GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Gaza Strip's sixth annual Red Carpet Human Rights Film Festival opened Oct. 13. This year's theme, “Shoufouna” (Arabic for “See Us”), demanded that the world pay attention to what is happening in the besieged enclave.

The festival’s first edition was held in 2014 in the wake of that year's war on Gaza, and it continued to be held despite the difficulties and challenges presented to the event’s crew and organizers by the ongoing Israeli siege.

Abdul Rahman Hussein, the festival's vice president, told Al-Monitor, “The festival founder, Khalil Mezyen, believed that as filmmakers, we must have a take on the destruction and death around us. This is where the idea of the festival came from. It began in the Shajaiya neighborhood [of Gaza City], where the event was held among the destruction and rubble. The idea started a buzz in the media and among humanitarian and human rights organizations, and we felt that we had a responsibility to hold the festival every year rather than make it a one-time event,” he added.

“Each edition has had a different theme that addressed different issues for the people of Gaza,” Hussein continued.