For those who didn't experience life in Gaza in the 1970s, it is difficult to imagine how things were back then. Although the imagination is the only thing that politics or religion cannot control, the contrast is really hard to conceptualize.

Women used to sport beautiful, brightly colored clothing in the 1970s. They would wear their hair in the finest cuts and styles. They would sing and laugh in the streets. Their woes were lighter, their joys were greater. Men and women would freely mix together everywhere, with music mingling with laughter in public places.

That, at any rate, is how Gaza seemed in the 1970s, as depicted in the film reels of Muhammad Hassunah. Al-Monitor's correspondent visited the the photographer in his Gaza home near the sea in the same room where, through an old cinema projector, he used to screen films for Gazans of their family celebrations. He managed with some difficulty to get the old machine — which had not been used in 35 years — up and running. And through it, he brought the Gaza of a past generation back to life again.

"Filming means everything to me. Our lives revolved around the cameras. I have bought every kind of camera in my life. I used to be known as 'Hassunah the photographer,'” he told Al-Monitor.