Whose eyes are on Gaza, and why does it matter?
For more than 1060 days, we have witnessed Israel's genocidal violence unfold through live-streamed images. This programme of short films explores the many ways Gaza has been represented, remixing news footage, war photography, surveillance recordings, military imagery, and social media feeds. Together, they reflect on both the oppressive power of media and its potential as a tool for critique and liberation.
Following the film programme, enjoy a hot and cold mezze feast (vegan, veggie and halal) cooked by Beirut.
Then join a discussion circle to examine how colonisation and anti-colonial resistance shape what we see, and consider the broader image economies that structure our world.
Film Programme
Scenes of the Occupation From Gaza (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1973)
A rare film by the legendary Mustafa Abu Ali, one of the founders of the Palestine Film Unit, the first filmic arm of the Palestinian revolution. Shot by a French news team, the footage was edited by Mustafa in Lebanon to produce one of the earliest films on the occupied territory in Gaza. Scenes of the Occupation from Gaza employs experimental editing techniques to produce a cinematically and politically subversive film. The film won the prize as best film at the Damascus Film Festival in 1973 and was screened at multiple festivals. It was the only film produced by the Palestine Cinema Group, which in 1974 became the Palestine Cinema Institute.
When Things Occur (Oraib Touqan, 2016)
When Things Occur weaves together Skype conversations with Gaza-based photographers, fixers, and drivers who were behind specific images that diffused from screen to screen in the 2014 War on Gaza. The film probes the face of mourning and grief - its digital embodiment, transmission, and representation.
Final Hour Log--Handala (Firas Shehadeh, 2025)
This film reconstructs the last hour of the humanitarian vessel Handala, launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and named after the iconic figure created by Palestinian artist Naji al-Ali in the late 1960s. During its mission to break the seige on Gaza, the vessel was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters on July 26, 2025. The crew faced surveillance, electronic jamming, intimidation, forcible boarding, and abduction. Composed primarily of live-streamed footage, the film documents a civilian act of solidarity and defiance, preserving what was meant to be erased.
Control Anatomy (Mahmoud al-Haj, 2025)
Through a blend of powerful imagery, archival, and historical materials, Mahmoud's voice takes us on a decades-long journey exploring the transformation of the tools of war and their relationship to ethics, memory, technology, and the violence inflicted on the Palestinian people. The film touches on three generations of violence, corresponding to different historical moments, revealing the invisible distortion of violence that unfolds over an extended period.
Gaza MP4 (Diaa Lagan, Mohannad El-Masri, and Fuad Halwani, 2024)
A meditation on the mundanity of hope in the aftermath of genocide. The video portrays scenes of daily life in Gaza through the lens of a disrupted communication between two friends, Diaa and Mohannad. Footage recorded by Mohannad since November 2023 is compiled and assembled in a way that presents a certain progression; from crowded makeshift street markets to vast spaces of a scorched city reduced to rubble. From claustrophobia to desolation. The video addresses the cognitive and psychological impact of witnessing war crimes through screens and social media, while maintaining a personal connection to someone experiencing it firsthand through Mohannad’s shaky handheld footage and voiceover.
Schedule
4pm - Arrival & Introductions
4:10pm - Film Screening
5:45pm - Break with Food by Beirut
6:15pm - Guided Discussions
7:30pm - Close of event
We are a group of art workers organising for Palestinian liberation wthin Dundee and the surrounding area. We organise film screenings, discussions, workshops and gatherings for raising consciousness, mobilising cultural workers and holding complicit institutions to account.
Know MoreWhose eyes are on Gaza, and why does it matter?
For more than 1060 days, we have witnessed Israel's genocidal violence unfold through live-streamed images. This programme of short films explores the many ways Gaza has been represented, remixing news footage, war photography, surveillance recordings, military imagery, and social media feeds. Together, they reflect on both the oppressive power of media and its potential as a tool for critique and liberation.
Following the film programme, enjoy a hot and cold mezze feast (vegan, veggie and halal) cooked by Beirut.
Then join a discussion circle to examine how colonisation and anti-colonial resistance shape what we see, and consider the broader image economies that structure our world.
Film Programme
Scenes of the Occupation From Gaza (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1973)
A rare film by the legendary Mustafa Abu Ali, one of the founders of the Palestine Film Unit, the first filmic arm of the Palestinian revolution. Shot by a French news team, the footage was edited by Mustafa in Lebanon to produce one of the earliest films on the occupied territory in Gaza. Scenes of the Occupation from Gaza employs experimental editing techniques to produce a cinematically and politically subversive film. The film won the prize as best film at the Damascus Film Festival in 1973 and was screened at multiple festivals. It was the only film produced by the Palestine Cinema Group, which in 1974 became the Palestine Cinema Institute.
When Things Occur (Oraib Touqan, 2016)
When Things Occur weaves together Skype conversations with Gaza-based photographers, fixers, and drivers who were behind specific images that diffused from screen to screen in the 2014 War on Gaza. The film probes the face of mourning and grief - its digital embodiment, transmission, and representation.
Final Hour Log--Handala (Firas Shehadeh, 2025)
This film reconstructs the last hour of the humanitarian vessel Handala, launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and named after the iconic figure created by Palestinian artist Naji al-Ali in the late 1960s. During its mission to break the seige on Gaza, the vessel was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters on July 26, 2025. The crew faced surveillance, electronic jamming, intimidation, forcible boarding, and abduction. Composed primarily of live-streamed footage, the film documents a civilian act of solidarity and defiance, preserving what was meant to be erased.
Control Anatomy (Mahmoud al-Haj, 2025)
Through a blend of powerful imagery, archival, and historical materials, Mahmoud's voice takes us on a decades-long journey exploring the transformation of the tools of war and their relationship to ethics, memory, technology, and the violence inflicted on the Palestinian people. The film touches on three generations of violence, corresponding to different historical moments, revealing the invisible distortion of violence that unfolds over an extended period.
Gaza MP4 (Diaa Lagan, Mohannad El-Masri, and Fuad Halwani, 2024)
A meditation on the mundanity of hope in the aftermath of genocide. The video portrays scenes of daily life in Gaza through the lens of a disrupted communication between two friends, Diaa and Mohannad. Footage recorded by Mohannad since November 2023 is compiled and assembled in a way that presents a certain progression; from crowded makeshift street markets to vast spaces of a scorched city reduced to rubble. From claustrophobia to desolation. The video addresses the cognitive and psychological impact of witnessing war crimes through screens and social media, while maintaining a personal connection to someone experiencing it firsthand through Mohannad’s shaky handheld footage and voiceover.
Schedule
4pm - Arrival & Introductions
4:10pm - Film Screening
5:45pm - Break with Food by Beirut
6:15pm - Guided Discussions
7:30pm - Close of event
We are a group of art workers organising for Palestinian liberation wthin Dundee and the surrounding area. We organise film screenings, discussions, workshops and gatherings for raising consciousness, mobilising cultural workers and holding complicit institutions to account.
Know More