Hilal Ustak
07 January 2025•Update: 07 January 2025
ISTANBUL
American director and producer Michael Moore has accused powerful propaganda campaigns of concealing what human rights groups describe as genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza following Israel's attacks on the besieged territory.
Moore highlighted the ongoing humanitarian crisis through the film From Ground Zero, directed by Palestinian filmmakers Aws Al-Banna, Ahmed Al-Danf, Basil Al-Maqousi, and Mustafa Al-Nabih. The film, released in the US, features 22 short films spanning documentary, drama, action, and animation genres.
In a post on X, Moore said: “No filmmaker, writer, or artist should ever have to tell the story of their own extermination. Yet 22 courageous Palestinian filmmakers found a way to film their story this past year in Gaza, using whatever tools they could pull from the rubble of their homes and cities. The extraordinary film From Ground Zero — for which I am proud to be an executive producer — is the collection of these short films, told all together in under 2 hours. The fact that this film exists at all is a human and cinematic miracle. Go see From Ground Zero.”
On his website michaelmoore.com, Moore further criticized media silence, stating: “These are stories not being told anywhere. You do not see these stories on the evening news. Military leaders prohibit access so that journalists and filmmakers cannot bring us the truth.
Even though you and I pay for this war, and we are the providers of all these horrific weapons, we are not allowed to witness what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have declared to be a genocide and an ethnic cleansing — war crimes committed every day in our name.
Instead, we are the victims of a powerful propaganda campaign intended to dehumanize the 5 million human beings in all the Occupied Palestinian Territories who are forced to live imprisoned behind walls and barbed wire, forced into starvation, with nearly every hospital and school in Gaza bombed to smithereens and half the territory’s homes reduced to rubble.”
Moore shared the US screening locations for the film, urging people to watch it, adding: “Do not skip this movie because 'Oh, it's Gaza' or 'I can't take this anymore.' Go see it for the same reason you've gone to all the big important movies, from Erin Brockovich to The China Syndrome to 12 Years a Slave to Oppenheimer. As one of the film’s executive producers, I promise you, you will not be disappointed.”
Moore also noted that From Ground Zero is among the 15 nominees for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards.
*Writing by Fatma Zehra Solmaz
