Review: ‘From Ground Zero’ Represents A Monumental Achievement For Palestinian Cinema
Much more than a cry for help, 22 Palestinian filmmakers display their resilience in the face of annihilation
Watching From Ground Zero in an AMC Theatre was an astonishing and moving experience, partly due to the subject matter but also because it is extraordinarily rare for an anthology of independent films to be screened by a corporate theatre chain. That 70 AMC locations in the United States booked the film for a week is a monumental achievement for Palestinian filmmaking.
Palestinian producer Rashid Masharawi brought together 22 Palestinian filmmakers in Gaza to share their own personal stories of life during war. Each three to six minute film employs various styles — drama, documentary, experimental, animation, or puppetry.
Watermelon Pictures, a Palestinian-owned independent film distribution company that formed in April 2024, was responsible for bringing the film to AMC theatres and various arthouse cinemas in the U.S. At the end of December, Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore signed on as an executive producer in December and gave a boost to the anthology.
But in 2024 the Cannes Film Festival refused to show a single film from the anthology. “This year we decided to host a festival without polemics, to make sure that the main interest for us all to be here is cinema, so if there are other polemics it doesn’t concern us,” festival chief Thierry Frémaux declared.
Masharawi responded to this contemptible decision by holding a protest screening at Cannes. A tent, like one of the many tents in which displaced Palestinians presently live, was erected for the screening. Several attendees wore keffiyehs, and a Palestinian flag was hung above the entrance, which according to +972 Magazine the police tried to remove.
Read the full article by Kevin Gosztola at Counter Arts.
Thank You Kevin