Despite censorship, US audiences flock to watch films on Palestine like The Encampments

A year after pro-Palestinian student encampments swept college campuses around the world, and particularly in the US, smaller gatherings have again sprung up over the past several weeks, wrapping up another academic year of restricted student protests that refuse to yield against censorship by the authorities.

A couple of months after the arrest and detention of Columbia graduate student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in custody in Louisiana, the documentary "The Encampments" hit the silver screen.

The opening days and weeks have been met with packed theatres, giving US audiences a glimpse of a narrative that has largely ignored by the mainstream news since the outbreak of Israel's war on Gaza in October 2023.

The film focuses on the Columbia University encampment, briefly showing encampments at other campuses, all sharing the general goal of getting their universities to divest from companies involved in Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

It follows three student activists, showing individual interviews with them between scenes of the evolving encampment movement, as the crackdowns on the protesters and international students increase and tension with the university administration intensifies.

One is Khalil, and the other two are Sueda Polat, another graduate student and encampment negotiator and Grant Miner, a Jewish PhD student who worked as a labour organiser and was expelled from Columbia for his involvement in the student protests.

At one point, Khalil is asked what he would do if he were arrested, giving audiences a chilling window into the reality the students were grappling with as they led a heavily policed movement.

The film's directors Kei Pritsker and Michael Workman have been hosting discussions at cinemas across the US.

"People are hungry for these stories and will show up to theatres, and when theatres see that, they're more likely to take the risk on programming a film like this," Workman told a packed theatre following a screening of "The Encampments" in April. "So, bring your friends. If we keep packing the theatres, then we keep putting the film out and getting more people to see the film."

Workman went on to urge people to speak out for the release of Khalil and for other international students facing deportation.

"We need to be out there with them supporting them at all times," he said.

Though the film hasn't reached blockbuster commercial success, as is the case with most documentaries, it has become widely known, getting write-ups in most mainstream publications, including Fox.

Aside from its release coinciding with US President Donald Trump's ramped-up student crackdown and a resurgence of campus encampments, it also comes at a time of growing support and interest in films about Palestinians.

This year's Oscar winner for best documentary, "No Other Land," initially saw barriers to screenings, including from a mayor in Florida, due to the politics of the conflict, preventing it from finding a US distributor. However, the publicity from the censorship resulted in increased publicity and interest in independent screenings.

At the recent Cannes Film Festival, a Palestinian director won best short film for "I'm Glad You’re Dead Now". Also at Cannes, the film "Once Upon a Time in Gaza" made its debut.

Watermelon Pictures, the newly launched US-based production company, has been behind major productions currently playing at cinemas, including The Encampments, To A Land Unknown, From Ground Zero, The Teacher and The Promise.

Through its backing of these films, it is fulfilling both a demand of viewers and filmmakers to reach new audiences. This new institutional support comes after decades of erasure or demonisation of Arabs and Muslims in mainstream US films.