
    Ty Burr
    Boston Globe
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    This gut punch of a documentary will knock you for a loop.

    Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
    06/13/08
    Peter Travers
    Peter Travers
    Rolling Stone
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    An exit strategy in Iraq? This self-aware study shows how hard it'll be.

    Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
    06/06/08
    Lisa Schwarzbaum
    Lisa Schwarzbaum
    Entertainment Weekly
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Veteran documentary filmmaker Nina Davenport parses an ill-conceived experiment in cross-cultural understanding that began with the best intentions.

    Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
    06/06/08
    Maitland McDonagh
    Maitland McDonagh
    TV Guide's Movie Guide

    The whole film could be seen a metaphor for America's misadventures in Iraq: Schreiber and company came in expecting flowers and sweets from a grateful native, and wound up in a quagmire.

    Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
    06/06/08
    Scott Tobias
    Scott Tobias
    AV Club

    A ruefully funny cautionary tale about cross-cultural tone-deafness.

    Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
    06/06/08
    Lou Lumenick
    Lou Lumenick
    New York Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    You can bet Nina Davenport didn't set out to make a documentary as bracingly honest as the one she ended up with.

    Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
    06/06/08
    Elizabeth Weitzman
    Elizabeth Weitzman
    New York Daily News
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    The film's parallels between Mohmed's travails and the Iraq war are forced, but overall this is a fascinating odyssey that never plays out in ways you would expect.

    Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
    06/06/08
    Peter Rainer
    Peter Rainer
    Christian Science Monitor

    As the story of an exasperating, manipulative, lazy and entitled young man, it’s one for the books.

    Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
    06/06/08
    Mark Keizer
    Mark Keizer
    Boxoffice Magazine

    A blunt, bitterly ironic snapshot of cultural misinterpretation and personal hubris, Nina Davenport’s Operation Filmmaker slyly plumbs the motivations of indie Hollywood do-goodism for uncomfortable parallels to blinkered neocon nation-building.

    Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
    06/05/08
    Mark Holcomb
    Mark Holcomb
    Time Out New York

    Despite the dubious moral of the film and on-the-fly camera technique, it is interesting to watch the pathetic story unfold.

    Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
    06/04/08
    Eric Monder
    Eric Monder
    Film Journal International

    Engaging, provocative, and often discomforting, Operation Filmmaker reveals increasing tensions between Muthana and his would-be benefactors, including filmmaker Nina Davenport.

    Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
    06/04/08
    Cynthia Fuchs
    Cynthia Fuchs
    PopMatters
     
     
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