Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War presents the first-hand recollections of IDF soldiers who have broken official silence to share their experiences of the war in Gaza - accounts that may raise serious questions about conduct on the ground and potential breaches of international law. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Ben Zand, the film features exclusive interviews with Israel Defense Forces (IDF), reservists and veterans - many speaking for the first time - who served during the war in Gaza. Their testimonies describe what they recall as indiscriminate bombardment, instances where Palestinian civilians were used as human shields, and an operational culture that some soldiers characterised as “no innocents in Gaza.”
Saud now lives in Paris, caring with devotion and tenderness for his two young children while closely following the drama in Gaza. “It's hard to be far away.” He speaks sadly of his situation as a Palestinian citizen of Israel. When he accompanies his daughter to school, they both stick up placards for the liberation of Palestine...
Rafah is located in the southern Gaza Strip. It’s a city cut in two by the Philadelphia Road, a security corridor between Sinai and Gaza. It’s destiny changed during the night of 12 September 2005, when the Israeli army withdrew from the Gaza Strip. The Israelis evacuated the Philadelphia Road and the colonies surrounding the city disappeared. But Rafah would never emerge from its chaos. Rafah is the hub of arms trafficking between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Since the Israeli withdrawal, these arms have contributed to the bloody wars between families. After the Hamas victory at the legislative elections, the city sank into a major economic crisis. On 25 June, 2006, Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted by Palestinian militants using a tunnel dug from Rafah. In reprisal, Tsahal shelled the houses of arms dealers located along the Philadelphia Road. By 12 September, 2006, a year after the withdrawal, all hopes of rebirth had died.
London students and academics protest the genocide in Gaza.
Winner of the Jury’s Special Mention at the 18th Al Ard Film Festival in Sardinia, Bank of Targets documents Israel’s targeting of civilian infrastructure in Gaza in 2021. Through a first-hand account of the bombing of a residential building, Sarraj highlights the efforts of journalists to create a record of war crimes as they unfold. Sarraj was killed in his home by an Israeli air strike on 22 October, 2023.
Gaza From Within: Return to Seifa Village
Systemic and structural racism implemented by the city of Boston over the years has led to a dramatic stripping of generational wealth for Black residents, so much so that the average net worth of Black Americans in Boston is now only eight dollars. The racist grading process of ‘redlining’ primarily black neighborhoods, combined with the displacing effect of various ‘urban renewal’ projects, set the template for the wider scale gentrification seen today that is pricing black residents of Boston out of their communities. On top of that, the mass incarceration of Black Bostonians has also led to a further disruption of Black communities. The combined effect of these state sanctioned actions has led to the erasure of Black Americans in Boston.
Follow the lives of four young people trying to survive the Israel-Hamas war as they hope for a ceasefire - a vivid and unflinching view of life in a warzone.
Samer lives in Ramallah in the West Bank. His family lives in Gaza, one hour away. They have not seen each other for six years. When Mustafa went for a visit to Gaza in 2006, he was 18 years old. He was never allowed to return – his mother Hekmat has been fighting to see him again for seven years now. Two families torn apart. They share the same “crime”: being registered with a Gaza address in their Identity Cards. Under Israeli rule, they are considered “infiltrators” in their own country. Their lives have turned into a permanent struggle. Parents can only talk to their sons on the phone; sisters can only see their brothers on the internet – mothers and their children fighting to be together at last…
A meeting between two strangers sparks the desire to understand each other through the medium of cinema. They both simultaneously start recording their surroundings on camera and crafting the resulting footage. They, Elettra from Italy and Hazem from Gaza, become the subjects of this film that documents their first moments together. It depicts a multi-faceted reality in which North and South confront each other in a discussion on rights and inequalities, a reality in which we witness a migration towards one another, while capturing an intimate way of making a film together.
Free Fish is a short documentary filmed over the course of a year in Gaza, following two brothers — Abu Nagham and Ahmad — separated by war yet connected by the sea. Displaced from their home, Abu Nagham now lives in a tent in the south, fishing with his young nephew Rami, who lost his twin brother. Ahmad remains in the north, fishing amid ruins and occupation. Once a source of livelihood and freedom, the sea has become a battleground — heavily restricted, constantly watched, and always dangerous.
Going behind the usual images of war-torn Gaza, Swiss documentarian Nicolas Wadimoff offers this look at how people survive despite constant threat of danger. Children still play, rappers still create music and families still love one another. In addition to visiting the United Nations Food Distribution Center, Wadimoff films at a derelict amusement park and profiles the DARG TeaM rappers, whose politically charged music proclaims their defiance.
An autobiographical work that traces the director’s return to Israel in the midst of its traumatic moment and horrific acts in Gaza. As his aging father suffers the onset of dementia, Sharim’s poetic meditations on loss are juxtaposed against the conflicted, agonizing histories of Palestine and Israel, and a destabilized future.
An attempt to describe the everyday of a place that struggles for the most basic human rights: the Gaza Strip as a microcosm for the failure of civilization.
Avi Amit’s “Real Time” documentary outlines the Israeli far right’s plan to resettle the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is drawn at the border towns of Sderot and Gaza, neighboring towns separated by a wall and a few hundred yards. People on both sides hate each other; their governments interact only through bombs and wars.
Elementary Genocide is a documentary executive produced by award winning journalist/filmmaker Rahiem Shabazz. The documentary appeals to a wide general viewership by addressing the social, cultural, political and personal ramifications of how the federal government allots money to each state, to build prions based on the failure rate of 4th and 5th graders. In America, where half of the 4th grade is reading below grade level and more African-American males are in jail than are in college, Elementary Genocide serves as a striking reminder of a flawed system in need of repair.
Rahiem Shabazz continues the conscience-raising dialogue generated by his acclaimed documentary Elementary Genocide: The School To Prison Pipeline with his equally hard-hitting Elementary Genocide 2: The Board of Education vs The Board of Incarceration. The Board of Education vs The Board of Incarceration uncovers the true purpose of today’s educational system and how it’s failing the African child. Going beyond the school-to-prison pipeline headlines and conspiracy theories, The Board of Education Vs. The Board of Incarceration proves that something sinister is afloat by digging deep to explore its origin, its existence and how to plot its destruction to save every Black child.
World renowned journalist, and award-winning filmmaker Rahiem Shabazz presents the third installment of his docu-series Elementary Genocide: Academic Holocaust. The first two documentaries in the series; The School To Prison Pipeline and Elementary Genocide 2: The Board Of Education vs. The Board of Incarceration received critical acclaim and launched Shabazz as a political pundit and academic ambassador for the African American community. Elementary Genocide: Academic Holocaust adds more statistical proof of the scholastic inequalities faced by Original people around the country. The documentary revisits the importance of education and its impact on self-image, family structure, financial freedom, and the collective future of African/indigenous people in America and abroad.
In 2014, during a trip, American Tim Bruns discovered cliffs in a small village five minutes north of Ramallah in Palestine and got to work equipping all the easy routes, then setting up climbing routes so that we can start teaching people how to climb. Bruns and Harris also opened Wadi Climbing, the first indoor climbing gym in Palestine. Today, gathered in the conflict-torn hills of Palestine, a diverse team of Bedouins, activists and urban professionals have embraced climbing as a much-needed respite from the burden of Israeli occupation. American writer and climber Andrew Bisharat visits the West Bank to explore his own roots and the power of climbing to transform lives. This documentary is part of the Reel Rock 17 series released in 2023.