Tonight’s Pick: Operation Filmmaker at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

No good deed goes unpunished, but that’s not the worst of it---the people who set Operation Filmmaker in motion escaped after a few months, while director Nina Davenport was entwined for three years. It all began when Liev Schreiber spotted Iraqi film student Muthana Mohmed on an MTV reality show, rhapsodizing about Angelina Jolie. Schreiber invited Mohmed to Prague as an intern on the set of Everything Is Illuminated, his directorial debut. Mohmed proved too proud, or too lazy, to be a good production assistant, and Schreiber and producer Peter Saraf ultimately stopped trying to help him. But Davenport, who’d been enlisted to document the internship, continued filming as Mohmed fought to avoid returning to Baghdad and begged everyone in sight for money or aid. Davenport’s and Mohmed’s messy relationship ultimately became the subject of this fascinating film, a character study that abandons all pretense of documentary objectivity. The film shows at 8 p.m. at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s Ring Auditorium, 7th St. & Independence Ave. SW. Free. (202) 633-1000. ---Mark Jenkins