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“I Believe Art Can Invent Hope”: Rashid Masharawi on From Ground Zero
From Ground Zero For over a year, the images coming out of Gaza have been more chilling and disturbing than most horror films. Scenes of devastation and death became the norm, pain and suffering a recurring and unshakeable theme. But while Palestinians broadcast to the world what it was like to live—to survive—under Israel’s bombing of Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israeli citizens, Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi was also organizing, advising and funding filmmakers in Gaza to use the moving image to express themselves artistically, to create during a time of destruction.
The result is From Ground Zero, an anthology of 22 short films by filmmakers living, and trying to survive, in Gaza. All shot post-Oct. 7, the film is living history—a collection of powerful portraits of survival. A painter returns to her bombed-out studio, seeking a way to move forward as an artist. Young girls describe their first-hand accounts of living through the bombing, while noting that their friends and family members did not. A young boy makes his way to school, only to discover it no longer exists. Tragedy is front and center throughout.
But also present is a strong sense of hope, which Masharawi says was always at the forefront of the project. In addition to stories of death and despair, told documentary style, are narrative shorts that examine the ways in which Palestinians have searched for joy and comfort amid so much pain. One depicts an animator teaching children how to create stop-motion shorts with paper cut-outs, while another features a puppeteer entertaining kids with marionettes.
“I’m not a politician and I will never be. I want to share our stories with the world,” producer Masharawi told me over Zoom in late December, just after the film was shortlisted by the Academy for best international feature and Oscar winner Michael Moore announced he had signed on as an executive producer on the film. While Masharawi admits an Oscar nomination is the furthest thing from his mind, the Academy’s recognition further boosts the film’s profile and, hopefully, will bring more attention to From Ground Zero and the stories within it. Here, Masharawi details how he curated the shorts that make up the larger film and the ways in which he hopes cinema can bring a hope and humanity to Palestinians caught in the middle of this bloody conflict.
Filmmaker: Congratulations on the shortlist mention by the Academy. What is the significance of that for a film like this?
Masharawi: As a Palestinian filmmaker from Gaza, I [have been] making films for the last 30 years. [When the war began in Gaza], immediately I thought, “What can I do?” I am aware of the power of the cinema—or of the image, let’s say—and wanted just to go and do our job as filmmakers and bring out these stories and share them with the world. We are trying to make cinema [with little] equipment and a dangerous [time] under bombing. Most of the film was [shot] during the most difficult period, but we were very careful, and [we had to maximize what we could do] artistically and technically, to make it possible that a good festival could show it.
Filmmaker: How did this project begin? I’ve read that you started a fund last fall, built for filmmakers in Gaza.
Masharawi: Yes, at the end of November. This war started Oct. 7; in November, I registered a fund called Masharawi Fund for Cinema and Filmmakers in Gaza. I wanted it to be official to deal with funds, donations, distribution and co-producers. I’ve been in the film business for so many years. You should be very organized with a team and advisors.
Filmmaker: How did you find these filmmakers? Were many of them people you know personally, and did you connect with new collaborators through this project?
Masharawi: Some—maybe four or five out of 22—because I worked in Gaza and was in contact with them. Some I knew without meeting, because they were beginner filmmakers who contacted me for advice on funding, festivals, whatever. More than 50 percent of them I didn’t meet until now. I’m in contact with them almost every day because of the situation.
I created a group of advisors inside Gaza; I put up people there to do production coordination for this situation, then they start to introduce me to people. I was clear: I wanted personal stories, untold stories. I want people who have some talent, even if it’s a first-time filmmaker, because I consider this also as a workshop so that Palestinian women and men in Gaza can develop and understand the structure of filmmaking. Some of them made short films here and there [that screened] in Gaza. But I was thinking internationally from the beginning—I wanted to go to the biggest festivals in the world with this project.
Filmmaker: The idea of someone learning to become a filmmaker in this specific context… I can’t really come up with the words to respond to that. That is very powerful.
