Names Not Numbers: Stories from Gaza

Film Screening & Q&A with Director Ruwaida Amer

Names Not Numbers: Stories from Gaza brings together four short documentaries that bear witness to life, loss, and survival under genocide.

Since October 7th, 2023, the people of Gaza have endured relentless bombardment, displacement, and loss. The world sees numbers, death tolls, displacement figures, statistics that grow by the day. But behind every number is a name. Behind every name, a story.

This edition features four Palestinians who agreed to share their stories with the world: Ramez Al-Souri, Ayah Al-Sousi, Sami Issa Ramadan Aby Ameira, and Sabreen Budwan. They speak of homes reduced to rubble, of family members lost to strikes, of successive displacements and the struggle to survive.

Filmed inside Gaza by journalists Ruwaida Amer and Mahmoud Almashahrawi, these testimonies capture what statistics cannot: the weight of grief, the strength of community, and the profound humanity of those who refuse to be erased.

These are their stories, told in their own words.

Because people are not numbers.

ABOUT RUWAIDA AMER (DIRECTOR)

Ruwaida Amer, the talented filmmaker behind the Names not Numbers documentaries, is a journalist, writer, producer and science teacher who has lived her whole life in Gaza. Born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, she was displaced at the age of eight and went on to pursue a university education and worked to slowly help build her family’s home, despite the hardships of living under siege. Three months after Ruwaida’s family home was completed, the genocide began. She and her family have been displaced once again. Ruwaida’s work focuses on amplifying the voices of the real people of Gaza and keeping the rest of the world informed about the human tragedy that is occurring.

Names Not Numbers is a documentary story telling platform that refuses to let colonial and occupying powers reduce people to statistics.

Behind every number in a death toll or displacement figure is a person with a name, a face, and a story to tell. This project creates space for those stories to be heard–in their own words, on their own terms. Working directly with local filmmakers and journalists embedded in each community, the platform ensures these narratives come from those who live them. 

The first edition centres Palestinian voices from Gaza, the beginning of an ongoing commitment to communities whose experiences have been erased by the language of numbers. Names Not Numbers is produced by Arts Impact Society, a cultural impact organisation using art, storytelling, and political media to shift narratives and ignite social change. Through collaboration with artists and communities resisting injustice, Arts Impact Society creates projects that celebrate living culture, foster solidarity, and centre lived experience.

Names Not Numbers YouTube Channel | https://www.youtube.com/@namesnotnumbers

Arts Impact Society Website | www.artsimpactsociety.org

Arts Impact Society Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/arts.impact.society/

CREDITS

Storyholders: Ayah Al-Sousi, Ramez Al-Souri, Sabreen Budwan, Sami Abu Ameira
Producer/Director: Ruwaida Amer
Cinematographer: Mahmoud Almashahrawi
Post & Impact Producer: Aprille Asfoura
Editors: Natasha Akib & Robert Werner
Motion & Graphics: Robert Werner
Translation: Victor Asfoura
Media Production: Arts Impact Society