Palestine’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards, From Ground Zero, is nothing short of remarkable. Put together by renowned Palestinian director, Rashid Masharawi, it showcases 22 short films made by Gazans since October 7, 2023.
“It’s more than a movie, it’s a miracle,” says Munir Attalla of Watermelon Pictures, the film’s distributor, which released the film across 100+ US cinemas last week. “It’s a stunning feat of resilience and a testament to the undying perseverance of the people of Gaza.”
Renowned American director, Michael Moore, who is part of From Ground Zero’s production team, explains, “No filmmaker, writer, or artist should ever have to tell the story of their own extermination. It’s an honour to stand in solidarity with them.”
The vast majority of From Ground Zero’s 22 filmmakers have lost friends or family to Israeli violence over the last 15 months. One of the short films, Taxi Wanissa, runs half-finished after the director, Etimad Washah, finds out that an Israeli missile killed her brother and nephews.
Tragedy, however, is not the overarching theme of From Ground Zero. Using a combination of fiction, documentary, docu-fiction, animation, and experimental cinema, the film presents a rich diversity of stories reflecting sorrow, joy, and hope.
Amidst some of the most horrific conditions imaginable, Gaza’s vibrant artistic scene shines through this stunning anthology of films, offering an intimate and powerful portrait of daily life in Gaza that transcends the limitations (and failures) of Western news and media.
“I reject the despair, frustration, and ugliness [around me],” says the narrator from No, one of From Ground Zero’s 22 short films.
“If we’re not convinced to say ‘no’ to all of this, then it’s impossible [to go on]. We want to laugh, rejoice, sing, and express our emotions. Yes, there are bombings and destruction that take us back to zero, but that only increases our challenge to overcome.”
The New Arab speaks with Rashid Masharawi to find out more about the film and its journey:
The New Arab: What thought or idea initiated From Ground Zero?
Rashid Masharawi: I was born and raised in Gaza and most of my family are there right now. I’ve spent [decades] showcasing Palestine to the world. But this time, in the weeks after October 7, I realised that I didn’t want to make a film as the filmmaker, especially as I’m outside Gaza and there are so many talented people over there. Instead, I wanted to give them the chance to tell their own stories – as well as provide training for them. My role was just the artistic adviser.
Practically speaking, how did you and the 22 teams pull this off?
It was very difficult most of the time. But, somehow, we managed to complete the project despite everything. How do people film without electricity for their phones, cameras, laptops and internet? Just this lack of electricity was one of our biggest problems.
The filmmakers found themselves across many months in 2024 without battery for days. This meant that I could not be in contact with them. And once we got back in contact, our priority was to make sure that people were alive. Every time we lost contact, we would hear news about our directors losing their homes, their brothers, their mothers or their wider family and friends.
All 22 of them are still alive, but most lost people. One of the filmmakers had seven of her family members killed in Jabalia by Israeli airstrikes. Tragedies like this are going on all the time because there’s no safe place in Gaza. The filmmakers themselves don’t know how they are surviving, but they are.
In terms of camera equipment, some of the 22 directors were beginners and others were professionals. For the beginners, we allowed them to film on mobile phones, because it’s practical and easy, but can still deliver high quality. Of course, sometimes they were too busy to be filming. They were looking for food and water, or evacuating for the second or third time a week.
Helping our filmmakers with the post-production was also very hard. We had a lot of challenges, especially around sound editing due to the Israeli drones, which buzz over Gaza 24 hours a day, every day. We had to keep the noise because most of the films are documentaries, so we can’t deny this reality, but we also needed to edit things well for 5.1 surround sound.
Do you feel part of an artistic movement that is pressuring governments to act?
Yes. I’ve believed in that all my filmmaking career. The Israeli occupation can kill many people because they have the money, the power, the technology, and the support from America. They can massacre us, but they cannot occupy history, they cannot occupy our identity as expressed through cinema – and many other mediums. For me, cinema is just dreaming and thinking. The Israeli occupation cannot steal our dreams, as much as they try.
To what extent have you found your film victim of pro-Israel censorship?
We experienced this from the beginning. At the Cannes Film Festival – which I have attended and won prizes at in the past – I had hoped it would be a great occasion for the film. Disappointingly, the festival told me that they did not want to deal with the tension and sensitivities around this subject, despite the complete lack of political [discourse] in From Ground Zero.
So, I decided that if Cannes did not want to go to Gaza, Gaza had to go to Cannes. This is why I took space there with a big team. We built tents outside the festival hall, like in Rafah. We had a protest screening with press attention. We made it clear that Gaza is here and you must listen to us. This was just in France. On the other hand, we have also experienced very positive invitations and welcomes from other festivals in Europe and elsewhere.
How does your film break from Western media narratives?
If people watch the news then they’re aware of the destruction and death in Gaza. They know about this part of daily life. But there are so many other stories nobody knows about, which is why, from the beginning, I wanted to go for the untold stories on a personal level.
Across the films, the filmmakers are the storytellers, but they are also the story itself. So it was very important to show this part: peoples’ hopes, lives and dreams. They are innocent. Just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bombed as they walked home carrying some bread.
It’s so sad and tough to hear that around 50,000 people have been killed, but it’s maybe even more sad for the people who are still alive and who have witnessed all this destruction. The film is not a political commentary, in this sense. We are just describing human stories. Innocent stories. All through Cinema – and, yes, we were really trying to make cinema. We wanted our directors to express their own art, their own cinema. Hence the variety of genres, united by what I would call a ‘documentary atmosphere’, even if they’re making fiction.
If From Ground Zero can be used as [a testimony] of Israel’s crimes, I would be happy – as documenting the situation is one of our main goals here. But it makes me sad that we should need films and stories like From Ground Zero.
Do we not yet have enough evidence to describe the genocide and crimes being committed? The war has been broadcast live since the start.
How have the 22 filmmakers reacted to the news of the Oscar shortlisting?
We have already screened the film in tents in Gaza so that the filmmakers can share it with their friends and families. Now with this Oscar nomination, everybody is so proud. They are all following the social media around it.
Initially, many of the filmmakers were worried about beginning this project in the first place, as their priority was looking for food or shelter.
Now, 8 of the 22 are making more films for another project I’m working on. Meanwhile, others who were not involved in From Ground Zero, are making films because they’ve been inspired and want to tell their story too. I’m so proud of this feat of Gaza filmmaking.
Why did you call the film From Ground Zero?
The name From Ground Zero has nothing to do with 9/11’s ground zero. It’s an interpretation of the Arabic name of the film “From Zero Distance,” if translated directly.
Sebastian Shehadi is a freelance journalist and a contributing writer at the New Statesman
Follow him on X: @seblebanon
This post was originally published on here
