A documentary portrays the daily lives of AFP reporters in Gaza
Hélène Lam Trong's documentary, Inside Gaza, which follows the daily lives of journalists at Agence France-Presse’s Gaza bureau in the months following the attack of October 7, 2023, will be featured this autumn at several festivals and on television in Belgium, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Italy.
Featuring previously unseen footage and testimony from reporters Mai Yaghi and Adel Zaanoun, as well as photojournalists Mahmud Hams and Mohammed Abed, Inside Gaza "does not presume to explain the conflict, but rather to show that reporters are risking their lives so the public can continue to have access to independent and accurate information," stresses the director. The four journalists, veteran reporters who have worked for AFP for a long time, explain the extreme difficulty of working in a war-ravaged territory, where they must also protect their families.
In the spring of 2024, all AFP reporters working in the territory were evacuated along with their families. Since then, the Agency has relied on Palestinian freelancers who stayed on the ground, and who continue to document the reality of war in a territory that has been off-limits to the international press since the conflict started.
Inside Gaza will be screened on September 28 at the DIG Festival in Modena (Italy), dedicated to documentary and investigative journalism, followed by the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy War Correspondents' Award on October 9.
The film will have its world premiere on September 24 at prime time (8:20pm) on Belgian French-language public television RTBF, before subsequent broadcasts in Switzerland (RTS), Germany, and very soon on ARTE in France.
This Franco-Belgian co-production brings together Arte France, RTBF, and FACTSTORY, with the participation of AFP, the support of RTS, and in partnership with Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The film was also supported by the French National Center of Cinema (CNC), the Cinema and Audiovisual Center of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Tax Shelter (a Belgian tax break to encourage investment in cinema), the Procirep and Angoa producers’ association, and the Proarti endowment fund.
Hélène Lam Trong won the Albert-Londres Prize in 2023 for her documentary "ISIS, the Ghost Children."
About FACTSTORY
FACTSTORY is a creative audiovisual production agency, an integral part of the AFP group. Thanks to our international network, local teams are able to meet any video, photo and text expectations. Choosing FACTSTORY also means reducing production costs and carbon footprint. FACTSTORY Docs is the company’s documentary film production unit, launched in 2021 with film productions with international broadcasters such as ARTE, BBC, RTBF, SVT and RTS.