DayofPal– An investigative documentary “Killing Zone: Inside Gaza” has won an International Emmy Award after US television networks refused to buy or broadcast the film.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Boulous explained that the documentary was produced with the contribution of 12 cameramen inside the Gaza Strip.
The film chronicles the first six months of what Boulous described as genocide and the systematic destruction of hospitals, relying on testimonies from doctors, journalists, wounded civilians, and displaced families.
It also documents the suffering of children in their homes, shelters, and areas of forced displacement.
Boulous praised Britain’s Channel 4 for what she called its courage and editorial independence in producing the documentary without yielding to pressure, in contrast to other networks such as the BBC.
The director said senior producers and Channel 4 officials had visited Gaza several times before the war, giving them a direct understanding of realities on the ground and helping them make the decision to tell the story “as it truly happened.”
“It was a brave decision to tell the story from a Palestinian perspective,” Boulous said. “I tried to convey the suffering of civilians during the first six months, which were the harshest period of this war.”
She added that Israel’s ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza was aimed at concealing massacres. She paid tribute to Palestinian journalists killed during the war, saying the world lost immensely with their deaths and stressing that Palestinians are always capable of telling their own stories more powerfully than any external narrative.
Boulous said there was no safe place anywhere in Gaza and praised Channel 4’s team for approaching the footage from a humanitarian perspective. “What is happening is collective punishment,” she said.
The British director expressed astonishment that the film reached the International Emmy judging committee despite not being aired in the United States.
“We tried to sell it to American networks, but they refused to buy it,” she said. “As a result, the American public did not see the film. Winning the Emmy was a huge surprise and a major recognition of its value.”
She stressed that efforts to expose the truth would continue, as the war is still ongoing and entire families have been wiped out as a result of what she described as Israel’s collective punishment.
Boulous concluded by saying the most important aspect of the award is that it gives the Gaza team a sense that the world has seen their work. “We dream of celebrating together one day and of visiting Gaza to thank them for their courage,” she said.
The film is an investigative episode of Channel 4’s Dispatches program and won the International Emmy Award for Best Current Affairs documentary at a ceremony held in New York last November.
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