Cinema for Gaza and Creative Solidarity Towards a Free Palestine
Words: Sophie Monks Kaufman
Make it stand out
The desire to act – to do something, anything – is a beautiful and natural human response to witnessing relentless scenes of sadistic colonial violence. The Israeli government’s ongoing military genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip has unleashed a grassroots Palestine solidarity movement that cannot be quelled, not by American riot police storming campuses and not by the dead-eyed grind of ‘business as usual’ politics in Westminster.
I have never felt a stronger urge to act than over the last seven months. My neurodivergent-flavoured instinct to hide at home was overruled by an unprecedented moral clarity. Years ago, my brother was a journalist based in Ramallah and in 2019 my father went on a humanitarian visit around the West Bank organised by the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions. Both relayed the daily barbarism of the Israeli occupation and the conditions of apartheid under which Palestinians live from the West Bank to East Jerusalem to Gaza. Like millions across the world I knew that the Israeli reaction to the October 7 massacre was not, as a parade of politicians insisted, “self-defence”, but rather a terrifying escalation of their 76-year-long project of ethnic cleansing. And so it has been.
At the UK’s first national demonstrations, the emotional release was extraordinary. Among the fear and the sorrow, hundreds of thousands of voices chanting “Palestine will be free”, made me believe yes, yes it will! This rush of idealistic hope floods the senses when you are most ragged, and reminds you of the stakes. To find a community – both on a local level and in the wider global sense – was an antidote to both the maddening discourse and the alienation of living so much through our phones.
I began to spend my time only with colleagues who felt the same. Film journalists Hanna Flint, Leila Latif and I had bonded throughout months of marching and venting about the way film journalism and journalism in general reported on Palestine. Silence, censorship and pro-Israel bias routinely stymied our attempts to have the most fundamental facts printed. We were bubbling over with frustrated energy and connecting with others who felt the same.
It was through this wider community and the stream of film industry professionals that fed it that I also reconnected with two filmmakers, Helen Simmons and Julia Jackman. The five of us became Cinema For Gaza. Publicist Hannah Farr agreed to help us secure press attention and then showed up to the extent that she became part of the collective, too.
Between 2-12 April, we ran Cinema For Gaza’s first auction in support of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). With brilliant, vital support from Zahra Yassine and Noor Peracha, we raised a quarter of a million pounds and generated a huge amount of press coverage as celebrities opted in, landing their star power to Palestine solidarity.
“The idea of an auction – within a fun framing – felt like a way to both raise vital funds for MAP, and make it easy for nervous titans of cinema to show where they stood.”
We had playful lots like ‘Tilda Swinton will read you a bedtime story’ and ‘Josh O’Connor’s perfect porridge tutorial’. The idea of an auction – within a fun framing – felt like a way to both raise vital funds for MAP, and make it easy for nervous titans of cinema to show where they stood. We imagined that there were droves of people wanting to say something, but not sure of what to say and how to say it. Most of the initial batch of donors were already on the record. Brian Cox’s readings of Refaat Alareer’s ‘If I Must Die’ always moves me to tears; Asif Kapadia, Maxine Peake and Tilda Swinton signed an Artists for Palestine letter calling for a ceasefire on October 17. Ramy Youssef is a tireless advocate for Palestinian lives mattering, culminating in an SNL monologue. This is why we approached them, wanting some early easy wins.
But after The Guardian announced the auction on 27 March, the most overwhelming thing happened. We were deluged with messages from people across the film and entertainment industry. The desire to act – to do something, anything – was at a breaking point. People were sick and tired of watching the bodies of children being carried out of the rubble, only for spokespeople from Israel’s chief arms supplier, the USA, to mumble denials and insult our intelligence.
With the auction, we wanted to show that solidarity with an urgent humanitarian cause is not scary because the feeling of standing up for what is right and true beats anything, especially when you’re amongst caring, likeminded human beings with contrasting and complementary skills. In Cinema For Gaza, we have very different personalities, temperaments and skill sets. Although this brought a little friction, it is also the source of our strength.
Friends and colleagues emptied out their contact books. I would wake up to WhatsApps from famous faces. It was surreal and it was all for Palestine. Sure, we lost it privately in the group chat with every “Emma Seligman confirmed!” and “Spike Lee is in!” but ultimately the cause equalised us all. Susan Sarandon went straight from sliding into our Instagram DMs to marching with the Columbia students after they started off a student encampment movement that is still going strong. Ultimately, the groundswell of energy that uplifted the auction and made it a success does not belong to us – it belongs to this movement and it will flow into a future where Palestine is free.