Gaza War Films

Films are often the most powerful and effective way to depict and share indescribably (by words) horrendous situations, such as the Israeli war crimes and genocide against Gaza. Made possible by U.S. weapons and billions of dollars. “What are YOU afraid of?” is particularly graphic and should not be seen by children.

These days, though, to offer any criticism of Israel and its war is to invite death threats as described below.

No filmmaker, writer or artist should ever have to tell the story of their own extermination. Yet 22 courageous Palestinian filmmakers found a way to film their story this past year in Gaza using whatever tools they could pull from the rubble of their homes and cities.
Michael Moore on From Ground Zero

From Ground Zero

Michael Moore recently wrote about From Ground Zero, Stories from Gaza, that he is the Executive Producer for.

I’m personally honored to inform you that Palestine’s entry to this year’s Academy Awards, the brilliant film FROM GROUND ZERO, has recently been voted by the members of the Motion Picture Academy — one of only 15 films worldwide — for this year’s Oscar shortlist for BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE. I am a proud Executive Producer of this acclaimed movie — AND IT OPENED TODAY (1/3/2025) in theaters across America.

FROM GROUND ZERO, the first film ever from Gaza to be elected to the shortlist for the Oscar in the category that honors what used to be known as the Best Foreign Film of the Year, is unlike any movie you’ve ever seen — filmed during a mass slaughter of over 50,000 civilians, the vast majority of them children, women and the elderly. In a brisk and powerful one hour and fifty-two minutes, it weaves together 22 short films made by 22 courageous Palestinian filmmakers living and surviving in Gaza over this past year — all of it told in under 2 hours!

These are stories not being told anywhere. You do not see these stories on the evening news. Military leaders prohibit access so that journalists and filmmakers cannot bring us the truth. Even though you and I pay for this war and we are the providers of all these horrific weapons, we are not allowed to witness what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have declared to be a genocide and an ethnic cleansing — war crimes committed every day in our name. Instead, we are the victims of a powerful propaganda campaign intended to dehumanize the 5 million human beings in all the Occupied Palestinian Territories who are forced to live imprisoned behind walls and barbed wire, forced into starvation, nearly every hospital and school in Gaza bombed to smithereens, half the country’s homes reduced to rubble.

My friends, FROM GROUND ZERO mixes dramatic storytelling, documentary, animation — all genres of cinema to make this one of the most compelling films you’ll see this year. Working with whatever tools they were able to pull from the rubble of their homes and their cities, these filmmakers have come together to share these stories with us. And their work is already being honored. Academy voters in this early round of voting have declared this to be an exceptional film. These are filmmakers voting, not politicians and pundits. They recognize this brilliant movie for what it is: A masterwork of great art.

Find the nearest theater to you here: https://fromgroundzero.url.film

https://www.watermelonpictures.com/films/from-ground-zero

No Other Land

We continue our conversation with Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham, who discusses the award-winning documentary No Other Land that he co-directed with Palestinian activist Basel Adra, about land dispossession in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank. While accepting the audience award for best documentary at the Berlin International Film Festival, also known as the Berlinale, Abraham said Israel was practicing apartheid, a comment for which he later received death threats. “You have German politicians who are not Jewish who labeled me as an antisemite. For what? For calling for a ceasefire? For calling for equality between Israelis and Palestinians? For using the word ‘apartheid,’ which should be common sense to describe these parallel systems of inequality?” says Abraham, who calls for an end to the “apartheid reality” in Israel and Palestine. “If there is no full political equality and really full freedom to everybody who lives in this land, then there can be no future here. We are going to continue to fight to change this.”

Israeli Director of “No Other Land” Slams Claims of Antisemitism over Apartheid Comment at Berlinale, Democracy Now, April 5, 2024

What are YOU afraid of?

On the eve of Election Day, please watch this to see what you are voting for. Show your elderly family members who don’t have social media. Show your stubborn friends who don’t keep up with American foreign policy. Show everyone what voting for Biden has brought on the world. Vote third party. Break the system. Brace yourself.

May this video move you in the right direction. Vote like a U.S. funded Israeli air strike is headed to your home, your parents’ home, your local mosque, your child’s preschool. Vote like you left to look for bread and came home to the empty flesh of your loved ones.

Speaker: Sami Hamdi @SALHACHIMI
Host: Muhammad Jalal @jalalayn of @thinking_muslim
Video: njmedstudents4falasteen (IG)