'Building our own cultural power': Amid censorship, Watermelon Pictures takes control of the narrative with new platform to stream Palestinian cinema

“From the river to the screen, Palestine will be seen,” read the motto of US-based film distribution company Watermelon Pictures in its memorable launch video last year.

Just 14 months later, the Palestinian-owned film label has ballooned in visibility and reputation thanks to a series of successful releases – including The Encampments, The Teacher and the Oscar-shortlisted From Ground Zero – as well as its consistently savvy Instagram account.

Watermelon Pictures wears several hats. While primarily a distribution label for North America, the company also finances and produces new films.

On top of this, the small outfit has also found time to launch Watermelon+, a new streaming service showcasing Palestinian cinema and stories from other marginalised communities.

Watermelon Pictures was founded by co-CEOs and brothers Badie Ali and Hamza Ali, with Alana Hadid as creative director and Munir Atalla as head of production and acquisitions.

The New Arab sat down with Munir to hear more about their work:

The New Arab: To what extent has Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza been the catalyst for Watermelon Pictures – or did it begin before that?

Munir Atalla: No, this was the catalyst. The genocide put into stark relief the extent to which the existing systems we have will never serve us or prioritise our community's needs. In this industry, we have to build our own cultural power and financial power to compete and fight in this ideological battle that we're in.

Simultaneously, there has been an explosion of interest in Palestinian cinema over the last two years. Of course, we're only a small part of that and are building on a foundation of cinematic heritage that goes back many generations. From the days of the PLO Film Unit, the Palestinian struggle has recognised that there is a need for us to seize control and dictate the terms of our own narrative.

You’ve just launched the Watermelon+ streaming platform. What makes it so unique?

Watermelon+ is an independent streaming platform that we just launched worldwide. It's several things, first of which is a living archive of Palestinian cinema that’s owned by Palestinians – we as a company are accountable to no one other than our audience.

And this is the power of having our cinematic heritage all in one place, collected, for the first time. We have really tried to assemble as many of the great Palestinian films that have been made throughout history.

This is extremely important because we see Palestinian films being repressed and stripped of other streaming platforms on a global basis. We needed a place that’s a living archive for our cinematic heritage, safe from people trying to take down our stories.

But Watermelon+ is also a place for our new releases. So when we have films that we're excited about, we want our subscribers to have access to those films before anyone else. And so, after theatrical releases, there will be exclusive windows to watch the films on our platform.

Watermelon+ is also a way for people to plug into our work and support what we're doing. It's the price of a coffee in New York or London. You can really be a tangible part of our growth and our success, and fuel the future of Palestinian cinema by subscribing to Watermelon+.

There's an incredible consumer movement that is divesting from harmful corporations, but now we need to be investing in our future, our stories and in our artists. This is why the majority of our revenue goes back to filmmakers who want to make a sustainable career out of this storytelling work that they do.

We are primarily a distribution label in North America, but we are also now trying to finance, produce and empower a new generation of storytellers – as well as existing ones – to bring their stories to the big screen, which is where we feel culture shift happens.

What are the worst examples of censorship you've seen in the last two years, or the opposite, great moments of platforming?

One thing we've seen is that audiences are far ahead of the industry in this respect. They are ready for this kind of content. Our films are resonating with them. This is why The Encampments broke box office records in the US.

At the same time, we're seeing censorship across the board from a lot of different platforms. This is taking place at the development stage, where they won't take on any projects that they deem ‘controversial’ – coded language for being ‘too political’ – through to the licensing level, where they're either letting licenses for Palestinian films expire without renewing them or simply avoiding them altogether.

In the face of this censorship, we have had to take control of our own industry and our own narrative. And if we want these films to keep getting made, then we have to have a foothold in this industry to grow and to build from.

Has this censorship become worse over the last two years of Israel's genocide in Gaza?

Overall, Palestinian cinema and storytelling have faced censorship across the world, but mostly in Europe and North America, because these are the governments that are complicit in Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel has been murdering journalists in Gaza, with more than 200 killed in a very targeted campaign of assassinations.

So, the censorship really starts at the core and then rolls out from there. Even the work of these journalists who are nominated for international awards is still subject to all sorts of smears and attacks against their credibility.

And then if you zoom out a little bit, we’re also seeing a cultural shift. There is a young generation that has had their eyes open to the horrors and atrocities that their governments are carrying out in their name and refusing to stand with them. But at the same time, we haven't yet seen a material impact in stopping the genocide, so much more is needed.

This is why we approach our work with utmost urgency every single day.

What are you looking forward to in terms of upcoming films, festivals or projects that you want to share and can give us a sneak peek?

We're going to see some of the biggest films ever made out of Palestine coming out in the next year or so – and we're happy to be behind a lot of them.

So keep your eyes out, and if you're a subscriber to Watermelon+, you'll get early access. Otherwise, I hope to see you in the theatres.

Every single ticket sold really matters and sustains our work and makes it possible for us to do what we do. We really encourage people to get out there.

On June 6, we're having the UK release of The Encampments, the record-breaking documentary that features the Columbia student activist, Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained by immigration and Customs Enforcement here in the US and is still being held in Louisiana.

The film focuses on the largest student uprising in decades, which was in solidarity with Gaza in the US and beyond. We really hope that audiences in Ireland and Great Britain will want to come out and see this film and support our work in that capacity.

How important is it for Watermelon Pictures to push forward films and content that conveys the horror of Israel’s varied violence against Palestinians?

We need as many tactics and different types of films as possible to reach different audiences. Some people will never buy a ticket to watch something that they feel will make them uncomfortable or challenge their politics, so we need to reach those audiences in inventive ways, perhaps by using genre as a way to bring them out to the theater to watch maybe a horror film, but really, it's about something deeper – similar to how the film Get Out addressed racism in the US via comedy-horror.

At the same time, for our own core community and constituency, there's a lot of violence that we see on our phones day in and day out that people might not want to just sit in a theatre and revisit.

People are already active and mobilised, so for that demographic, we want to add to their understanding and conversation. Let's go deeper into certain topics that are of urgency.

But ultimately, we don't want to be the arbiters of how artists make their films or what they want to say to their audiences. We want to help and empower artists to bring their films to the broadest possible audience. We see our impact and work as providing the reach to get these films in front of as many audiences as possible.

Sebastian Shehadi is a freelance journalist and a contributing writer at the New Statesman. 

Follow him on X: @seblebanon