Embedded Files
We've gathered together a number of films that provide important insights into life in Palestine and the wider historical and contemporary context that surrounds Israel's illegal occupation and apartheid regime. Film has an almost unique way of bringing us into contact with people and situations in their specificity, helping build empathy, compassion and a recognition of people as real people, distinct from the generic and often deliberately misleading presentations in the legacy media. Many of the films are freely available, but some require a subscription or a donation to access a viewing link.
including short introduction by writer Guy Davidi and director Emad Burnat.
Year: 2011
Runtime: 86 mins
Oscar nominated and critically-acclaimed documentary film by Emad Burnat. Presented by POV, this powerful work of front-line filmmaking tells a deeply personal first-hand account of life and nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army in Bil'in, a village in the West Bank. Structured around the violent destruction of each one of Burnat’s cameras, the film follows one family’s evolution over five years of village turmoil. 5 Broken Cameras gives viewers direct insight into life in Palestine under Israeli occupation. The content provided is for educational and informational purposes only.
Accessed via Paper Trail Documentaries
Year: 2008
Runtime: 190 mins over 4 episodes
Al Jazeera documentary
A series on the Palestinian ‘catastrophe’ of 1948 that led to dispossession and conflict that still endures.
“The Nakba did not begin in 1948. Its origins lie over two centuries ago….”
So begins this four-part series on the ‘nakba’, meaning the ‘catastrophe’, about the history of the Palestinian exodus that led to the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, and the establishment of the state of Israel.
Year: 2009
Runtime: 70 mins
Dir. Julia Bacha
Award-winning feature documentary film about Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites Palestinian political factions and invites Israeli supporters to join an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary chronicling this movement from its infancy, Budrus shines a light on people who choose nonviolent strategies to confront a threat. The movie is directed by award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha (co-writer and editor of Control Room and co-director Encounter Point), and produced by Bacha, Palestinian journalist Rula Salameh, and filmmaker and human rights advocate Ronit Avni (formerly of WITNESS, Director of Encounter Point).
Year: 2024
Runtime: 28 mins
Al Jazeera Inside Story
Some people who have criticised Israel for its actions in Gaza say they are labelled as anti-Semitic. There has been an increase in reports of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism worldwide since Israel launched its war on Gaza. While neither term is new, some people who have criticised Israel for its actions in Gaza say they are labelled as anti-Semitic.
Israeli leaders in particular have conflated condemnation of the response to the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 as both anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist. Analysts argue that blurring the difference helps Israel undermine any opposition to – or rejection of – its policies.
Israel is accused of weaponising the two terms – to justify its attacks on Gaza and other Palestinian territory. But with no end in sight to the wars in the Middle East, what are the dangers of – and the fallout from – conflating anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism?
Presenter: Nick Clark
Guests:
Giovanni Fassina – Executive director of the European Legal Support Center
Arielle Angel – Editor-in-chief of Jewish Currents
Omer Bartov – Samuel Pisar professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University
Year: 2021
Runtime: 82 mins
Dir. Sarah Beddington
Sarah Beddington’s film is a compelling account of her friendship with Fadia, a charismatic Palestinian woman and teacher who has lived her whole life in a refugee camp in Lebanon but is determined to reconnect with her ancestral homeland. This striking, deeply poetic and profound film makes connections to bird migration and the healing power of a particular tree against the backdrop of history, as well as the cruel fate that separates a people from their homeland.
Year: 2013
Runtime: 51 mins
Dirs. Nitin Sawhney, Roger Glenn Hill
Flying Paper is the uplifting story of Palestinian children in Gaza engaged in the fascinating culture of kite making and flying. The film follows Musa, a charismatic teenaged kite-maker in the village of Seifa, and Abeer an aspiring young journalist in the Jabalya refugee camp. They join a remarkable quest, along with thousands of other children, to shatter the Guinness World Record for the most kites ever flown. It showcases the creative resilience of these children making and flying kites despite the difficult realities they face in their daily lives. The film has been co-produced with young Palestinians in Gaza trained by the filmmakers through a youth media program called Voices Beyond Walls. Through the perspective of children and young people comes a story of determination and artistic expression as the youth in the film work together to achieve a shared goal.
