MONTREAL: “Inside Gaza,” a documentary chronicling the work of journalists from global news agency AFP in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attack, has been named Best Documentary Film at Montreal’s Cinemania Film Festival.
Directed by Helene Lam Trong, the 72-minute film offers an intimate look at the daily lives of four AFP reporters as they document the realities of covering a war-torn territory largely sealed off from international media. The production draws on footage gathered by the team on the ground, complemented by interviews conducted after their departure.
The film’s release comes against the backdrop of the war that followed Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and saw armed men take over 200 hostages. Israel’s ensuing military campaign has laid waste to large portions of Gaza and, according to figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry—statistics regarded as credible by the United Nations—has left 73,000 people dead.
Adel Zaanoun, AFP’s Gaza bureau chief and one of the film’s four central figures, accepted the award in Montreal. He dedicated the honor to the journalists “killed in this crazy and dirty war in Gaza,” as well as to those “who still work on the ground without food, without water, without Internet, without anything.”
Zaanoun urged audiences around the world to “continue to support journalists not only in Gaza,” but “everywhere, for media freedom.”
“Inside Gaza” has earned several international honors and is now eligible for Oscar consideration.
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