london palestine film festival 2025
NOVEMBER 14 - 28
SHORTS SESSION: BEARING WITNESS
GAZA SOUND MAN | VIBRATIONS FROM GAZA | UPSHOT
MONDAY 24 NOVEMBER | 19:00
FACT LIVERPOOL, 88 Wood St, Liverpool L1 4DQ
Three powerful films bring the lived realities of Palestinians into sharp focus. Together, they form a quiet chorus of resistance, mapping the many dimensions of Palestinian endurance. Exploring trauma, memory and place, they converge in one urgent question: when life, land and senses are under siege, how do you live, remember and bear witness?
Gaza Sound Man
Palestine/Qatar, 2025, Hosam Abu Dan, 43’
Through a series of immersive soundscapes, Mohammad Yaghi captures the realities of life on the ground in Palestine before and after 7 October 2023.
Born and raised in Gaza, sound engineer Mohammad has only ever worked in his home country, amassing an extensive audio archive of the place he loves. Now, amid the conflict that has intensified since October 2023, he turns his microphone to the people affected by the conflict. From a cafe stall making drinks and children playing on the playground to a mother giving birth to the sound of artillery fire and the voices of people trapped beneath razed buildings, the visceral moments Mohammad captures highlight the transformation of Gaza’s aural environment. Paired with his own ruminations on his work and homeland, Gaza Sound Man is an intimate and urgent impression of everyday life in Palestine.
Content Guidance: Film contains scenes of war, bereavement and death.
Vibrations from Gaza
Palestine/Canada, 2024, Rehab Nazzal, 16'
‘Vibrations from Gaza’ is a short documentary that offers a glimpse into the resilience of Palestinian Deaf children in Gaza, who are enduring Israel’s siege and frequent military onslaught.
By filmmaker Rehab Nazzal, ‘Vibrations from Gaza’ offers a glimpse into the experiences of Deaf children in the colonized and confined coastal territory of Gaza, Palestine. Born and raised under Israeli siege and frequent onslaughts these children, including Amani, Musa, Israa, and others, provide vivid accounts of their encounter of bombardment and the constant presence of drones in their sky. The children describe their perceptions of missile strikes through sensing vibrations in the air, trembling of the ground, and the resonance of collapsing buildings. The film questions whether the hearing impairment of these children is a consequence of Israel's use of sonic weaponry, such as sonic booms.
Upshot
Palestine/France/Italy, 2024, Maha Haj, 34'
After suffering unimaginable loss, Suleiman and Lubna retreat to an isolated farm, where they tend to their crops and engage in impassioned debates about their five children's choices - until one day a stranger arrives to reveal a harrowing truth.