Year: 2022
Runtime: 65 mins
Dir. Jumana Manna
Online and in person screenings are arranged individually and there is no comprehensive schedule of screenings. To hire the film for an event, use the link to LUX by clicking on teh film poster above.
Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it employs fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like ’akkoub and za’atar (thyme), and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds caught collecting these native plants. For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers captures the joy and knowledge embodied in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.
Year: 2019
Runtime: 91 mins
Dirs. Gary Keane, Andrew McConnell
A documentary showcasing the lives of everyday people in Gaza. A beautiful portrait of a steadfast people attempting to lead meaningful lives against the backdrop of ongoing conflict and Israeli blockade and occupation. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, this documentary goes beyond the depiction of the people of Gaza seen on television news reports to reveal a world rich with eloquent and resilient characters.
Year: 2019
Runtime: 7 mins
Series: TRT World
Belal Khaled, a Palestinian calligrapher and photographer, gives us insight into the world of street art in Gaza.
The Chris Hedges Report with Dr Feroze Sidhwa
Runtime: 65 mins
Renowned journalist Chris Hedges interviews Dr Feroze Sidhwa who reveals what life is like inside the hospitals in Gaza.
Year: 2023
Runtime: 84 mins
Dirs. Erin Axelman, Sam Eilertsen
When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns. Their stories reveal a deepening generational divide over modern Jewish identity.
Available to stream worldwide except US via Kinema until Jan 1st 2025 ($6.99)
Available to stream in US via many channels.
Runtime: 28 mins
Talk to Al Jazeera interview series
Interview with the creator and main protagonist of the documentary Israelism
Year: 2020
Runtime: 89 mins
Dir. David Osit
This documentary follows Musa Hadid, the Christian mayor of Ramallah, during his second term in office. His immediate goals: repave the sidewalks, attract more tourism, and plan the city’s Christmas celebrations. His ultimate mission: to end the occupation of Palestine.
Rich with detailed observation and humor, MAYOR offers a portrait of dignity amidst the madness and absurdity of endless occupation while posing a question: how do you run a city when you don’t have a country?
Year: 2024
Runtime: 20 mins
Posted to Dawn News YouTube channel
Year: 2024
Runtime: 60 mins
Hamas's incursion into Israel on October 7 transformed the politics of the Middle East. Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit (I-Unit) has carried out a forensic analysis of the events of that day - examining seven hours of footage from CCTV, dashcams, personal phones and headcams of dead Hamas fighters, and drawing up a comprehensive list of those killed. In October 7, the I-Unit reveals widespread human rights abuses by Hamas fighters and others who followed them through the fence from Gaza into Israel. But the investigation also found that many of the worst stories that came out in the days following the attack were false. This was especially true of atrocities that were used repeatedly by politicians in Israel and the West to justify the ferocity of the bombardment of the Gaza Strip, such as the mass killing of babies and allegations of widespread and systematic rape.
Accessed via Films for Action
Year: 2002
Runtime: 53 mins
Dir. Tony Stark
In this in-depth documentary, director John Pilger asks why the Palestinians, whose right of return was affirmed by the United Nations more than half a century ago, are still caught in a terrible limbo -- refugees in their own land, controlled by Israel in the longest military occupation in modern times.
