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UNDERSTANDING GAZA FILM SERIES•
Free Admission at All Events
Voluntary donations gladly accepted
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 • 7 PM
Somos Café, 112 E Beach St, Watsonville
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 • 7 PM
SEIU Union Hall, 517 Mission St, Santa Cruz
Understanding Gaza Film Series
From Ground Zero
(Aws Al-Banna, Ahmed Al-Danf, Basil Al-Maqousi 2024 115 Gaza)
Compilation of 22 short videos to give voice to Gazan filmmakers to tell the untold stories of the current war on film. Initiated by Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi. Michael Moore signed on as Executive Producer.
Facilitated discussion follows the screening.
Watch the trailer for From Ground Zero on YouTube.
Past Films in the Understanding Gaza Series
Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone
(Yousef Hammash & Jamie Roberts, 2025, 60 min, Gaza)
BBC documentary revealing daily life during the war from a young person’s perspective, narrated by a 14 year old boy, Abdullah Al-Yazouri, shows the Gazan’s incredible resilience.
Watch the full film How to Survive a War Zone on YouTube.
Screened at Reel Work on March 25 & 26, 2025.
Israeli Dissidents Taking Action For Palestine
(Real Media, 2024, 14 min, UK)
Compelling interview with two Israeli dissidents took part in a Palestine Action siege of the Elbit HQ in Bristol, UK. Elbit is the largest weapons manufacturer in Israel and uses Gaza as their testing lab.
Watch the full film Israeli Dissidents Taking Action For Palestine on YouTube.
Screened at Reel Work on March 26, 2025.
Boycott
(Julia Bacha, 2021, 70 min, USA)
Boycotts were once considered the moral high ground of political action. This documentary traces the impact of state legislation supported by Christian fundamentalists designed to penalize individuals and companies that choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record. An inspiring tale of everyday Americans standing up to protect our rights in an age of shifting politics and threats to freedom of speech.
Watch the full film Boycott on YouTube.
Is Israel Losing the Social Media War?
(TRT World, 2023, 5 min, USA & Israel)
Watch the video Is Israel Losing the Social Media War? on YouTube.
Screened at Reel Work 2025 on Februry 19, 2025.
No Other Land
(Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, 2024, 95 min, Palestine)
Judged Best Documentary Film at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, this award-winning film portrays the alliance that develops between the Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers as they chronicle the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta community and mass expulsion of its residents by Israeli soldiers.
Watch the trailer for No Other Land on YouTube. This film has not been theatrically released yet in the U.S.
Sponsored by J Street Santa Cruz, Temple Beth El and Chadeish Yameinu
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on November 19 & 20 and at Temple Beth El on January 19, 2025.
From The River To The Sea
(Brasil Paralelo, 2024, 148 min, Israel & Palestine)
Brazilian filmmakers include some Palestinian voices in an attempt at an even-handed explanation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while heavily dwelling on a Zionist perspective that it is part of a global religious war. This film is presented in the spirit of “Know thy enemy.”
Watch the trailer for From the River to the Sea on YouTube.
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on December 18.
Returning to Zarnouqa
(Zelda Edmunds, 2019, 14 min, Israel & Gaza)
Haidar Eid was raised in Gaza City after his parents were violently expelled from their home village of Zarnouqa in 1948. In 2019 a conversation emerges between Haidar and Neta Golan, an Israeli anti-Zionist comrade, as she shares with him footage from his hometown which he is denied access to. In 2023, Haidar, his wife, and their daughters become the second and third generation to be forced from their home as Israel continues its genocidal war in Palestine.
Returning to Zarnouqa depicts a vision that remains as relevant as ever:
The time for Return is now.
Watch the film Returning to Zarnouqa on Anemoia.
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on Octber 22 & October 23, 2024.
From Gaza to Cuba
(Frank Rojazz, 2024, 14 min, Cuba & Gaza)
While his home in Gaza is under siege, Murid Abukhater struggles to stay focused on his mission at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana: becoming a doctor so he can return home and help his people.
Watch the film From Gaza to Cuba on YouTube.
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on Octber 22 & October 23, 2024.
The Night Won’t End: Biden’s War on Gaza
(Al Jazeera, 2024, 79 min, Gaza)
As Israel’s bombing campaign continues in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis deepens to catastrophic levels, the Biden administration has not wavered in its support for Israel. United States weapons transfers—from 2,000-pound bombs to artillery shells and tanks—have been a crucial part of the Israeli military campaign. Fault Lines worked with journalists in Gaza to profile three families as they try to survive the war.
Watch the trailer on YouTube.
Watch the full film The Night Won’t End on YouTube.
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on September 24 & September 25, 2024.
Walled Off
(Vin Arfuso, 2024, 90 min, Palestine & Israel)
A secret museum in an art hotel located in Bethlehem near the Israeli West Bank barrier sparks intrigue when it’s revealed to be a creation of controversial artist Banksy. The hotel highlights the reality of life under Israeli military occupation. The film journeys through the hotel with “the worst view in the world” as well as the Occupied Palestinian territories and relevant past to dismantle the mainstream media’s bias towards the Palestinian struggle for freedom and equality and to highlight the importance of creative resistance as a form of protest.
Watch the trailer on YouTube
Rent the full film Walled Off on Amazon.
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on August 27 & August 28, 2024.
