KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip — The Gaza-based Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA) is organizing the Mobile Short Film Festival, a first for the Gaza Strip. Participants must be Palestinians between the ages of 18 and 35 residing in Gaza, and their video footage must focus on issues related to youth unemployment and the rights of people with a disability. The competition guidelines state that participants can submit their videos, which should be two to three minutes long, between Dec. 19 of last year and Jan. 19. The videos with the most public votes will be screened during the festival’s award ceremony, whose date has yet to be announced.

Karim Tartouri, 22, is getting ready to produce his short film about the rights of people with disabilities in Gaza. He will shoot and carry out the video editing using his cellphone.

Tartouri, who graduated from Palestine Technical College with a certificate in Television Arts, told Al-Monitor that producing a short film using a cellphone is a genius idea, since anyone with a modern mobile device can do this and join the festival's competition. He said that this competition gives him the opportunity to show his passion for video production and apply what he learned in college about filmmaking. In his short film, Tartouri will focus on the loss of job opportunities by people with special needs because of their disability.

Ibrahim al-Batta, 26, recorded a short film about the complex social issues of nepotism, unemployment and brain drain. He aspires to win Gaza’s Mobile Short Film Festival in the category of youth affairs, to make up for his lost chance to participate in the "Qomrah" TV show due to internet problems that prevented him from uploading his film and sending it to the jury on time, although he had passed stages one and two of the competition.