In a time when images from Gaza often depict destruction and despair, a new documentary by KADEM Sanat—the cultural initiative of the Women and Democracy Foundation—offers a striking counter-narrative: one of art, memory, and defiance.
Titled 'Some Stories Cannot Be Silenced', the short film follows the lives and work of two young Palestinian women artists—painter Amal Abu al Sibah from Gaza and qanun musician Sadin Tavil from East Jerusalem—who use their creative talents as tools of resistance and healing under Israeli occupation.
Painting on the ruins
Amal Abu al Sibah, 25, returned to Gaza after completing her education to find her hometown scarred by war.
Instead of turning away, she began transforming the rubble into canvases.
One of her most iconic pieces, an image of a woman painted on the last wall standing of a bombed-out building, has come to symbolise quiet resilience.
“I see art as a weapon to defend my country,” Amal says in the film. “Every woman here has a role to play. I can’t wait for the day when my name will be known worldwide.”
Her work, often created in the open air under the threat of violence, is both deeply personal and defiantly public.
Music in a divided city
Eighteen-year-old Sadin Tavil, based in the occupied East Jerusalem, plays the qanun, a traditional Middle Eastern string instrument.
In a city fractured by checkpoints and competing sovereignties, Sadin’s music aims to restore something both fragile and enduring: her people’s voice.
“My message is this: just like freedom, there is safety, education, and life here, and no one should be exiled from this place,” she says. “I want to see my homeland free.”
For both women, creativity is more than expression—it is a declaration of existence.
Art as archive, art as act
The documentary draws out the ways in which Palestinian women are preserving collective memory and cultural dignity amid a military occupation that, according to many international observers, increasingly risks erasing both.
“Each brushstroke and note is an act of remembrance,” the filmmakers said. “They speak not only to pain, but to survival and hope.”
Echoes beyond the frame
Though not featured in the film, the story of Madleen—a civilian aid ship named after a young fisherwoman from Gaza—resonates with the documentary’s central themes.
Seized by Israeli forces while carrying humanitarian aid, the ship became a symbol of civilian resistance.
“Like Amal’s brush and Sadin’s music, Madleen is a message: you cannot block hope,” said KADEM Sanat’s producers.
A global platform for silenced voices
‘Some Stories Cannot Be Silenced’ premiered at the Turkish House in New York during KADEM’s Resisting Through Art event and is now available for streaming on the organisation’s social media platforms.
“Watch, share, and amplify their voices,” KADEM urges. “Because some stories cannot be silenced.”
