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This past March, a pair of non-fiction films exploring the consequences of the October 7th, 2023 events arrived in theaters within days of each other. One, titled “October 8”, focused on the “rise in antisemitism” on university grounds, on online platforms and on the public spaces” after militants took the lives of over 1,200 individuals in southern Israel, most of them civilians. The film, produced by a prominent celebrity, was broadly distributed by an maverick distribution studio that has also managed a Trump biopic and a Jamal Khashoggi documentary. Promotion for the film occurred on mainstream programs, and it ultimately earned more than $1.3 million domestically, a high total for a political documentary.

The other film, The Encampments, faced a tougher road. This film examines student demonstrations against the retaliatory actions in of Gaza, focusing in part on protest organizer a key figure – who was later taken into custody by federal authorities for his advocacy – received no celebrity morning show promotion. Its limited theatrical run at a NYC cinema led to intimidation attempts, an incident of vandalism in the cinema entrance and social media censorship. That it was able to premiere – and earned $80,000 in its opening weekend, a significant win for the independent film market – is thanks to a new distribution company, an upstart, Palestinian American-led film-financing and -distribution company founded by brothers Hamza and Badie Ali to support movies presenting Palestinian views find viewers they otherwise would not, in a market that has otherwise ignored or deprioritized them.

‘A chilling effect’: is Hollywood too scared to touch hot-button documentaries?

The two documentaries demonstrate the different landscapes for stories from Israel and Palestine in the US – the first more unified and frequently supported by established organizations, the other fractured and less organized, yet growing. The two-year anniversary of the 7 October attacks highlights this disparity even more – this weekend marks the selective premiere of “The Road Between Us”, a documentary following a retired Israeli general’s mission to rescue his family members from militants on 7 October. A gripping thriller-like story of survival, trauma and mourning that omits the subsequent fatalities of at least 66,000 Palestinians in response, The Road Between Us received support from well-known figures and received the People’s Choice Award for best documentary at a prestigious cinema event. American release rights were quickly snapped up by a consulting firm.

It’s difficult to get any hot-button, politically challenging film funded, much less distributed in the United States, particularly during the second Trump administration. But movies presenting Palestinian viewpoints, or films questioning the dominant story of a authority that has turned the horrors of 7 October into a weapon of war justifying an internationally recognized genocide in Gaza, have found it especially challenging, sometimes impossible, to reach audiences. “I have never produced a movie on Palestine that’s ever been distributed,” said one director, the director of Coexistence, My Ass!, a documentary about an comedian from Israel confronting her upbringing as “the literal poster child for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process” in the wake of the near-complete destruction of the territory.

After a successful festival circuit, the filmmaker, who is of Lebanese and Canadian descent, had hopes for a release agreement for their documentary. “We thought that there could be a possibility that Coexistence could succeed just based on the subject’s unique perspective – it’s such a unique way of looking at the issue,” the director said. But deals never worked out; the team ultimately opted for a independent distribution plan starting later this month, managed by the same company that arranged another film’s self-release earlier this year. That film, a powerful non-fiction work by an collaborative group about generational efforts to resist occupation in a small West Bank community, won a bittersweet Oscar for best documentary; shortly after, local settlers violently attacked a co-director, who was then arrested by military personnel allegedly mocking the prize. It remains unavailable for online viewing in the United States but earned over $2.5 million at the US box office (making it the highest grossing of the year’s Oscar-nominated docs).

‘We must act’: The firm distributing Palestinian films others avoid

Another film, “All That’s Left of You”, a sweeping epic on three generations of a family from Palestine forced from their home in 1948, also sought distribution after a successful festival appearances, but ran into concern from distributors over the “content theme”. “We had high hopes that a major distributor would agree to release it,” said the Palestinian American director. A discussion with an undisclosed firm ended, according to the director, with a rejection, citing too many films. “That is precisely what they told another Palestinian film that more recently premiered at a film festival. It seems like political cowardice,” she said.

The truth, according to a founder of Watermelon Pictures, is that “very few distributors exist that are going to back Palestinian cinema”. Major streaming companies have steered clear. But one studio recently acquired the global streaming rights to Red Alert, a four-part scripted series partly produced by an Israeli fund, which depicts the October 7th events on the country that, per the logline, “transformed southern Israel into a conflict area, testing humanity and creating heroes through chaos”. The studio CEO promoted the show as proof of the company’s “continued commitment to narrative art through artistic excellence and accuracy”. And a different service acquired the US rights for One Day in October, a dramatized show based on eyewitness stories of the incident that will debut on its two-year mark.

At the same time, “I believe a single Palestinian film has ever gotten wide release in the US”, said the filmmaker, who has recently established her own distribution company, Visibility Films, in response to the roadblocks. “No one’s really been willing to take a risk on proving that these films could be seen widely.”

“It is regrettable that we have not received that same support,” said the co-founder. “Not a single film has been picked up by a mainstream streamer.” Nevertheless, “the industry is definitely shifting”, he said, referencing the recent pledge signed by more than 3,900 prominent entertainment figures to not work with Israeli film institutions “implicated in genocide and apartheid” against the Palestinian people, noting: “But it seems, sadly, like the streaming platforms are not following suit.” (A number of famous individuals were among those who signed a rebuke calling the pledge a “document of misinformation”; several cited the country’s Oscar entry of a film titled “The Sea”, a film about a Palestinian boy who tries to visit the beach for the first time but is denied entry at a security post. Interestingly, the national film awards is facing government defunding after The Sea won the top prize.)

A new wave of Palestinian-led, challenging films is starting to gain momentum even without significant corporate support – the distribution company signed on to distribute the aforementioned epic, the official entry from Jordan to the Oscars, which will start its selective cinema run in the coming year; prominent actors came on board as producers. Watermelon also handles the Palestinian entry for the Oscars, generational epic Palestine 36, and is executive producer on another documentary, which received critical acclaim and a major award at Venice; that film, which reconstructs the killing of a five-year-old girl in the region with her real voice, will be distributed in Europe by a sales company, and has {yet to find|not