*Still from Scenes of the Occupation from Gaza*

Gaza Transmits

screening of FIVE films | 95mins | followed by food and discussion | book tickets

Whose eyes are on Gaza, and why does it matter?

For more than 1000 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.

Scenes of the Occupation from Gaza

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.

Directors: Mustafa Abu Ali
year of release: 1973
LENGTH: 14mins
place of production: Lebanon
Original Language: arabic (English subtitles)

When Things Occur

When Things Occur is based on Skype conversations with Gaza inhabitants who were behind the images that were transmitted from screen to screen in the summer of 2014. The film probes the face of mourning and grief—its digital embodiment, transmission, and representation. It asks how the gaze gets channeled within the digital realm, and how empathy travels. What exactly is viewing suffering ‘at a distance’? What is the behaviour and political economy of the image of war? And who is the ‘local’ in the representation of war?

director: Oraib Touqan
year of release: 2016 
LENGTH: 28mins
place of production: Palestine
Original Language: arabic (English subtitles)

Final Hour Log – Handala

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.

director: Firas Shehadeh
year of release: 2025
Length: 18 mins
place of production: scotland
Original Language: english subtitles

Control Anatomy

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.

director: Mahmoud al-Haj
year of release: 2025
Length: 17 mins
place of production: Palestine
Original Language: arabic (English subtitles)

Gaza.MP4

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 shaky handheld footage and voiceover.

director: Diaa Lagan, Mohannad El-Masri, Fuad Halwani
year of release: 2024
Length: 18 mins
place of production: Palestine
Original Language: arabic (English subtitles)

This event is part of Falastin Film Festival in Dundee and North East Fife from 24-27 September. Celebrate Palestinian cinema and culture in a programme of films, talks, workshops and performance co-curated by Art Workers for Palestine Dundee. Gather to mobilise against Zionist colonisation while learning from Palestinian resistance, cultural pride, stories of love, and, in the words of poet Rafeef Ziadah, teachings of life.

Book Tickets

Tickets are priced on a Sliding Scale, to help us to cover the costs of the event and support mutual aid projects in Palestine. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please reach out to artsworkersdundee@proton.me to request a free ticket.