OPERATION FILMMAKER

NINA DAVENPORT
2007 (95 MIN) HDCAM

This is the story of how well-intentioned Americans try to intervene in the life of an Iraqi. And how nothing goes as planned.

One year after the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, MTV aired a documentary about Muthana Mohmed, a twenty-five-year-old Baghdad film student. Muthana had a winning smile and indomitable spirit, but his film school had been bombed to pieces. The American actor Liev Schreiber saw the MTV piece while preparing to direct his first feature. Feeling guilty for having so much opportunity while someone else had none, Schreiber invited Muthana to join the production of Everything Is Illuminated in the Czech Republic. It seemed like a dream come true, a story of bridging cultures, so documentary director Nina Davenport went along to film it. Soon after Muthana arrives in Prague, the contrasts between his life experience and everyone else's prove gaping. At night, he watches television images of escalating violence in Baghdad; by day, he listens as crew members discuss the importance of editing a gag reel. When Muthana declares his love for George Bush, the liberal producers are taken aback. Living away from his family for the first time, Muthana also isn't accustomed to taking care of himself. He has difficulty managing tasks like renewing his visa, not to mention comprehending expectations on a high-stress film set. The results are often harrowing. As Muthana starts to fear for his safety if he returns to Baghdad, his patrons reach the limits of their charity. No one has a good exit strategy. For Davenport, what's meant to be a month of filming turns into a year and a half. She tells this story, full of remarkable twists and turns, with a sharp eye for humour and surreal juxtapositions. Everyone's motives are questioned, including documentary makers and their "semi-factitious" stories. What's remarkable is Davenport's ability to keep everyone's humanity in focus - their dreams and better inclinations - even as they blunder and grossly misunderstand each other. Are there lessons to be learned? The unintended consequences are too messy and situational to easily say. But in this mix of tragedy and farce, Davenport perfectly captures the follies of our times.

- Thom Powers, Toronto International Film Festival

 

 

NINA DAVENPORT

After studying photography and filmmaking at Harvard College, Nina Davenport completed her first film Hello Photo , a poetic travel documentary about India, which premiered at Rotterdam and won "Best Documentary" at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Her second film Always a Bridesmaid described by the Hollywood Reporter as "dripping with artistic merit" - was autobiographical, and aired on Cinemax/HBO and Channel Four in the U.K. Davenport's third feature, Parallel Lines , a lyrical road movie about the private stories and personal grief of Americans in the aftermath of September 11th, premiered at IDFA (The International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam) in the Joris Ivens competition, and subsequently aired on the BBC's "Storyville," Operation Filmmaker, her most recent film, first screened as a work-in-progress at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2007, where it won the prestigious KNF Dutch Film Critics Award, and later premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Davenport's unique and personal style of documentary has earned her numerous filmmaking awards and grants. She grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and lives in New York City.  

 

 

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