During the war on Lebanon, specifically between 1975 and 1990, a number of Lebanese, Arab and foreign directors, along with leading photographers, carried their cameras and entered the furnace of war, observing destruction and death, exploiting documentary scenes in melodramatic cinematic films in order to convey messages to the whole world about the scourge of war and its victims.
Since last October 7, the Gaza Strip has been experiencing a real, harsh and painful war, but we have not read a single piece of news about a director who came out of the Strip or from the West Bank, or a delegation from a nearby or distant capital to take an opinion, or scenic material that sums up the epic of steadfastness and confrontation, to be used later in the war. Tapes of different types, with very important raw material about bombing, destruction, and people’s impossible lives.
Until now, and perhaps for a long time, images of television news have occupied the forefront of influential scenes, but the surplus available scenes are able to form a strong basis for long, short, or documentary dramatic and melodramatic tapes with realistic field stories. We do not know whether we are attacking directors and photographers who are actually present in the scene and do not announce it for various reasons.
It is enough for any director, whether he has a vision for a movie or he collects the scenes and later creates the appropriate tape from them, to be present in the field just like machine gun holders who hunt down enemy personnel in different locations. Yes, the camera is a weapon, even if it does not hold or fire bullets. It is on par with any war machine, and the least of its functions is to reveal facts, put dots on the letters, and refute any claim made by the enemy to raise the morale of its soldiers in fierce battles.
If there are no filmmakers on the ground to capture live scenes of various military and humanitarian calibres, then this is a shameful failure, as rare opportunities are available by the dozens to carry a spectacle that feeds future films and makes them more effective and powerful in impact than redrafting them, as often happens in tapes that carry the issue and whose goal is to convey its effects to the furthest places. On earth, bringing powerful, deafening voices calling for freedom, truth, and peace.
There will be no justification for the failure of the filmmakers to carry out their duty to engage on the ground in the war on Gaza with their most effective and effective weapon, the camera, so that the scenes are the best witness to the barbarity of the aggression and to the steadfastness of the people of the land in their positions.
