From Ground Zero

In November 2023, Gaza-born Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi (Falastine Stereo, TIFF ’13; Leila’s Birthday, TIFF ’08) founded the Masharawi Fund for films and filmmakers in Gaza. From Ground Zero, their first project, sought to provide internally displaced artists — survivors of Israel’s nearly year-long assault, which has resulted in apocalyptic humanitarian conditions, destruction, mass killing, starvation, disease, and irreparable trauma for the people of Gaza — with a “canvas for the expression of personal stories.” The resulting collection features 22 three- to six-minute short films. Genre and narrative approaches vary widely, including documentary, hybrid forms, narrative drama, stop-motion animation, essay, and experimental video art. However, what these remarkable works present when taken together is critically important context and a counterpoint to the gruesome livestream populating screens globally.

Through striking authorial engagements with allegory and creative actuality, these filmmakers’ testimonies of confinement under relentless bombardment and imposed famine expose audiences to fragments of their daily struggle to survive — and to do so with dignity. Khamis Masharawi’s Soft Skin enters an animation workshop providing art therapy to children, many of whom are newly orphaned, as they reckon with their constant terror. In Nidal Damo’s Everything is Fine, a stand-up comedian prepares to perform at his favourite venue only to arrive at the aftermath of a recent massacre. Also deeply resonant is Ahmed Hassouna’s Sorry Cinema, in which the experienced filmmaker sifts through what remains of his relationship to the art form. These are only a snapshot of the stories shared. Chronicling the lives of people too often discussed in reference to numbers and refugee camps, From Ground Zero is an extraordinary time capsule, an urgent response to an ongoing catastrophe, and an artist’s call to bear witness.