Panel
Wednesday, 16.7.2025 at 19.00h in ACUD Studio, Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin
Bearing Witness in the face of Media Blackout. How to document the reality on the ground when reporters are systematically barred from accessing it?
With Israel blocking International press access, Gaza's journalists and filmmakers have become essential witnesses – and paid a heavy price for it. In this conversation, we explore the role of local and western journalists and filmmakers in challenging enforced silence, and the emotional, ethical, and logistical complexities of bearing witness about inaccessible grounds – when the journalism quest for truth becomes a battle of its own.
The Gaza blockade on international press has left Western journalists struggling to inform impartially on a ground they can’t access. For too long they relied on Israel’s narrative as their only source, amid highly emotional domestic politics. In this context, Palestinian journalists have slowly imposed themselves as their Western colleagues’ eyes and ears in Gaza, and paid a high price for it. Israel has killed (and sometimes targeted) 220 media workers since October 2023, making Gaza the deadliest conflict for journalists in the world today, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
At the heart of this reality stands the fate of the young Gaza photojournalist Fatma Hassouna whose determination and courage are the subject of Sepideh Farsi’s “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk”. Hassouna was killed by an Israeli strike one day after the film’s selection at the Cannes Film Festival, but her testimony survives — through her photography and through Farsi’s documentary. This stresses the power of filmmaking as a critical tool in breaking through imposed silence. The collection of Gaza-made short films “From Ground Zero” is another instance of cinema of urgency, defying media blackouts through raw, firsthand depictions of inaccessible realities.
PANEL: The panel kicks off with an exclusive visual presentation of Hassouna’s photowork, as Sepideh Farsi shares intimate details of her collaboration with Fatma Hassouna. Researcher Aurélia Kalisky (Centre Marc Bloch) will contextualize the tactics of silencing war crimes and how film, including fiction, can defy dominant narratives and distributor and scholar Irit Neidhardt (mec film/distributor “From Ground Zero”) will the power of cinema of urgency in war contexts. Meanwhile, Middle-East Editor Lisa Schneider (taz), and Christopher Resch (Reporter Ohne Grenzen) will discuss the ethical and logistical challenges of reporting on Gaza, and the Western media’s work with Gaza journalists.
The conversation is curated and moderated by Nadja Vancauwenberghe who reported the Second Chechen War despite the Russian media blackout and currently coordinates a transnational investigation on the media and Gaza.
Lecture
10.7.2025 at 19.00h at Lettrétage in ACUD, Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin
The Orientalisation of the Holy Land. The Holy Land – A Real Place? IMAGES OF PALESTINE (in German)
Everyone has an image of Palestine, be it photographic, cinematic, political, religious or a very private memory. Images from or about Palestine appeal to many people emotionally. When Palestine is brought up at private or public gatherings, debates in Germany - if they are allowed to take place - are usually more heated than discussions about other countries, more so than ever in light of the current war of annihilation against Gaza. Where does this close connection come from, and what does it have to do with the images we grew up with and which continue to surround us today?
But where is “the Holy Land” actually located? continue (in German)
curated & moderated by Cora Josting
Curation
13.-19.6.2025 at the Anthology Film Archives New York (USA)
Politics of the Image: Collaborations Between the Palestinian Liberation Movement and the Two Germanies
This series sheds light on the little known and rarely explored cooperation in film and TV between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the two Germanies during the last decades of the Cold War. In the 1970s and 80s, the film groups and cultural organizations of the PLO worked closely with film institutions in the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) and with filmmakers from the capitalist Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). These collaborations continue to have an impact today, continue
Film Talk
Tuesday, 29.4.2025 at 7.45pm at Lichtblick Kino Berlin
Introduction and conversation FROM GROUND ZERO by 22 directors from Gaza. An event organized by Lichtblick and Exberliner. In English Language.
Panel
25.4.2025 um 13.30 bei European Media Art Festival Osnabrück (Germany)
As part of the Talks program: I could swear my face was touching stone - Technologies
Since the first generation of Palestinian filmmakers started working prior to the Nkaba in 1948, the images they made were subjet to systematic destruction and looting. Yet this has not been the only reason for continue
In conversation: Anais Farine and Irit Neidhardt, moderated by Florian Wüst
Moderation
on February 20, 2025, at 6:00 PM at the Filmhaus Nürnberg
Film screening of From Ground Zero: The Untold Stories from Gaza, followed by a discussion with Rashid Mashrawi, the initiator of the film compilation. Moderation: Irit Neidhardt
Film talk
Thursday, January 30th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at the Film Days of the Mediterranean in the Karlstorkino Heidelberg
Film discussion about From Ground Zero. The untold Stories from Gaza (Palestine 2024), in collaboration with the Friends of Arab Art and Culture e.V., moderated by Nadja Moudarres-Madani and Alina Papagiannaki-Sönmez