Event Briefing: Local artists sing for Gaza children

Wednesday, 25 July 2018 

Mojo’s Bar

Perth local artists came together performing music to raise money and support Gaza Children Cinema in providing spaces of fun, creatively and escapism for children who are gowning in war-torn Palestine. 

Gaza Children Cinema team would like to extend appreciation to the local Perth artists and Mojo’s Bar, the home of live original music in Fremantle WA, for hosting such a great night for a great cause. 

Gaza Children's Cinema is a community-based initiative found in 2013 by local Palestinians. With no other cinema standing in the besieged Gaza strip, a group of volunteers decided to set up a space for children to have safe, inclusive respite from the conflict of their region. Since then, hundreds of children from marginalised communities across the Gaza strip have attended inclusive screenings and interactive discussions, providing them with an open platform for peace, dialogue and entertainment.

Nearly half of Gaza's 2 million people are below the age of 14 and Gazan children aged 10 have now lived through 3 Israeli assaults, from which there is no option to leave. Chronic issues such as a lack of clean water, electricity and other basic requirements of living have reached a crisis, leading to futures that are at once both monotonously unchanging and fraught with uncertainty. 3,436 children were killed in the last assault (2014), and the UN estimates there are now 300,000 children in the strip requiring psycho-social support. 

In 2017 Gaza Children's cinema project managed to deliver 160 screenings to these children. In this 70th year of the anniversary of the Palestinian catastrophe, amid fresh violence against protesters, the organisation is seeking community support to continue its important work.

Special thank you to music groups performed on the night: 

Doctopus - the triforce of homegrown heroes, the one and only wobbegong buddies, the ‘pus, live in the Mojos!

Doublethink Prism - Spoken word + bouncy beats courtesy of dynamic duo Splodge + Alyian

Teen Angst - New lo-fi, hi-vibes rawk, fresh Perth vibes

Molly Black - Folk tower of solo power

Aya - Journey music, didge and slide guitar experimental glory

DJ Shrodingers Funk - Interstitial tunes that somehow simultaneously bang and groove until they are witnessed by an observer.