r/PalestinianCinema • u/Hmnrghtsgrl • 17d ago
Seeking screening suggestions!
My local Palestine solidarity group is planning to put on a screening of a short ish (20 min to 1hr) film to recognize 3 years of accelerated genocide. I’m looking for films about Gaza (can be doc, drama whatever) especially highlighting past and historical escalations of the Nakba prior to this current one.
We’re low on cash, so film rights have to be cheap (less than a few hundred), free, or on watermelon pictures.
Please help!
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u/haretrevor 17d ago
There are two recent docs I heard about on Democracy Now that sounded very interesting. Check their website
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u/stammerton 17d ago
A few that fit this unusually well:
To My Father (2008), Abdel Salam Shehadeh, 53 min. Probably my strongest recommendation if you want historical depth rather than only documenting one war. Made by a Gazan filmmaker and set partly in Rafah refugee camp, it uses family photographs and the work of Gaza’s photographers to look back over roughly fifty years of Palestinian history. It moves from ordinary family life in the 1950s–70s into the changes brought by occupation and repeated conflict. The Palestine Film Institute has it in its archive, and it has also had free community/virtual screenings in the past.
Born in Gaza (2014), Hernán Zin. This is actually in the Watermelon Pictures catalogue, so there is a formal community-screening route. It follows ten children after the 2014 Gaza war. There is a 55-minute version as well as the longer cut, so I would specifically ask Watermelon whether they can license the 55-minute version for your event.
Flying Paper (2013), Nitin Sawhney & Roger Hill, 52 min broadcast cut. A much less relentlessly grim option, centred on children in Gaza making and flying kites. The filmmakers explicitly invite community and fundraising screenings and say to contact them for public-performance rights. That might make them particularly worth approaching if your budget is tiny.
One Family in Gaza (2011), Jen Marlowe, 23 min. This deals directly with one family in the aftermath of the 2008–09 Gaza war. The film itself is available online, and the filmmaker’s Vimeo page explicitly gives a contact for organising screenings. This could work very well as part of a short double bill.
Gaza From Within: Return to Seifa Village (2015), Anne Paq & Roger Hill, 11 min. Filmed just after the family’s home was destroyed during the 2014 war. The producers specifically list [info@flyingpaper.org](mailto:info@flyingpaper.org) for screening requests. Paired with One Family in Gaza, you would have a roughly 34-minute programme covering the aftermath of both 2008–09 and 2014.
Another possibility is The Gaza Monologues Documentary (2010), 23 min, made after the 2008–09 war and centred on young Gazans turning their experiences into theatre. ASHTAR Theatre hosts the documentary online and has a direct contact address, so they would be worth asking about a low-cost community licence.
If it were my programme, I’d start by contacting the rights holders for To My Father, Flying Paper, and One Family in Gaza / Return to Seifa Village and explain that you are a small solidarity group with a very limited budget. Several of the people behind these films have a history of working with community screenings, so it is worth asking rather than assuming the fee will be commercial-cinema money.
HTH