How Israel tests military tech on Palestinians
Year: 2025
Runtime: 48 mins
Writer: Antony Loewenstein
Uncovering how Israel profits from surveillance technologies using occupied Palestinian territories as a testing ground. Israel punches way above its weight when it comes to arms sales. The 97th country by population, it is the ninth largest arms dealer in the world with a $13bn military-industrial complex. "Plenty of countries sell weapons," says award-winning journalist Antony Loewenstein, "but what makes Israel's industry unique is the mix of weapons, surveillance technology and architectural techniques that combine to create a comprehensive system for controlling 'difficult' populations and are based on years of experience in Palestine." In this two-part series, Loewenstein goes on a journey to investigate how these weapons and surveillance technologies are used to control and repress Palestinians in Palestine before being sold all over the world. Antony Loewenstein is a Jewish, Australian journalist and author who for more than 20 years has written unflinchingly about Israel and its relationship with the Palestinians, even though it has often put him at odds with many in the Jewish diaspora and Israel. In Episode 1, Loewenstein returns to Israel to investigate how cutting-edge military and surveillance technology is being used on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, before being marketed to international clients as "field-proven" and "battle-tested". Hearing from Palestinians and Israelis, he uncovers how a pipeline of personnel and research from the Israeli army feeds into semi-private arms companies which form a crucial part of Israel's exports to the world. He also investigates the Israeli army's use of targeting systems that utilise artificial intelligence during the Gaza war after October 7, 2023.
How is Israel's military tech marketed abroad?
Year: 2025
Runtime: 48 mins
Writer: Antony Loewenstein
In Episode 2 of "The Palestine Laboratory", journalist and author Antony Loewenstein investigates how surveillance and military technology developed by Israel and tested on Palestinians is marketed abroad. He finds out how the latest Israeli technology is being used to monitor refugees and migrants in Greece and along the US-Mexico border. Loewenstein visits Mexico to explore its use of Israeli spyware and travels to India to find out how a thriving arms trade is fostering close links between the two nations. In South Africa, he uncovers a hidden aspect of the country's history which saw a secret relationship between the apartheid-era government and Israel centred on a clandestine arms trade and shared values. What he reveals is a picture of how the "technology of occupation" developed on Palestinians is also used to subjugate people and surveil political dissidents, human rights defenders and journalists all over the world. Loewenstein concludes by asking if the countries buying these systems are actually looking for more than just another weapon, but instead buying into a wider ideology of the separation and control of "unwanted" populations, be they protesting farmers, political dissidents, or refugees.
Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel
Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel
Year: 2003
Runtime: 270 mins
Dirs. Michel Khleifi, Eyal Sivan
Route 181, offers an unusual vision of the inhabitants of Palestine-Israel, a common vision of an Israeli and a Palestinian.
In the summer of 2002, for two long months, Eyal Sivan and Michel Khleifi travelled together from the south to the north of their country of birth, traced their trajectory on a map and called it Route 181. This virtual line follows the borders outlined in Resolution 181, which was adopted by the United Nations on November 29th 1947 to partition Palestine into two states.
Year: 2025
Runtime: 62mins
Louis Theroux spends time with the growing community of Israeli religious-nationalist settlers. Their settlements are illegal under international law, and they have been protected by the army, the police and the Israeli government. Since the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed, there has been an acceleration in the establishment of settlements, with settlers pursuing a campaign of violence against local Palestinian communities. What was once a fringe movement has now won support at the highest levels of government, with their supporters holding key positions in the cabinet and able to influence not only the role the military plays but also the future of this conflict. Louis Theroux embeds himself in the West Bank, meeting prominent settlers - including the ‘godmother’ of the movement, Daniella Weiss - and travelling throughout the territory to understand the consequences of their activity. Louis also meets Palestinians whose lives have been impacted by settlers moving into their communities. As the world focuses on Gaza, where at least 50,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed by Israeli forces since 7 October, Louis discovers that the settlers are already making plans to move into that territory, too.
Runtime: 15 mins
Writers: Caryl Churchill, Omri Dayan
Dir. Omri Dayan
Based on the play by Caryl Churchill, this film shows the Jewish journey from Russia in 1903 to Palestine in 2009. It humanizes and visualizes the progression from oppressed to oppressors whilst imploring it's audience for open conversation and empathy. The idea behind the filmed version of 'Seven Jewish Children' is to take a step back. When you look at things with a wider paradigm you start seeing how history repeats itself. Raising money for the Medical Aid for Palestinians organization.
