‘The Encampments’ Review: A Gripping Doc Goes Inside Gaza Protests at Columbia University

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On the 17th of April, 2024, a band of students from Columbia University chose the stillness of pre-dawn as their time to establish a camp on Butler Lawn, an open space at the heart of their campus. They erected tents, stockpiled supplies, and unfurled homemade banners proclaiming this miniature territory as a “liberated zone.” As recounted in Kei Pritsker and Michael T. Workman’s captivating documentary The Encampments, these students had been advocating for the university to disinvest from Israel, yet their pleas fell on deaf ears, and peaceful protests were met with punishment. They felt compelled to devise a novel approach, one that would make it more challenging for the institution to overlook their grievances.

Produced by Watermelon Pictures and overseen by Macklemore, the documentary titled “The Encampments” portrays the events that unfolded last spring when students at Columbia ignited a significant and impactful solidarity movement. This student-led encampment served as a catalyst for students on university campuses nationwide in the U.S. and globally to support Palestinians in Gaza, pushing administrations to divest from arms manufacturers. The demonstration sparked ongoing debates among certain politicians and sections of the media, who spent weeks criticizing the students, doubting their intentions, and even labeling them as anti-semitic.

Pritsker and Workman focus their documentary on four key figures involved in the encampment: Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student serving as the main negotiator between activists and university officials; Sueda Polat, a graduate student at the time who was actively advocating for Palestine on campus prior to the encampments; Grant Miner, a Jewish graduate student and president of the student union; and Naye Idriss, an alumnus of Columbia University who continues to fight for Palestinian rights.

The testimonies provide a compelling oral account of the demonstrations and offer valuable background information for the university’s prolonged student-led divestment campaign. Additionally, the documentary explores the intriguing history of protest movements at Columbia, including interviews with alumni who were involved in anti-Vietnam War protests in 1968, which culminated in the occupation of various university buildings.

Watermelon Pictures promptly released the film “The Encampments” in the U.S., following its debut at CPH:DOX, after the directors Khalil and Miner faced troubles. On March 8, ICE agents arrested Khalil, while Columbia expelled Miner on March 13. Despite efforts by the State Department to cancel his student visa, Khalil is a legal permanent resident with no criminal charges against him. He remains in detention, as his case, which has garnered considerable criticism due to its apparent infringement on the First Amendment rights, continues. Miner was among around two dozen students disciplined by Columbia for their part in last spring’s protests.

Lately, these occurrences have made “The Encampments” even more relevant, as it serves to document a significant protest movement. It belongs to a group of recent movies that highlight the gravity of this pivotal dispute. While “No Other Land” and “From Ground Zero” depict the immediate effects of Israel’s relentless expansion into the West Bank and violence in Gaza, “The Encampments” showcases how this matter unfolds within U.S. borders. The documentary focuses on students spearheading and leading daring discussions among themselves and their institutions.

In the beginning of “The Encampments,” Pritsker and Workman present a mix of news broadcasters criticizing the encampments along with footage from Gaza, before introducing the four main figures in the documentary. Polat, Khalil, and Miner each introduce themselves, discuss their past activities advocating for Palestine on campus, and express frustration over the university’s disregard of student demands for divestment. Polat provides a summary of Columbia’s endowment and board of trustees and mentions instances where the administration has chosen to sell off investments in certain countries (such as South Africa). This topic, delving deeper into the university’s investment history, could potentially be explored more fully in another documentary.

Polat’s discourse effectively sets the stage for viewers to grasp the significance behind the student-led divestment campaign. When the campus organizers chose to take over Butler Lawn, they believed it was a necessary step to truly capture the administration’s attention. One of the intriguing aspects of The Encampments is how Pritsker and Workman position contemporary activists within Columbia University’s legacy of student movements. They speak with Jamal Joseph, an alumnus who played a key role in the 1968 occupation of Hamilton Hall to protest the Vietnam War, and incorporate historical footage from that protest in their documentary. These visuals bear striking resemblance to scenes featured in parts of Paul Cronin’s extensive documentary, A Time to Stir, which documented Columbia students’ anti-war activities.

Similar to the 1968 protesters who took over a building, the student encampment also seized a structure. A few weeks into their protest, some leaders secretly entered Hamilton Hall and renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was fatally shot by the Israeli military in Gaza. In the documentary The Encampments, recordings of Rajab and emergency responders can be heard, with her begging for someone to rescue her.

To demonstrate the impact of Columbia’s protests, Pritsker and Workman cleverly expanded the documentary’s coverage to incorporate footage from other university protest sites. Interviews with Maya Abdallah, a Palestinian student at UCLA, offer an additional viewpoint on how demonstrations were perceived in other parts of the nation.

As a gamer, I’d rephrase it like this:

“In The Encampments, my perspective shifts dramatically as I witness university reactions to student protests spreading like wildfire across campuses. Scenes of Jewish students at Columbia, donning watermelon-decorated kippahs (symbolizing solidarity with Palestine), leading fellow demonstrators in prayer or song, and Palestinian organizers conducting skill-sharing workshops, are replaced by New York City police officers decked out in military gear, storming onto campus on tanks and wielding heavy artillery. They raze the camp and take students into custody. At UCLA, the police deploy smoke bombs among the crowd and pelt protesters with rubber bullets.

These instances mirror the protests at Columbia University back in 1968, during which the institution reacted with violence as well. It’s troubling that the deployment of a militarized police force against protesters has become routine over the past decade, and it should worry every American, more so as the Trump administration persists in actions that infringe upon fundamental rights. The Encampments is not just insightful for documenting the real-time development of a movement, but also for exposing the repercussions of such responses.

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2025-04-17 03:54