Brunswick Underground Film Fest 2025 Review - From Ground Zero

Images courtesy of Brunswick Underground Film Festival.

A year ago I wrote a review of Gaza Surf Club (2016, dir. Philip Gnadt, Mickey Yamine). In it I spoke on how it was difficult to provide cinematic critique in the face of the genocide happening in Gaza. It is now 2025 and I am reviewing the anthology From Ground Zero (2024), put together by Rashid Masharawi. The genocide that I spoke of in my earlier review has not slowed. The death toll has nearly doubled to 56,000, 100% of the Gaza population is at risk of famine and there are no functioning hospitals within the strip. The Israeli government has started to say the quiet part out loud, publicly planning for a complete depopulation and occupation of Gaza, and expansions of the illegal settlements in The West Bank. It is in this horrific context that we have From Ground Zero (2024). 

From Ground Zero consists of 22 shorts, all made by different Palestinian directors in the months following the start of this most recent onslaught on their land. The shorts cover a wide range of styles and topics, including documentary, fiction, experimental film and animation. The shorts shift in tone from searching for hope, attempts to live as normally as possible, and finally deeply tragic depictions of life under an ongoing genocide. 

One particularly striking short is Alaa Damo’s 24 Hours. This documentary short focuses on a man who suffered two Israeli bombings in one day - the first destroying his home the second, the mosque he visits. Along with the harrowing footage of people being pulled from the rubble, mostly by hand as the emergency services are either too overworked or unable to travel the rubble strewn streets, Damo works to demonstrate the horrifying rate of this destruction. It takes only one day for this mans’ whole life to be destroyed. 

Where From Ground Zero succeeds most is in providing a human face to this genocide. It can be hard to conceptualise 56,000 people. As the genocide drags on we can start to think of the death toll as just a number, a point that is noted in several of the shorts. Collectively, From Ground Zero reminds us that each one of those numbers was a person with a life and loved ones who will miss them. They are people whose lives have been arbitrarily snuffed out to fulfil the imperialist desires of the Israeli state. Desires that are supported and materially aided by countries across the world, including our own. America, Australia and many others give  this support because it provides them with a stable ally in the middle east. The lives of 56,000 Palestinians are just a price that they’re willing to pay. 

Last time I ended my review on a note of hope, looking to a future where Gazans could surf in a Palestine that is free. This time I want to end on a note of rage. How dare Israel destroy the lives of these innocent people and shame on our government and those across the world for supporting it. Recently in Canada, France and even limply from Albanese we have had some rhetorical shifts on Palestine but it is too little too late. Look into the eyes of Reema Mahmoud in her short Selfie, see the children in Soft Skin talk about their parents labelling the children's body parts in case they are blown apart in an explosion. See these people and tell me again that it is enough to just say that the blockade on food entering the strip is “outrageous.” The Australian government still has contracts with companies that supply Israel with weapons, they have no sanctions on Israel. The people of Palestine need more than words, what is depicted in From Ground Zero makes that abundantly clear.  

Help fight for Palestine at RMIT and in Melbourne. 

Donate to the UNICEF Children of Gaza Crisis Emergency Appeal here.

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From Ground Zero screened as part of Brunswick Underground Film Festival. Check out the festival website for more info here.

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Brunswick Underground Film Fest 2025 Review - The Code