Masharawi: I am trying to add hope. Sometimes there’s no hope. But I believe art can invent hope—not only focus on it, or show it. No, it can invent it. I want to show it and share it with the people in Gaza so that they believe in it. It will come true. All these filmmakers are thinking about tomorrow. They will see not only death and explosions and massacres. They can see life. It helps. It’s kind of therapy, yes, for everybody in Gaza, but it’s also to show the world that we are not the way the Israeli media presents us. Most of these people are innocent. We see a woman who is a painter, a man who wants to do standup comedy. These are people who resist because they want to live their lives. It’s not easy, life in the time of death, but it’s very important.
Filmmaker: Because the shorts vary—there are narratives and documentaries, animation and experimental filmmaking—what was the process of assembling the order of the entire film? And why was it important to have so many different kinds of filmmaking present?
Masharawi: First about the genres of these films, because, as you say, we have fiction, documentaries, animation, video art, even marionettes. We allowed everybody to express themselves artistically. We have 22 short films, which is a lot and heavy and tough, and usually we show it in two parts—55 minutes, a short break in the middle, another 55 minutes. You can look at this as a feature film presentation. It has one story the whole time. You can consider each film as one scene of this story. In the beginning, we introduced the places, the war and the refugees, the missing people and the drama.
Filmmaker: It’s an understatement to say that this is not like any other film you’ve produced. But considering your years of experience, did it ever feel like just another project? Or was there always a heavy magnitude to it?
Masharawi: It was a completely new and unique way of producing a film, because we were learning how to go on during the production. We were adapting ourselves to the situation to keep going. I have directed films, and I was shooting as a cameraman during the Intifada in 1987, in Gaza. I remember the big Betacam covering my face from the direction of the shooting and thinking, “OK, if they shoot in my direction, at least the camera will save my face.”
These filmmakers, in this current situation in Gaza, were losing contact with everybody for days [at a time] because there was no electricity, no internet, no way to charge mobile phones or laptops. When we’d [regain contact], we did not directly continue working on the film—we had to see if everybody was alive. Our [first priority] was to make it possible that we could think about getting back to filming. I don’t think anyone has experienced something similar to this, because there were never all of the elements to create this result.
Today, as we are talking about these films, the war is still going on. Today is the 440th day of this war. We’re discussing festivals, a possible Oscar nomination, but this is still going on. Some days it looks like the beginning of the massacres. Today, people are completely out of food and medicine, there are no hospitals; they’ve been moving between Rafa or Jabalia or Khan Yunis, sometimes moving two or three times in one day. The world is watching and in political debate. Meanwhile, it’s the winter. People are dying from the cold today. It should not happen. That is what I am thinking about. I am not thinking about an Oscar nomination.
Filmmaker: But I imagine the attention from the Academy brings more awareness to the film, as does Michael Moore recently signing on as an executive producer. Despite that, is it a struggle to get people to watch the film?
Masharawi: I think back to the goals or to the target of this project: What I want is for people to see it. [I’m] not someone who wants to make a big distribution [deal]. It’s not to make a lot of money for my next company, my next feature film. I want people to see it because I want to see cinema play a role for justice, for humanity. I want us, as human beings, to share this story together, because these are human beings’ stories. Maybe someone outside of Gaza can say, “They are killing me, as a human, in Gaza. They are not killing Palestinians in Gaza—they are killing my humanity in Gaza.” I’m not a politician and will never be. I want to share our stories with the world.
Filmmaker: Something I’ve been thinking about a lot over the last year is that this is the first war we’ve really seen broadcast on social media. Everybody has a camera now, and that has given us more firsthand accounts from a foreign war than we have had as Americans in decades. How do you see this collection of films working in tandem with that phenomenon?
Masharawi: People in Gaza are still filming. When I [first spoke with the directors from From Ground Zero], I encouraged them, pushed them, to make films. They told me, “Rashid, this is not my priority. I want to save my life.” The people in the most difficult situations now are still making films in Gaza. I believe it will continue, in Palestine and in other places, and can inspire people to deal with an experience like this.
