(9 Dec 2019) LEAD IN: The Palestinian Gaza Strip is hosting its fifth Human Rights Film Festival. Organizers say they want to  send a message to the world about Gaza’s right to freedom and life. STORY-LINE: This is the red carpet at Gaza’s Human Rights Film Festival . This year’s opening takes place outside Amer cinema. The decaying building has been abandoned for three decades. The organizers chose Amer for its symbolism as one of Gaza’s oldest cinemas. Around 200 people gather in front of the cinema for the festival’s fifth edition. A 100-meter red carpet is rolled up and a giant projector is installed. “Gaza”, an award-winning film by Irish directors, is screened. It portraits the life in the war-torn and besieged territory.   Organizers of the festival say they want to shed light on Gaza’s plight but also on its residents’ right to have a cinema. “People of Gaza love freedom and prosperity, they want to live like the rest of the world,” explains Saud Abu Ramadan, the co-director of the festival. “Thank God for this (festival), children can see and know about the situation happening in Gaza via a large cinema screen. This makes them more aware about the situation in their country, not just on the ground but in a cinematic way. It makes them more educated. I hope this (cinema and screening) will always be available in Gaza. Everyone should participate and support this in Gaza. Because Gaza is really besieged , and we lack such places here,” says Hamam al-Ghoul, a resident of the city. The festival gives exposure to Palestinian filmmakers and Arab talent . 45 films are being screened, some made in Europe and others in the Arab world. The handful cinema houses in the Palestinian enclave flourished in the late 50s. Gaza was under the Egyptian mandate back then. But they were closed in the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987. Hamas, the Islamic military group, imposed  strict Islamic norms on the society since seizing Gaza in 2007. This festival is a breath of air and a celebration of life, say the attendees. “There is a large number of attendees, from different societies in Gaza, who liked the (films). They consider these three days (beginning of the festival) as an escape for them in Gaza Strip to go watch films in places like a cinema house, especially those film that talk about Gaza and its reality,” says Lamia al-Ghoul, one of the organizers. The festival is running until Dec. 11.