PALESTINIAN documentary ‘Vibrations from Gaza’ wins Best Short at 68th BFI London Film Festival

Palestinian documentary Vibrations from Gaza won the Best Short Film award at the 68th BFI London Film Festival (9 to 20 October 2024).

The 76-minute-long Vibrations from Gaza was among 10 films competing in London’s festival.

While announcing the winning film, the festival’s Short Film Competition jury praised the film saying: “We were astonished by the calibre of films in this competition and struggled to only award one film. Our winner is a film that uses sound to send reverberations through our bodies and souls,” reads the press release.

Vibrations from Gaza offers a glimpse into the lives of deaf children in the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip. Through the voices of children who have grown up under the relentless blockade and repeated Israeli aggression, it vividly conveys how they experience the bombings, destruction, and drone buzz overhead.

The short documentary — which is one of the last documentaries to come out of Gaza before the Israeli war’s eruption last year — features children Amani Iz Eldin, Musa and Mustafa Samour, and Isra Abuasr.

The film previously held its world premiere at the Palestine Cinema Days Film Festival in its home country before screening at numerous festivals and winning several awards, including Best Short at the Iran International Film Festival and the Azur Phoenix Award for Short Films at the Middle East and South Africa Film Festival.

Rehab Nazzal is a one-woman show in this film, serving as its director, producer, and writer.

Nazzal is a Palestinian-born multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Montreal, Canada and Bethlehem, Palestine.

Her work deals with the effects of settler and colonial violence on people, on land, and other non-human life in Palestine.

Nazzal’s photography, videos, sound, and installations have been exhibited and screened in Palestine, Canada, and internationally.

She has created multiple short videos, blurring the boundaries between documentary and video art, including Dima, A Night at Home, Canada Park, Bodies in Motion, Mourning, and Bil’in.

source/content: english.ahram.org.eg (headline edited)

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PALESTINE