A film for Gaza, in honor of the more than 45,800 Palestinians martyred between October 2023 and December 2024 during the ongoing genocide perpetrated by Israel. Through paintings, animations, poems, ragas, and soundscapes, the film seeks to humanize and, if only for an instant, bring the victims to life.
Director statement
Since October 2023, I have been a member of the Minas Gerais Committee for Solidarity with the Palestinian People, in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Since then, we have carried out weekly actions to raise awareness among the local population about the Palestinian cause and to denounce the genocide in Gaza. Along the way, we have met remarkable individuals, such as activist and psychiatrist Samah Jabr, head of Mental Health at the Ministry of Health in the West Bank. Her vividly written texts have deepened our understanding and emotional connection to Palestine. With Jabr’s support, I set out to “paint” one of these texts—an effort that ultimately became a short film aimed at humanizing the victims of Gaza.
Bio
Clara Albinati is a professor of the cinema course at FCA-PUCMINAS, Brazil. She completed the PhD at EBA-UFMG, Brazil. And the Masters in Research in Artistic and Visual Practices at UCLM, Spain, with a grant from Fundación Carolina. She graduated as a film director from EICTV, Cuba, with a specialization in Fiction Directing. She graduated in Fine Arts from EBA-UFMG, with an emphasis on Painting. She is also a guest professor at the Chavón cinema course – La escuela de diseño (Dominican Republic). She is an independent filmmaker. She is a member of Southern Conceptualisms Network (RedCSur), having participated in the curatorial research of the exhibition Graphic Turn, presented at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Spain). Currently, she is completing a postdoctoral research on the relationship between painting and cinema at Jadavpur University, through the ICCR (India Council for Cultural Relations) fellowship.
Direction, painting, animation and editing: Clara Albinati
Sound design: Daniel Albinati
Ragas interpretation: Rakhi Chatterjee
Poem: Ilka Boaventura
Fragments of the text “Cultivating Resilience” by Samah Jabr
Pebbles Underground is focused on showcasing and promoting experimental, avant-garde, underground, and no-to-low budget projects by artist-humans from all over the world. Absurd, uncanny, witty, humorous, slow-video – all are welcomed, and loved.
Pebbles Underground is an independent project not funded by any government or corporation, and we intend to keep it that way. Main source of funding is personal donations from humans organizing the project, who are artists themselves, and the main drive of the project is formed by the energy and involvement of the organizers, and the public.