1948: Creation & Catastrophe
(Andy Trimlett & Ahlam Muhtaseb, 2017, 85 min, Palestine & Israel)
Through riveting and moving personal recollections of both Palestinians and Israelis, this documentary reveals the shocking events of the most pivotal year in the most controversial conflict in the world. It tells the story of the establishment of Israel as seen through the eyes of the people who lived it. Rather than being a history lesson, this documentary is a primer for the present. It is simply not possible to make sense of what is happening in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today without an understanding of 1948.
Watch the trailer on YouTube
Watch the full film 1948: Creation & Catastrophe on YouTube.
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on July 23 & July 24, 2024.
Where Olive Trees Weep
(Zaya & Mauricio Benazzo, 2024, 104 min, Palestine)
A searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice. The film follows, among others, Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi, Israeli journalist Amira Hass, and the trauma-healing work of Dr. Gabor Maté. Ancient landscapes bear deep scars, having witnessed the brutal reality of ancestral land confiscation, expulsions, imprisonment, home demolitions, water deprivation, and denial of basic human rights. Yet, through the veil of oppression, we catch a glimpse of resilience—deep roots that have carried the Palestinian people through decades of darkness and shattered lives. This emotional journey bares the humanity of the oppressed while grappling with the question: what makes the oppressor so ruthlessly blind to its own cruelty?
Watch the trailer on YouTube and the full film Where Olive Trees Weep on the film’s website.
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on June 23 & June 25, 2024.
Birth of a Conflict, Episode 1
(Avi Merkado Ettedgui & Yaron Niski, 2022, 55 min, Israel)
This 3-part documentary, informed by newly declassified British diplomatic files, sheds new and surprising light on the British Mandate, the 30 years of British rule in Palestine from 1917 to 1948.
Episode 1: A Conflict Requires a Territory. The British Empire’s arrival in the Middle-East complicated the region by pitting ethnic groups against each other through well-practiced divide-and-conquer colonial management techniques.
Discussion led by UCSC professor Bruce Thompson.
Sponsored by the Santa Cruz Jewish Film Festival.
Missed This Event? Watch all 3 episodes of Birth of a Conflict on ChaiFlicks (with a free 7-day trial subscription).
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on May 2, 2024.
Birth of a Conflict, Episode 2
(Avi Merkado Ettedgui & Yaron Niski, 2022, 55 min, Israel)
Episode 2: The story of how the Jewish-Arab conflict turned from a territorial quarrel between two national movements into a religious conflict. During this period, the Great Arab Revolt against British rule was crushed with brutal collective punishment including indiscriminate bombing and house destruction.
Discussion led by UCSC professor Bruce Thompson.
Sponsored by the Santa Cruz Jewish Film Festival.
Missed This Event? Watch all 3 episodes of Birth of a Conflict on ChaiFlicks (with a free 7-day trial subscription).
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on May 9, 2024.
Birth of a Conflict, Episode 3
(Avi Merkado Ettedgui & Yaron Niski, 2022, 55 min, Israel)
Episode 3: The Fall of Empires. The downfall of the Arab national movement was concurrent with the rise of the Zionist movement as it made its journey towards creating a Jewish state, all in a decade marked by World War II and the collapse of the British Empire.
Discussion led by UCSC professor Bruce Thompson.
Sponsored by the Santa Cruz Jewish Film Festival.
Missed This Event? Watch all 3 episodes of Birth of a Conflict on ChaiFlicks (with a free 7-day trial subscription).
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on May 16, 2024.
Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza
(Caryl Churchill, 2009, 10 min, UK)
Local actors who are members of Santa Cruz Jews for a Free Palestine offer a dramatic reading of this short play spanning seven decades of Jewish/Israeli history, written by British playwright Caryl Churchill, known for addressing the abuse of power in her plays. Written in 2009 in response to Israel’s 2008/9 assault on the Gaza Strip, the play was blasted by critics and press and labeled anti-Semitic, yet opened to full houses at the Royal Court in London.
Missed This Event? Several versions of the play are posted on YouTube.
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on May 8, 2024.
5 Broken Cameras
(Guy Davidi & Emad Burnat, 2011, 94 min, Palestine)
A Palestinian farmer’s chronicle of his village of Bil’in in the West Bank including their nonviolent resistance to the building of a separation barrier cutting of their lands for a settlement and the repressive actions of the Israeli army.
Co-sponsors: Resource Center for Nonviolence, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz for Bernie, Palestine Justice Committee.
Missed This Event? Watch the full film 5 Broken Cameras on YouTube.
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on May 8, 2024.
Israelism
(Erin Axelman & Sam Eilertsen, 2024, 84 min, USA & Israel)
Portrays the heavy socialization of young people in many Zionist households in the US and Israel, as told by a few who later questioned that world view.
Watch the trailer on YouTube and the full film Israelism for free on Tubi or for rent on other streaming services.
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on May 5, 2024.
Wrestling Jerusalem
(Dylan Kussman, 2016, 90 min, USA)
Writer-actor Aaron Davidman conjures a host of different characters while seeking answers to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He takes a multidimensional journey into the heart of the Middle East, and the intersection of politics, identity and spiritual yearning. He embodies and gives voice to 17 different characters on all sides of the existential divide – deftly moving between male and female, Jewish and Muslim, Israeli and Arab – modeling what it takes truly to bear witness through the eyes of the other, challenging long-held beliefs with sharp and unblinking observation.
Watch the trailer on YouTube and the full film Wrestling Jerusalem on Tubi or Amazon Prime and other streaming services.
Screened at Reel Work 2024 on April 25, 2024.
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