Alan in Belfast: From Ground Zero – 22 glimpses into what has become normal for people living and creating under conflict conditions (screened at DocsIreland)

What happens when creative people are trapped in a conflict that threatens their existence and the lives of their loved ones, displaces them from homes into a series of tented cities, cuts off their supply of food and water, consumes all their nervous energy?

From Ground Zero is a curated anthology of 22 films made in Gaza. Each filmmaker’s response to their new situation differs. For some, the enduring conflict has inspired new artistic expression. For some, creating is a means of release. For one, it became too much and a gentle story about a donkey cart (“Taxi Waneesa” directed by E’temad Weshah) has been left unfinished after the death of her brother.

There’s a mix of video diaries, fictionalised incidents, poetic responses, testimony about what now passes for normal life, polemics about hopes and dreams, puppets, and even some stop motion animation. There are a lot of cats. There is a complete absence of politics.

Death has become numeric. Whole family circles of contributors have been killed in the collapse of buildings. Dying has become mundane and part of Gaza’s new normal. The matter of factness disguises the trauma. Several of the short films refer to previous periods of conflict and the enduring suffering and compound distress and insecurity.

Everyday objects have been imbued with new significance: a dress someone was almost killed picking up, an art portfolio that was a young woman’s route to a university course in a campus that was subsequently destroyed.

There’s a lot of frustration and futility. Chasing parachutes dropping food aid feels exciting until the men with the biggest trucks and toughest gangs pick up the supplies and don’t share them. Scraping flour off the road, now mixed in with sand epitomises the deep despondency. A story about a man fruitlessly searching for water, food and charge for his mobile phone ends with him still being thankful to those who couldn’t or wouldn’t help him.

So many scenes involve scavenging for wood to light fires to cook food and heat water. Without electricity and appliances, everything reverts to old-fashioned practices. The constant sound of overhead drones is the background sound to almost every film. Everyone is tired and exhausted.

Children explaining that their parents write their names in black marker on their limbs so their bodies would be identifiable in the event of them being killed in an attack. Jet plans road overhead. There are no secure underground bunkers in which to take refuge, only unstable building that could form your permanent resting place if rescue is not quick.

While there is despair, there are also bursts of happiness. Singing and dancing survive the war. The children’s stop motion animation project – which deserves a whole documentary to itself – is clearly therapeutic, helping youngsters process what’s happened to their homes and their families. Some of the younger contributors appreciate that there is beauty around them, even if they grasp it right now. A man (“24 Hours”, directed by Alaa Damo) rescued from the rubble of collapsed buildings – pressed up against other family members who died in the hours or days it took to be pulled free – still look thankful to be alive.

Just shy of two hours long, time flies as the 22 films paint their picture of life From Ground Zero. The sense of pain is searing. The circumstances that make this anthology possible (and necessary) are cruel. But the witness of resilience and human spirit rising above loss ultimately offers some hope.

From Ground Zero was screened as part of DocsIreland festival of international documentary film which runs until Sunday 29 June.