Refaat Alareer is the co-editor of Gaza Unsilenced (2015) and was the editor of (and a contributor to) Gaza Writes Back (2014). A native of Gaza City's Shijaieh neighborhood, he received his M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University College of London (U.K.) and is currently completing his Ph.D. in English Literature at the Universiti Putra Malaysia.

At the turn of last year, Palestinian “mentally unstable” man Isaac Hassan, 26, crossed the Gaza-Egypt border naked, only to be shot dead on the spot by the Egypt army. Hassan is the perfect metaphor for Gaza’s 2015.

And if you think 2014 was the worst year Palestinians in Gaza lived, then you’re probably not that informed about 2015, the worst ever in all possible terms.

Rafah Crossing:

A 14-minute black and white silent film shows how women from coal mining communities learned to weave and sew income-generating items, while the men learned to build hardwood furniture, also for sale. 

The Mountaineer's Craftsmen Cooperative Association (MCCA) became the entity that sold Appalachian furniture and handcrafts. 

A silent black and white film (19 min. 34 sec.) looks unflinchingly at work and living conditions, town life, family life, and child feeding. According to available public health reports the region, as many as 16 families shared one outhouse.

Silent, black and white footage of horse- and camel-drawn sleighs delivering food in snowy Russia during  the third year of a famine there, brought on by war, drought and outmoded farming practices. AFSC not only delivered food but also supplied horses, farm equipment and training.

For the past 15 months AFSC staff and volunteers have been bird-dogging Presidential candidates with questions about Corporate influence on governance in the United States, raising awareness of the private prison lobby, the arms trade lobby, as well as the detention bed quota. In this piece Arnie calls out the NRA and reframes their efforts as supporting gun manufacturers and dealers. To learn more about Governing under the Influence, visit their website. - Lucy

AFSC's Peace by Piece (PxP) New Orleans intern Breial Kennedy collaborated with The Real News Network to collect stories of recovery by New Orleanians displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The compilation of survivor stories was made into a short documentary entitled Katrina X. This trailer offers a preview of the film, which is scheduled to be released in August 2016.