From Ground Zero Screening & Talkback

Sunday, January 5, 7:00PM:

Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, NYC

From Ground Zero, Palestine’s Official Submission for the 2025 Academy Awards, is a project comprised of 22 short films created by filmmakers from Gaza. Despite harsh filming conditions, Gaza’s vibrant artistic scene shines through this stunning anthology film, which offers an intimate and powerful portrait of daily life in Palestine – and the enduring spirit of its people.

Each film, ranging from three to six minutes, presents a unique perspective on the current reality in Gaza. The collection captures the diverse experiences of living through war and genocide, including the challenges, tragedies, and moments of resilience. Using a mix of genres — fiction, documentary, docu-fiction, animation, and experimental cinema — From Ground Zero serves as a remarkable reflection of how art can thrive even in the darkest times, showcasing the creativity that emerges amid devastation.

Launched by renowned Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, the initiative aims to provide a platform for young Palestinian artists to express themselves through their craft.

The wider recognition and visibility of Palestinian films is an indication of a turning tide in media culture; From Ground Zero was recently shortlisted for an Academy Award, and has opened theatrically in cities around the world. The New York opening of the film began this week on January 3rd and will run through Thursday, January 9th. We are proud to co-present this necessary and beautiful record of life on the ground for artists and their loved ones in Gaza during the genocide.

Screening followed by a talkback with filmmaker Hana Elias, moderated by FWP organizer Farihah Zaman

Hana Elias is the Video News Production Fellow at Democracy Now!. Prior to that she was a freelance video journalist and editor working between Occupied Palestine, Israel, and Jordan, where she produced videos with 7iber, Jerusalem Story, and Uncivilized Media. As a writer, she has been published in the Nation and +972 Mag for her reporting on Israeli settler violence towards Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest. As a documentary filmmaker, Hana was awarded the best pitch in March 2024 at Thessaloniki Film Festival for her first feature documentary in development entitled “If These Stones Could Talk,” a personal film on the interrelationships between Palestinian agrarian heritage and identity in diaspora. Hana graduated from the Columbia Journalism School in 2019, where she was awarded the Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium fellowship for “Holding Fire” a short documentary that she co-directed.

Farihah Zaman is a queer Bangladeshi-American filmmaker, critic, educator, and curator. Their award-winning work as a filmmaker has screened at Sundance, TIFF, NYFF, Tribeca, and SXSW. Zaman has curated the Muslim and Arab screening series Infinite Beauty since 2022, and has also programmed or presented at BAM, The Academy Museum, The Metrograph, and Newfest. She has written for Reverse Shot, Film Comment, Filmmaker Magazine, Current, Elle, and Huffington Post, among others, and her industry experience includes roles at Magnolia Pictures, IFP, The Flaherty Seminar, and Laura Poitras-founded company Field of Vision. Zaman contributes to the documentary community through teaching and mentoring at institutions like SVA, NYU, Sarah Lawrence, Uniondocs, and Bronx Documentary Center, and through equity collectives like Brown Girls Doc Mafia, where she served as the inaugural Director of Grants & Fellowships. They were a Documentarian-in-Residence at Bard College, Doc NYC Top 40 under 40 filmmaker, and is a member of the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Learn more about the week-long NYC Theatrical run at QUAD CINEMA, including co-presentations in solidarity from organizations like: Film Workers for Palestine, Artists Against Apartheid, Jewish Voice for Peace NYC, and Palestinian Youth Movement.

If you’re not in NYC, you can still watch From Ground Zero in a theater near you starting this weekend. Check out Watermelon Pictures for the full list of cities and screening times.