The Gaza Biennale and the Forbidden Museum of Al Risan Mountain, in collaboration with Recess and e-flux Screening Room, present films by Emad Badwan and Yahya Alsholy, filmmakers and artists working in Gaza today. The works of Badwan and Alsholy challenge the ubiquitous image of life in Gaza, fusing fact and fiction to capture the material and unconscious realities of a life distorted by genocide, pushing the medium to its limits.  

The screening will be presented alongside a pre-recorded conversation with the filmmakers, moderated by Farah Barqawi and Omar Berrada. 

These films are part of the New York Pavilion of the Gaza Biennale, on view at Recess through December 20, 2025.

Films

Emad Badwan, Live Broadcast بث مباشر
(2025, 10 minutes. Produced in Deir al-Balah)
A journalist leaves his reporting station just minutes before his live broadcast, to go to the restroom. In the long queue of impatient people, the war is discussed by those waiting in line. Some praise the photographer, while others criticize him for not covering a particular incident or for not being at a certain location during a specific event. The photographer’s tense state and need to use the restroom continue to rise until he reluctantly returns to the live broadcast to cover an ongoing massacre. The story is humorous and painful, capturing the often-overlooked, quotidian struggles of refugees surviving amidst a genocide. 

Yahya Alsholy, Escape from Farida الهروب من فريدة
(2025, 15 minutes. Produced in North Gaza)
A film about a young man whose aspirations are shattered in the alleys of a city altered by war. He tries to rid himself of his past and leave. However, he must confront his fiancée Farida with his decision to leave the city, igniting memories and contradictions within him. 

Yahya Alsholy, The Curse of Children Who Grew Up from Oranges لعنة الأطفال الذين نشأوا من البرتقال  
(2025, 2 minutes. Produced in Jabalia)
How do children experience the violence of genocide in Gaza, an extreme situation that distorts their sense of normalcy? This question guides Yayha Alsholy in his video, The Curse of Children Who Grew Up from Oranges, where reality and illusion blend into one another. A nightmare from which one cannot escape, the video is at the same time interspersed with images of lushness and the sight of a fresh orange. The ambivalence of the passports that at once shape our lives but have no material value become seeds of growth among the horrific perception of the surrounding violence. Alluding to how children, tremendously affected by the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, perceive these events in illogical ways, the video conveys the complexity of experiences through a combination of staged scenes and real footage overlaid by the color of oranges.

Yahya Alsholy, Completely Invisible غير مرئي تماما
(2025, 2 minutes. Produced in North Gaza)
This video work sketches scenes reflected in the eyes of children, observed by the eyes watching them, giving us images of their imagination as they try to interpret the cruelty of what surrounds them, amid a visual chaos shaped mercilessly by war. In this closed frame, with their besieged eyes and their stained imaginations, the children find no refuge except to surrender to watching, under the weight of a constant feeling of being small, and a deep-rooted sense that they are melting into the shadow, without trace, without presence, completely invisible.

For more information, contact program@e-flux.com.

Accessibility           
–Two flights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at 172 Classon Avenue.
–For elevator access, please RSVP to progam@e-flux.com. The building has a freight elevator which leads into the e-flux office space. Entrance to the elevator is nearest to 180 Classon Ave (a garage door). We have a ramp for the steps within the space.         
–e-flux has an ADA-compliant bathroom. There are no steps between the event space and this bathroom.