WATCH THE OSCAR-SHORTLISTED FILM “FROM GROUND ZERO” — filmed in Gaza over the last year! IN THEATERS NOW!
As Executive Producer, I am honored to present in this powerful film 22 courageous and resilient voices from Palestine.
Friends,
I’m personally honored to inform you that Palestine’s entry to this year’s Academy Awards®, the brilliant film FROM GROUND ZERO, has recently been voted by the members of the Motion Picture Academy — one of only 15 films worldwide — for this year’s Oscar shortlist for BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE. I am a proud Executive Producer of this acclaimed movie — AND IT OPENED TODAY in theaters across America.
FROM GROUND ZERO, the first film ever from Gaza to be elected to the shortlist for the Oscar in the category that honors what used to be known as the Best Foreign Film of the Year, is unlike any movie you’ve ever seen — filmed during a mass slaughter of over 50,000 civilians, the vast majority of them children, women and the elderly. In a brisk and powerful one hour and fifty-two minutes, it weaves together 22 short films made by 22 courageous Palestinian filmmakers living and surviving in Gaza over this past year — all of it told in under 2 hours!
These are stories not being told anywhere. You do not see these stories on the evening news. Military leaders prohibit access so that journalists and filmmakers cannot bring us the truth. Even though you and I pay for this war and we are the providers of all these horrific weapons, we are not allowed to witness what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have declared to be a genocide and an ethnic cleansing — war crimes committed every day in our name. Instead, we are the victims of a powerful propaganda campaign intended to dehumanize the 5 million human beings in all the Occupied Palestinian Territories who are forced to live imprisoned behind walls and barbed wire, forced into starvation, nearly every hospital and school in Gaza bombed to smithereens, half the country’s homes reduced to rubble.
(For the people under 50 reading this, not a single Palestinian built a single oven or a single gas chamber in the Holocaust that took the lives of the 6 million Jews. Not a single Palestinian stopped boatloads of Jewish refugees escaping the Nazis to dock in New York, Boston, Baltimore or Miami. That, and all the other horrors enacted upon the Jewish people during World War II, were 100% committed by White Christian Europeans and their descendants and cousins who wouldn’t let them into the U.S. to save their lives. By the time American boots hit the beaches of Normandy, 5 million of the 6 million total who died were already slaughtered.
And yet somebody decided it was the… Palestinians who must pay the price???? Somebody is not telling us the truth.)
That this movie even exists is something of a human and cinematic miracle. I so sincerely want you to find a theater showing it this weekend and go see it. By the end of its run next month it will play in over 150 theaters. Listed below, by city, are the ones where it opened today (Jan 3). New ones will be added next week.
My friends, FROM GROUND ZERO mixes dramatic storytelling, documentary, animation — all genres of cinema to make this one of the most compelling films you’ll see this year. Working with whatever tools they were able to pull from the rubble of their homes and their cities, these filmmakers have come together to share these stories with us. And their work is already being honored. Academy voters in this early round of voting have declared this to be an exceptional film. These are filmmakers voting, not politicians and pundits. They recognize this brilliant movie for what it is: A masterwork of great art.
Do not skip this movie because “Oh it’s Gaza” or “I can’t take take this any more” — go see it for the same reason you’ve gone to all the big important movies, from ERIN BROCKOVICH to CHINA SYNDROME to 12 YEARS A SLAVE to OPPENHEIMER. As one of the film’s Executive Producers, I promise you, you will not be disappointed.
