This week on Your Weekly Watch, instead of a round-up of shows and films to consider, there’s nothing more important streaming right now than the livestream of the Global Sumud Flotilla. Nearly 500 activists from all over the world have been sailing on 44 ships towards Gaza on a non-violent mission to break the occupying Zionist entity’s illegal siege on and genocide of the Palestinian people and deliver life-saving aid, including baby formula, food and medicine. The Zionist entity has surrounded the Alma boat, carrying Greta Thunberg and other global activists and is preparing to intercept the boat. The more eyes that are on the livestream, the more protection and safety there will be for those on the flotilla. Please keep it on the background and stay abreast of what’s going on. All eyes on the Sumud Flotilla! All eyes on Gaza!
Novara Media also has a livestream and has been interviewing people on board giving live updates, where just now they’ve said that the Alma boat has been boarded by the Zionist entity, according to activist Kieran on the Andara boat. If intercepted, he says they will have to throw their phones into the sea:
Palestine was also front and center at TIFF this year.
Palestine 36 premiered at TIFF and told the story of Palestine under British mandate in 1936 as they laid the groundwork for the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine and Palestinians. Written and directed by Annemarie Jacir, this necessary film, starring Succession’s Haim Abass, Saleh Bakri, Yumna Marwan and Jeremy Irons, shows not only the birth of the occupation, but also the birth of resistance. When people are occupied, resistance is justified. A gorgeous, sprawling, heartbreaking epic that shows the true history and resilience of a people who will be free.
With Hasan in Gaza is a documentary I saw at TIFF by Kamal Aljafari which follows his search for a man he was imprisoned with, accompanied by Hasan Elboubou. Aljafari and Elboubou began filming in 2001 after the second intifada, and shows the devatation that the Zionist entity as enacted on Gaza long before October 7, 2023. The harassment, the bulldozing of homes, the kidnapping of children is all on tape over two decades to culminate in With Hasan in Gaza. A devastating and necessary watch.
The Voice of Hind Rajab is another documentary on the murder of 5 year old Hind Rajab as she sat in a car with her murdered family members, calling for help. After approving rescue workers to save her, the Zionist entity fired 455 bullets into her car, killing her and bombing the rescue workers they’d just approved to save her. I didn’t watch this documentary at TIFF. It’s backing by stars like Brad Pitt Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Jonathan Glazer, Alfonso Cuarón, ensured that more people will know the story of Hind Rajab. But I didn’t feel it was right to watch it while Hind Rajab’s mother was still trapped in Gaza and using GoFundMe to raise money to get out. Instead, I attended the protest right in the middle of King Street, where TIFF takes place in Toronto, and chanted in English, French and Arabic. It was a healing experience to yell and scream and conjure for a free Palestine, which we will see in our lifetimes. Last week, thankfully, Hind Rajab’s mother was evacuated. Some clips from the protest on my IG:
Stay watchin’
Brooke
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