Cold Open · Essay · sep 4, 2025

The Deadly Reality of Filming in Gaza: Fatima Hassouna’s Story w/ Sepideh Farsi

Sepideh Farsi's Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk was made through a series of video calls with Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, conducted during Israel's assault on Gaza. The film is an act of witness as much as an act of cinema — a record of a life lived under conditions that most audiences will struggle to comprehend, made with the urgency of knowing the record might be all that remains. Speaking with Elliot, Farsi discusses why making this film was necessary and what it means to document survival in real time.

By Admin

Film Journalist · Celebrating Cinema

Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk is a film made in the urgency of the present. Composed through a series of video calls with Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, it documents a life confined in Gaza during the current phase of Israel’s genocide. Speaking with producer Elliot Bloom, Sepideh reflects on why the film is essential at a moment when Palestinian voices are being silenced and when the daily struggle to survive is kept at a distance from the world.

This conversation honors the remarkable presence of Fatima, the necessity of bearing witness, and the role of cinema and art in confronting horrors that resist comprehension.

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