By JOÃO LANARI BO*
Commentary on the joint work of 22 Palestinian filmmakers
Stories from ground zero is a collection of short films shot in the Gaza Strip, filmed in the midst of one of the greatest human torments in the era of modern conflicts. Mixing documentaries about private tragedies, subjective and perplexing testimonies, and artistic activities involving children, the work brings together 22 Palestinian filmmakers who have dedicated themselves to recording their vision of what is happening in the routine of terror that has befallen the population since Israel began bombing the area.
The violent attack by Hamas in October 2023 – and the completely disproportionate Israeli response that followed – catapulted the conflict in the region to a new and unprecedented level, which seems to have no end.
Today, there are said to be 50 Palestinian victims, most of them children, women and citizens with no connection to Hamas – simple local inhabitants. The Gaza Strip and its little over two million inhabitants are the product, among other things, of a regulatory effort on top of a complex territorial situation, which began with the creation of the State of Israel by the UN in 1947.
There was no agreement with the Palestinians who lived there – wars followed and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people who lived in the territories occupied by the Israelis to the narrow strip to the south, surrounded by Israel, the Mediterranean and Egypt, known as the Gaza Strip.
Supervised by director and producer Rashid Masharawi, Stories from ground zero It is undoubtedly a remarkable achievement. Michael Moore, the combative American filmmaker, served as executive producer. It is clear that the production conditions were the most precarious possible, in general the shots were made with cell phones – that small device that has spread around the globe and radically impacted the capture and memory of images and sounds.
Eventually, cameras and equipment are used, there is also animation and stop motion: camera movements can be elusive and veiled, recording a pulse of the gaze that directly refers to the ongoing war. They can also be unexpected movements, the degree of sophistication varies between the shorts, but they all have a common ground – to inform and alert the rest of the world about the borderline state in which they find themselves.
Some constants run through the documentary and provide a guiding thread for understanding the context. The beach and the contemplation of the infinite scenic space of the sea function as momentary visual relief; the frightening buzz of drones patrolling Gaza's airspace haunts the invisible; bodies trapped under piles of rubble in previously populated areas; tents of refugees who have been left homeless and are forced to live with every imaginable limitation in terms of infrastructure.
The torture of the nights – when the bombings intensify and news of deaths and injuries arrives – is another point frequently addressed in the testimonies.
Stories from ground zero does not intend to describe in graphic detail life in Gaza – which is, in fact, the subject of coverage by the mainstream media, which imposes its rules of spectacle, such as the ephemeral news cycle and the editorial bias with which they are produced. The shorts are a kind of entry point, a means by which these filmmakers process their painful present and sketch out hopeful visions of the future.
The films, which average three to six minutes in length, were commissioned by Rashid Masharawi, who simply asked a diverse group of residents to come up with projects that depicted daily life in the Palestinian territory. There was no pre-determined genre: many, especially those that record children's artistic activities, have an encouraging purpose.
Others narrate experiences of death, displacement and survival. And others somehow record the fact that they are still alive.
In January 2025, a temporary peace halted Israeli attacks, brokered by the populist bluster of President Donald Trump. It did not last long: in dawn of March 17th, Israel launched a series of attacks that broke the truce between the two sides and left 413 dead and 660 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a right-wing coalition in Israel, the war against Hamas “is changing the face of the Middle East.” He concludes: “It is a war of rebirth.”.
In a situation in which the containment advocated by the UN multilateral system seems to have collapsed once and for all – Trump's desire for territorial conquest, the Russian imperialist invasion of Ukraine – there are few options left for the Palestinians in Gaza.
*João Lanari Bo He is a professor of cinema at the Faculty of Communication at the University of Brasília (UnB). Author, among other books, of Cinema for Russians, Cinema for Soviets (Time Bazaar) [https://amzn.to/45rHa9F]
Reference
Stories from ground zero
Directed by: Rashid Masharawi
Executive Producer: Michael Moore
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