| The Encampments | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by |
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| Produced by |
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| Distributed by | Watermelon Pictures |
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Running time | 85 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $533,364[2][3] |
The Encampments is a 2025 Americandocumentary film directed and produced by Michael T. Workman and Kei Pritsker about the 2024Gaza Solidarity Encampment andprotest movement at Columbia University and otherpro-Palestinian protests on university campuses during theGaza war andgenocide.[4][5]Macklemore serves as an executive producer and it is distributed byWatermelon Pictures.[6]
It had its world premiere atCPH:DOX on March 25, 2025, and debuted in New York City at theAngelika Film Center.[6]
The Encampments explores the2024 Palestine solidarity campus encampments at Columbia University and otherpro-Palestinian protests on university campuses, such as thePalestine solidarity encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles. The film features some leaders of the protests at Columbia, includingMahmoud Khalil, Grant Miner, and Sueda Polat.[7][8] The film also featuresBisan Owda,Ali Abunimah,Jamal Joseph, and Columbia alumnaRabbiAbby Stein.[8][9]
In March 2025, it was announced that Workman and Pritsker had directed a documentary about the 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus occupations, withMacklemore set to executive produce andWatermelon Pictures distributing.[10][11]
The release ofThe Encampments was pushed up due to thedetention of Khalil byICE and Columbia's expulsion of Miner.[8]
The film had its world premiere atCPH:DOX on March 25, 2025.[12][13] It debuted in New York City at theAngelika Film Center, with sold-out screenings on March 27–29.[6]
On April 30, 2025, organizers withStudents for Justice in Palestine atUCLA attempted to screen the film for 200 people on campus but were moved around several times by police. One protester was arrested for assault earlier in the day. Around 9 p.m., two protesters were detained and filming equipment was confiscated. About 150 protesters then continued to march around the area until 10:50 p.m.[14]
In a review forIndieWire, Siddhant Adlakha praisedThe Encampments for "its sense of contemporary and historical detail, owed to both footage shot by the filmmakers, as well as by the protesters themselves." He compared it favorably to the documentaryOctober 8 in its use of archival images to provide appropriate historical context.[15]
A review in theColumbia Daily Spectator called the film a "testament to the strength of the community born within the student-led pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia, and how hope and belief can grow, even in the face of institutional backlash" that offers an "insightful and intimate look into what happened within the gates, well beyond mainstream coverage."[16]
According to the online arts magazineHyperallergic,The Encampments "extricates the movement from the grips of mainstream and conservative media narratives and places it back in the hands of its organizers."[17]
Michael O'Sullivan of theWashington Post wrote, "The film's vibe of harmony—at least inside the encampment, where leaders claim antisemitism had no home—seems more than a little stage-managed, if not whitewashed", noting "a kernel of truth" in that a "surprising number of Jews" took part in the protests.[18]
In an interview between Pritsker and pro-Israel influencerHen Mazzig published byThe Hollywood Reporter, Mazzig said that the film served to "tokenize" the "fringe community" of anti-Zionist Jews "and weaponize it against us". Pritsker said the encampments were nonviolent. When asked by Mazzig about a 2014 incident in which Macklemore "had Jewface on at a concert", Pritsker said he was unaware of the incident but "just looked it up briefly and it looks like he apologized for it. It sounds like he made a mistake, and I believe in people's capacity to grow and apologize".[19]
At the CPH:DOX award ceremony in Copenhagen, the Human:Rights jury awardedThe Encampments a special mention.[20]