Review: From Ground Zero

For the past month, the Hind’s House Collective, in collaboration with the Palestine Solidarity Network, has hosted screenings of From Ground Zero—the groundbreaking film anthology created by 22 Ghazawi filmmakers. I attended their screening in the IRC early last month, and was struck firstly by the form of the film. Namely, that even though it is described as a documentary, with each segment giving insight into various aspects of life in Gaza during the war, it is perhaps more accurate to call the project an autofiction, the redundancies of that term notwithstanding. It is divided into three parts, with each part containing several five to ten minute vignettes of Palestinian life, and with almost every vignette focusing on a different aesthetic medium. Soft Skin, for example, focuses on a group of children making mache and how their trauma manifests itself visually, while Selfies by Reema Mahmoud is performed in an epistolary form, with the director narrating the script of a letter that is tucked away in a plastic bottle and then released into the sea.

One of the most striking by-products of this form is the repudiation of a monolithic Palestinian narrative. The directors are not interested in producing a linear reconstruction of the past years of genocide for, I believe, two reasons: (1) the pathetic (in the literal sense) capacity of artistic production to capture indescribable misery and (2) the contradiction of the still necessary task of creating hope when you have exhausted all possibilities of relief. This impasse, I think, is the most important meditation of the film’s project.

Nowhere is this sentiment more aptly expressed than in the segment “No,” which is in the latter half of the film and was directed by Hana Eleiwah, a Ghazawi filmmaker. The segment is at once an exhilarating and inspiring thesis on the power of art. While the translation is mostly accurate, one statement by the director is in my view unconvincingly translated as “I am against everything that is happening” when the poignancy of Eleiwah’s statement is so much more profound–”I am against destiny” [Ana dad ‘al-maseer].

Art in From Ground Zero is a ne plus ultra testament to Palestinian steadfastness and strength. To produce art is strong because it is life-affirming, it chooses to accept the suffering of life and catalyzes that pain into action. It chooses life and dignity in a situation, a destiny that is intensely undignified. It is the invention of hope by using any means necessary, whether it be by using a mirage, a delusion, or otherwise.

My deepest respect and sincere compliments to the Hind’s House Collective for curating this film. If you haven’t seen it yet—watch it, and keep an eye out for other screenings and events on their social media.