World

Gaza Women Filmmakers Showcase Painful Realities as New Cinema Academy Debuts

By Eyad Al-Qatrawi

Al‑Bureij, Gaza Strip – An 11‑minute documentary titled *A Sack of Flour* by emerging filmmaker Mona Abu Qass examines Israel’s use of starvation against Palestinians during the ongoing conflict. The film, based on Abu Qass’s personal experience, is one of five documentaries by Palestinian women screened at the opening of the second Gaza International Women’s Film Festival, which also marked the launch of the Gaza Cinema Academy. The event was held at the al‑Nakheel Hall in al‑Bureij, central Gaza, under the slogan “Women Creating Life from Death.” The hall, like most buildings in Gaza, was destroyed after three years of war that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians.

* A Sack of Flour* portrays Palestinians’ struggle to find food, the dangers at aid distribution points, and the lives lost while trying to obtain flour. Abu Qass says the film stems from a true story and documents daily life in Gaza weighed down by bombardment, destruction, siege, hunger, and loss. She aims to capture details that reveal suffering and people’s determination to hold on to life, showing reality as people experience it and helping viewers understand what the war has done to relationships, dreams, and hopes.

Another film, *Beyond Silence*, by emerging filmmaker and journalist Raghda al‑Buhaisi, explores wartime struggles for people with disabilities. The story follows a deaf artist who never learned to read, write or communicate through sign language. His art studio in southern Gaza’s Rafah was destroyed by Israel, and his parents and several family members were killed. After being displaced to Deir el‑Balah, a new modest studio was set up by the roadside. His paintings reflect loss and displacement, expressing what words cannot through colour and line. Al‑Buhaisi says art can cross language barriers and turn individual pain into a visual message that conveys Gaza’s suffering to the world.

The five documentaries were produced through a filmmaking diploma programme that began in March and brought together 25 young Palestinian women. Other films included *Soso: The Lifeline*, *Remnants of Light*, and *Dandana*, which document life in Gaza and the suffering brought by war. *Soso: The Lifeline* follows an orphaned child and his donkey who help people survive. *Remnants of Light* follows a filmmaker struggling with the loss of her family and home. *Dandana* tells the story of a mother whose eight children were killed and who turns to Palestinian songs with her surviving family to cope with grief.

Festival director Ezzedine Shallah said the films draw on experiences women and girls lived through during the war, offering visual testimony to daily life and giving women space to tell their stories in their own voices. He added that the films turn individual pain into broader human stories, revealing war’s psychological and social scars and preserving stories that might otherwise never reach the screen.

The festival, running until October 31, features 73 films from 24 countries and offers a broader platform for filmmakers from Gaza and beyond. Filmmaking in Gaza faces challenges such as the destruction of cultural institutions, scarce equipment, limited funding, power and internet outages, and the pressures of war and displacement. Women filmmakers also struggle to access training, production opportunities and international festivals.

Co‑founder Rima Mahmoud said war and the Israeli siege on Gaza have hindered young women’s filmmaking, pushing some to use simple methods, self‑fund projects and document Gaza’s reality even with the difficulties. She stressed that the films deserve international exposure and that makers need technical and financial support, translation, and partnerships with festivals and platforms.

Palestinian filmmaker Mai Masri, based in Lebanon and another co‑founder of the festival, said the films help young women tell their own stories, resist erasure and preserve collective memory while building skills and accessing work in Gaza or through digital platforms. The academy has developed a filmmaking diploma in cooperation with al‑Quds Open University and accredited by the Palestinian Ministry of Education. Masri said the academy is now trying to help directors reach international festivals, seeking agreements with distributors to screen these films in educational and cultural institutions outside Palestine and through international platforms focused on women’s and human rights. She added that 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.