Film: From Ground Zero

A few more films coming up - tonight, decided on another Palestinian documentary; this one was From Ground Zero, a collection of short films made by Gazans. Produced by Michael Moore. I saw the trailer when I was in the Curzon Bloomsbury, but this week it's showing in the ICA.

It was on gloriously late - which gave me time to finish what I'd planned for work for the day, which had taken longer than anticipated. Got the bus in - no traffic immediately, this evening. Not until we got onto Tower Bridge Road.. where it was like treacle. It didn't come as a surprise when the driver announced a change of destination - just to Waterloo, this time: but that was fine, as I was to change to the #176 before that. And wouldn't you know it, we passed the #176 just before that - so I knew it'd be along shortly when I got off. Sure enough, I didn't have to wait 30 seconds.. and, of course, I also skipped having to wait for the change of drivers that was currently happening on my first bus..

The second bus was much quicker, so I ended up at Trafalgar Square only five minutes later than predicted - and in plenty of time to eat. I headed for The Admiralty, which not only does good food, but has the advantage of being large! Mind you, it was busy - with the downstairs full, I managed to grab one of the last tables in the upstairs dining area. I thought the server looked vaguely familiar - perhaps she served me when I was here before! although it was a while ago. I was with the leader of London Literary Walks that day.. dunno what's happened to him, but he hasn't scheduled any walks in a while..

Service, I have to say was excellent, and I quickly ordered - breaking my run of four chicken schnitzels, since they didn't have it, I had the Trafalgar pie, which sounded good! Comes with a choice of mash or chips -I had mash.

Well, what a patriotic pie! and I have to say, it was delicious, with rich gravy, beef, carrots, mushrooms, onion.. comes in a pie dish, which isn't immediately obvious from the photo. And it was piping hot - which was more than could be said for the mash, which wasn't that flavoursome either, even with the gravy. If I had it again, I might have the chips..

Finished in good time to head down to the cinema, en route passing flags obviously erected for tomorrow's state visit of President Trump.

Inside, I bought my ticket at the desk - it wasn't selling out - and even had time to sit down for a minute before the doors opened. I had my choice of seat - sat dead centre.

This film is a valuable source of information about Gaza - but it is a bit of a marathon, as we switch every few minutes from one story to the next. And you'll find the stories you expect in it - films of bomb-blasted ruins, of attempts to rescue people from under the rubble. It's relentless, as the action always seems to focus on the same area - but then, how much space do they have to live in? It's emotive - but we are exhausted from seeing this stuff.

So those aren't the most moving films included - no, you start to take notice when you get the unusual ones: like the guy who begs a body bag from the medical tent, because he has no blanket. Or the one called Recycle, where a lady shows us the many uses for the precious barrel of water that they have to queue for: you can drink it, cook with it, wash clothes - and yourselves - with it, and when it's dirty from all of that, you can still use it to water plants.. and flush the toilet! Crikey, they could teach us all a thing or two about recycling.

One film starts as the story of a man and his beloved donkey.. we are shown him and his son travelling to town with the donkey and cart, to pick something up, and a plane flies overhead (actually, that's a regular feature of every film in this collection: be it drones, relief planes dropping food, or warplanes, there's always something flying overhead). Suddenly, the film cuts to a woman standing in front of a fence, who explains that she's the director, and of course, her original intention was to complete the film with the man being killed by a bomb, and the donkey returning alone. But as she was filming, word came that her brother and all of his family had been killed in a bomb blast. So she couldn't bring herself to do it.

Most affecting for me were the artistic ones - the ones that showed people following their artistic passions, regardless. The first of these is called Charm, and shows a little girl, morose that her dance classes have been cancelled - until she realises that she can keep the music alive all by herself. And oh, one of the pieces of music that's played is, I'm sure, that beautiful piece, Holm, which I heard over the credits of A State of Passion, last month.. well, I'm not sure, but it was so beautiful.

And one of the most affecting, for me, was the art student, letting us into her old, and now uninhabited, apartment, now covered in dust. She leads us to her studio - and starts to dust off her old art works. As she explains the meaning behind each, she also explains that these formed her portfolio to get into university. Except, as she says, they blew up the university a couple of weeks ago (the university president was apparently killed, with his family, during an Israeli airstrike)..

Thank goodness so many of these films show the sea - as one person says, what would they do without it? It's the only place that looks kind of normal..

A couple of people left the cinema early. A few people around me were sobbing. This is a film that can't but affect you, as you see ordinary Gazans, and what they could be if they were only left alone.

Anyway, there's a very handy Tesco Express on the way home, which was great! Badly needed some things. I wasn't as lucky with the buses as earlier, mind, and had a cold wait between them..

Tomorrow only, the Cinema Museum is showing The Big Heat, a film noir with Glenn Ford. Eating beforehand in the Toulouse Lautrec.

And on Thursday, back with Movie Roadhouse London at The Garden Cinema (complete with member's discount) for a murder mystery called Islands, set in the Canaries. We're eating in Caravan beforehand - never heard of it, but as he's how I found out about the Toulouse Lautrec, I'm happy to give it a shot!