Runtime: 7 mins
Series: Double Down News
British artist, Peter Kennard throws light on the Art World's silence in the face of Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Year: 2021
Runtime: 24 mins
Series: Talk to Al Jazeera
Born in 1947, in Birzeit, Palestine, a year before the establishment of the State of Israel, Sliman Mansour studied fine arts in Jerusalem. Growing up under occupation, his work first gained recognition when he was aged 26, with the piece “Camel of Hardship”, which portrays an elderly, bent-over porter struggling to carry the city of Jerusalem on his back. And ever since, his work depicting the Palestinian struggle and culture has travelled the world. Now, at 75, has he lost hope that peace will ever come? Sliman Mansour talks to Al Jazeera.
Year: 2024
Runtime: 26 mins
Series: TRT The InnerView
The InnerView travels to Ramallah to meet one of the world's most celebrated contemporary artists, Sliman Mansour. Born in 1947, Mansour’s work has for decades embodied the history and struggles of the Palestinian people. From his studio, Mansour describes his artistic process to Imran Garda and explains why, amid the backdrop of occupation and dispossession and a brutal war raging in Gaza, he still believes in portraying beautiful things.
Year: 2025
Runtime: 50mins
Dir. Yousef Hammash
As the Israel-Hamas War destroyed his home and endangered his family, Emmy-winning Palestinian filmmaker Yousef Hammash reached for his only hope: a video camera. This is his powerful story.
Year: 2011
Runtime: 58mins
The Ultra Zionists follows Louis Theroux as he meets with ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers living in disputed territories of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It presents individuals who believe it is their religious duty to reclaim lands they consider promised to them in biblical texts. These settlers inhabit areas deemed illegal even by Israeli officials, and the documentary highlights their motivations and perspectives on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Theroux interviews a range of settlers, including 17-year-old Yair Lieberman, who resides in a makeshift camp with fellow settlers to prevent Arab expansion in the West Bank. Lieberman and others express a conviction that the land rightfully belongs to Jews, viewing their settlement as a fulfillment of divine promise. The film also features Daniel Luria, a hardline nationalist from Australia, who works to facilitate Jewish habitation in predominantly Palestinian areas.
Throughout the documentry, Theroux visits various locations significant to both Jewish and Palestinian histories, including Hebron and Nablus. He interacts with settlers who articulate their views on identity, faith, and territorial claims, revealing the complexities and tensions inherent in their beliefs. It provides insight into the mindset of those involved in this contentious movement while also acknowledging the broader implications for peace and coexistence in the region.
Year: 2021
Runtime: 13 mins
Dir. Jonathan Mehring
Short film following two young Palestinians (Yasmeen Foqha and Omar Hattab) who seek freedom through skateboarding while growing up under occupation in the West Bank.
Year: 2024
Runtime: 80 mins
Al Jazeera Investigations
Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit exposes Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip through the medium of photos and videos posted online by Israeli soldiers themselves during the year long conflict.
The I-Unit has built up a database of thousands of videos, photos and social media posts. Where possible it has identified the posters and those who appear.
The material reveals a range of illegal activities, from wanton destruction and looting to the demolition of entire neighbourhoods and murder.
The film also tells the story of the war through the eyes of Palestinian journalists, human rights workers and ordinary residents of the Gaza Strip. And it exposes the complicity of Western governments – in particular the use of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus as a base for British surveillance flights over Gaza.
Year: 2024
Link above to 48 hour viewing link (donate what you can option), Also this link to the film's Kinema page includes in person and virtual viewing options.
Runtime: 104 mins
Dirs. Maurizio Benazzo, Zaya Benazzo
Where Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice.
We follow, among others, Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass. We also witness Dr. Gabor Maté offer trauma-healing work to a group of women who were tortured in Israeli prisons.
Ancient landscapes bear deep scars, having witnessed the brutal reality of ancestral land confiscation, expulsions, imprisonment, home demolitions, water deprivation, and denial of basic human rights. Yet, through the veil of oppression, we catch a glimpse of resilience—deep roots that have carried the Palestinian people through decades of darkness and shattered lives.
This emotional journey bares the humanity of the oppressed while grappling with the question: what makes the oppressor so ruthlessly blind to its own cruelty?
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