Gaza's Women Filmmakers Transform Trauma into Powerful Cinema with New Academy Launch

Al-Bureij, Gaza Strip – Amidst the ruins of the al-Nakheel Hall in al-Bureij, central Gaza, the second Gaza International Women’s Film Festival has officially opened, coinciding with the launch of the Gaza Cinema Academy. Under the poignant slogan “Women Creating Life from Death,” the festival showcased five documentaries by Palestinian women, including Mona Abu Qass’s 11-minute film, “A Sack of Flour.” This documentary bravely uses Abu Qass’s personal experiences to explore Israel’s alleged use of starvation as a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza during the ongoing conflict. The film vividly depicts the struggle for food, the perils at aid distribution points, and the lives lost in the pursuit of basic sustenance. Abu Qass shared that the film documents daily life in Gaza, marked by bombardment, destruction, siege, hunger, and loss, aiming to highlight both suffering and resilience.

Another featured film, “Beyond Silence,” by emerging filmmaker and journalist Raghda al-Buhaisi, sheds light on the unique wartime challenges faced by people with disabilities in Gaza. It tells the story of a deaf artist whose studio in Rafah was destroyed and whose family members were killed. Displaced and taken in by another family, his art now reflects his profound loss and displacement. Al-Buhaisi stated, “Art can cross barriers of language and silence, turning an individual experience of pain into a visual message that conveys Gaza’s suffering to the world.”

The festival also screened three other documentaries by emerging Palestinian women filmmakers: “Soso: The Lifeline,” which follows an orphaned child and his donkey aiding survival in Gaza; “Remnants of Light,” about a filmmaker grappling with the loss of family and home; and “Dandana,” the story of a mother who lost eight children and finds solace in Palestinian songs with her surviving family. These five films were produced through a filmmaking diploma program involving 25 young Palestinian women.

Festival director Ezzedine Shallah emphasized that the films offer visual testimony to daily life, allowing women to share their stories and transform individual pain into broader human narratives that reveal the psychological and social scars of war. He added, “They preserve stories that might otherwise never reach the screen, transforming suffering into cinematic testimony and bringing Gaza’s stories to audiences beyond its borders.” The festival, running until October 31, features 73 films from 24 countries, providing a significant platform for filmmakers from Gaza and internationally.

Despite the festival’s success, filmmaking in Gaza faces immense obstacles, including the destruction of cultural institutions, scarcity of equipment, limited funding, and frequent power and internet outages. Women filmmakers also encounter difficulties accessing training and international opportunities. Rima Mahmoud, a co-founder of the festival, noted that the ongoing war and the pre-existing siege on Gaza have severely hampered young women’s filmmaking, forcing many to adopt simple methods and self-fund projects.

Mai Masri, another co-founder and a filmmaker based in Lebanon, highlighted that these films empower young women to tell their own narratives, resist erasure, and preserve collective memory. The Gaza Cinema Academy, in collaboration with al-Quds Open University and accredited by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, offers a filmmaking diploma and is actively working to connect directors with international festivals and distributors. Masri expressed a desire to screen these films in educational and cultural institutions globally, stating, “This would bring the voices of Palestinian women to a global audience, shed light on their human experiences and artistic creativity, strengthen the presence of Palestinian cinema internationally, and open new horizons for young female directors to reach global screening platforms and film festivals.”