Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has made waves after announcing that he is an executive producer on a film depicting the situation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and during Israel’s retaliatory war against the terrorist organization that followed.
The two-hour work, titled “From Ground Zero” made by Watermelon Pictures, features a collection of short films by 22 filmmakers. They span a variety of genres—from fiction and animation to documentaries; each has a runtime of no longer than seven minutes.
“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,” wrote Moore on X.
“The fact that this film exists at all is a human and cinematic miracle,” he added as it hit theaters on Jan. 3.
Instant criticism came as a result of the title, which refers to the terror attacks by Arabs against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and by not acknowledging the border infiltration and ensuing atrocities by Hamas operatives and regular Palestinians against Jewish communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
“Michael, you should be ashamed to put your name on such a soundly disproven lie,” wrote former congressional candidate Brianna Wu. “The overwhelming majority of deaths in this war they started are literal terrorists. When you subtract the deaths from natural causes, you are literally talking about fewer than 5000 deaths. If Israel is trying to ‘exterminate’ the Palestinians, they suck at it. This makes me wonder what else you’ve lied about in your work.”
“From Ground Zero” is the “official selection of Palestine,” which the U.S. does not recognize as an independent state, entered for “Best International Feature” for consideration of an Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards.
