Docs I Love: Operation Filmmaker

Helping Baghdad film student, Muthana Mohmed, after his film school was bombed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, by the United States, must have seemed like the right thing to do for actor/ filmmaker Liev Schreiber.

Schreiber, who at the time, was preparing to direct “Everything is Illuminated,” felt he could provide the young film student an invaluable ‘on set’ learning experience. However the menial responsibilities of a PA bore and aggravate Mohmed. He wants to direct. This is the set-up for Nina Davenport’s documentary OPERATION FILMMAKER.

What follows is the story of how the Mohmed and Davenport relationship deteriorates as the Iraqi struggles to avoid returning to his war torn country. This is a film about filmmaking, cultural differences, war, survival and the relationship between the filmmaker and film subject. Rarely does a documentary so honestly show a filmmaker crossing the objective/ journalistic line and becoming a part of the story.


Both OPERATION FILMMAKER and LOST IN WOONSOCKET tackle the sticky relationship between filmmaker and subject.