Find the nearest theater to you here:
— or check out the full list of theaters playing this powerful film right now, starting TODAY, January 3rd, below:
AMC Westgate 20 • Glendale, AZ
AMC Ahwatukee 24 • Phoenix, AZ
Harkins Theatres Shea 14 • Scottsdale, AZ
AMC Covina 17 • Covina, CA
AMC Dine-in Fullerton 20 • Fullerton, CA
AMC Orange 30 • Orange, CA
AMC Rolling Hills 20 • Torrance, CA
Laemmle Glendale Cinema • Glendale, CA
Laemmle Monica Film Center • Santa Monica, CA
Roxie Theater • San Francisco, CA
AMC Arapahoe Crossing 16 • Aurora, CO
AMC Dine-in Southlands 16 • Aurora, CO
AMC Flatiron Crossing 14 • Broomfield, CO
AMC Highlands Ranch 24 • Highlands Ranch, CO
AMC Westminster Promenade 24 • Westminster, CO
Suns Cinema • Washington DC
Angelika Pop-Up at Union Market • Washington DC
AMC Hialeah 12 • Hialeah, FL
AMC Pompano Beach 18 • Pompano Beach, FL
AMC Sunset Place 24 • South Miami, FL
AMC West Oaks 14 • Ocoee, FL
AMC Highwoods 20 • Tampa, FL
AMC Veterans 24 • Tampa, FL
Sun-Ray Cinema • Tampa, FL
AMC NEWCITY 14 • Chicago, IL
AMC River East 21 • Chicago, IL
AMC Crestwood 18 • Crestwood, IL
AMC Evanston 12 • Evanston, IL
AMC Quarry Cinemas 14 • Hodgkins, IL
Marcus Theaters Orland Park Cinema 15 • Orland Park, IL
AMC Village Crossing 18 • Skokie, IL
AMC Dine-in Studio 28 • Olathe, KS
AMC Dine-in Prairiefire 17 • Overland Park, KS
AMC Boston Common 19 • Boston, MA
AMC Liberty Tree Mall 20 • Danvers, MA
AMC Methuen 20 • Methuen, MA
AMC Owings Mills 17 • Owings Mills, MD
AMC Dine-in Rio Cinemas 18 • Gaithersburg, MD
AMC Forum 30 • Sterling Heights, MI
AMC Coon Rapids 16 • Coon Rapids, MN
AMC Eden Prairie Mall 18 • Eden Prairie, MN
AMC Southdale 16 • Edina, MN
AMC Inver Grove 16 • Inver Grove Heights, MN
AMC Classic Mounds View 15 • Mounds View, MN
AMC Rosedale 14 • Roseville, MN
Marcus West End Cinema • St. Louis Park, MN
AMC Jersey Gardens 20 • Elizabeth, NJ
AMC New Brunswick 18 • New Brunswick, NJ
AMC Cherry Hill 24 • Cherry Hill Township, NJ
AMC Voorhees 16 • Voorhees Township, NJ
Quad Cinemas • New York, NY
Cincinnati World Cinema at the Garfield Theatre • Cincinnati, OH
Clinton Street Theatre • Portland, OR
AMC Neshaminy 24 • Bensalem, PA
AMC Dine-in Stonebriar 24 • Frisco, TX
AMC Grapevine Mills 24 • Grapevine, TX
AMC Dine-in Mesquite 30 • Mesquite, TX
AMC Gulf Pointe 30 • Houston, TX
AMC Willowbrook 24 • Houston, TX
AMC Fountains 18 • Stafford, TX
AMC First Colony 24 • Sugar Land, TX
AMC Hoffman Center 22 • Alexandria, VA
AMC Potomac Mills 18 • Woodbridge, VA
AMC Tysons Corner 16 • McLean, VA
The Grand Illusion Cinema • Seattle, WA
AMC Fitchburg 18 • Fitchburg, WI
AMC Classic Desert Star Cinema 15 • Lake Delton, WI
And finally, check out this amazing review from RogerEbert.com that just came out this evening:
“From Ground Zero” is a rare work for which superlatives are not only inadequate but useless. It’s an anthology of 22 short subject by Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip. Most are a few minutes long. Some are nonfiction, some are scripted dramas, and some are hybrids, in the Neorealist tradition created by Italians who cobbled together achingly personal art in the ruins of World War II.
Overseen by director-producer Rashid Masharawi, it’s a staggering achievement, and not just because of the mere fact of its existence. Like many documentaries about Ukraine released after the Russian invasion, it shows you what it’s like to live day-to-day on the ground through a genocide as a mechanized military is targeting civilian buildings; killing noncombatants, including children; and forcing survivors to scramble for basics like food and water. But “From Ground Zero” has value beyond its report from Hell in that it shows that, after a catastrophe, art is not only still possible but necessary — and that digital technology makes it possible for people to continue to preserve and share their stories even after they’ve lost almost everything else.
And that’s just the first two paragraphs! Read the rest of this review here.
** In order to have a troll-free, hate-free comments section — and because if there’s one thing I know about my crazy haters, they would rather spend an eternity in hell with Marjorie Taylor Greene than send me $5 if forced to become a paid subscriber — my Comments section here on my Substack is limited to paid subscribers. But, not to worry — anyone can send me their comments, opinions and thoughts by writing to me at mike@michaelmoore.com. I read every one of them, though obviously I can’t respond to all. The solution here is not optimal but it has worked and my Comments section has become a great meeting place for people wanting to discuss the ideas and issues I raise here. There is debate and disagreement, but it is refreshing to have it done with respect and civility, unfettered by the stench of bigotry and Q-anon insanity.
Michael, I am so glad you are executive producer to this film!! I hope your participation will make more Americans to watch the film and learn who Palestinians are and what has been done to them with our money and arms!!
Thank you for your efforts to bring this historical record to the world.