The arrival of this new documentary — having world-premiered at the end of March — has moved quickly due to ICE’s detainment of Mahmoud Kahlil, the student/diplomat who operated as a negotiator between the student encampments and the leadership of Columbia University, a campus movement that quickly spread nationwide. THE ENCAMPMENTS follows student organizers at some of these prestigious universities as they take a stand against their institutions’ investments in the ongoing war in Gaza — igniting one of the largest student movements in history which continues to have far-reaching effects on U.S. and world policies today. Filmed on the ground and in real-time as these events were unfolding, THE ENCAMPMENTS features detained activist Mahmoud Khalil and takes viewers inside America’s student uprising with incredible intimacy and urgency. Professors, whistleblowers from inside Ivy League administrations, and student activists shed light on a moment that captivated the nation’s attention and continues to make headlines. By Popular Demand! One Week Engagement
"The propulsive rhythms of THE ENCAMPMENTS would’ve been effective regardless of its release date… It is, on one hand, a political retort to numerous overarching narratives within news and academia — some of which came to a head when Columbia University overhauled its protest policies last week, at the Trump administration’s behest — but the film also ebbs and flows like traditional drama…. The subjects’ multifaceted backgrounds — from Arab organizers to Jewish students to community Rabbis — helps weave a multicultural fabric, which becomes, at first, a subtle de facto retort to claims of the protests’ inherent antisemitism, and after a while, a very explicit one.” —Siddhant Adlakha, IndieWire “THE ENCAMPMENTS tells a fascinating, ripped-from-the-headlines story. Its brevity is apt, since the incomplete story is still unfolding, and nobody knows where or how it ends. However, as a snapshot of a particular few weeks in which a protest movement was born and spread, it’s an effective and prescient documentary.” —Murtada Elfadl, Variety “Part of THE ENCAMPMENTS’ power is in its simplicity: while the past is touched upon, Workman and Pritsker’s aim is to place you directly in the center of the movement while raising vital questions.” —Jordan Raup, The Film Stage
