‘The Encampments’: Columbia voices inside the national movement

New footage and interviews with Columbia students reveal what inspired the takeover of Hamilton Hall and how the movement is moving forward.

Photo by Merielen Espino/The Barnard Bulletin

By Abigail Rabbitt and Theresa Cullen

May 31, 2025

Kei Pritsker and Michael Workman’s 2025 documentary, “The Encampments,” shares an intimate view of the journey of pro-Palestinian student activists across the country. The film, which broke the box office record for a documentary opening weekend in a single theater, incorporates footage and interviews from the war in Gaza with never-released material from college encampments across the United States, including the Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment last year.  

Pristker, a reporter for BreakThrough News, had been following the student movement for Palestine since November of 2023 when he got a call from student organizers at Columbia University about the potential for encampments. In the aftermath of the encampments, BreakThrough News had hoped to turn Pritsker’s footage into a long-form documentary, which is when director, editor, and cinematographer Micheal Workman got involved in the project. 

In an extended introduction screening at the Angelika Film Center, associate producer Ben Becker gave a shout out to Mahmoud Khalil (SIPA ’24), a Columbia graduate and pro-Palestinian activist currently being held in Louisiana after being detained by Department of Homeland Security officers on March 8, 2025. Becker shared with the audience that the film was originally scheduled for a later release date, but the entire team at Watermelon Pictures and BreakThrough News felt it was important to tell Khalil’s story now, at a moment when the film can help provide support. As of May 26, 2025, Khalil is still detained, while Rümeysa Öztürk (TC ’20) was released after almost two months of detention on May 9, 2025, and Fulbright PhD candidate Ranjani Srinivasan has self-deported to Canada. Student activist and legal resident Yunseo Chung (CC ’26) remains in deportation hearings following her involvement in the Milstein Library sit-in on Barnard’s campus last March.  

The film opens with a montage of news clips from April 2024, in which reporters from MSNBC and FOX as well as politicians including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, forcefully call out student pro-Palestinian activism, deeming it “disgusting” and “radical.” Following this, viewers are introduced to the student activists leading the movement at Columbia University in intimate interview-style footage. Student negotiator and spokesperson for the Columbia encampment Sueda Polat said, “I didn’t have time to think about how I’d be involved. I just had to be involved.” 

From the beginning of the film, “The Encampments” positions itself as a direct counter to the mainstream portrayal of the encampments, blending the inflammatory media soundbites with the calm, powerful voices of student organizers. The film reframes the nationwide encampments, not as an isolated flashpoint but as a part of a larger, historic struggle for liberation and accountability. 

Pritsker and Workman meticulously capture both the emotion and urgency of the movement as well as the structure and strategy behind it, centering the students’ experiences throughout the entire film. “We set out with a point of view. We wanted to make a film that articulated and communicated the student perspective at Columbia,” Workman said. A detailed timeline of the 12 days of the Columbia encampment, including its rise, negotiations, moments of calm, and eventual police sweep and arrests, anchors the film in the real experiences of the students involved. The filmmakers capture the vibrant life and power within the nation-wide encampments, weaving in audio of chants and the rhythmic beats of students drumming and dancing. 

Mindful of the risks faced by pro-Palestinian student activists at the hands of local law enforcement, national government agencies, and universities themselves, the filmakers took precautions to protect the identities of students and gain consent whenever necessary. Pritsker was one of few journalists allowed to film and record within the encampment and there were still several protocols and consent rules he had to follow, including specific times in which he was allowed to shoot. After shooting, there was a careful editing and back-and-forth communication process in which faces were blurred, and those on film were tracked down to approve clips. 

However, this process was not sufficient to protect the identities of many of the more involved organizers of the movement. “To a certain degree the cat was already out of the bag,” Grant Miner, former president of the Student Workers of Columbia (SWC), said. According to SWC, Miner was expelled from Columbia and effectively fired from his position as President of the SWC on March 13, 2025 after the University decided to move forward with further disciplinary actions towards 22 students for their alleged involvement in the occupation of Hamilton Hall in April 2024.

The film is grounded not only in the experiences of student organizers throughout the U.S. but also in the devastating reality of life in Gaza. Interspersed throughout the documentary are the searing scenes of neighborhoods bombed to the ground, starving children, and families trying to survive amidst extreme destruction. These moments are not presented as background noise but as the emotional and political center of the movement, reminding viewers that the student encampments were never about abstract ideologies but instead urgent responses to a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable magnitude. One student activist involved in the encampment at Columbia, Sueda Polat (GSAS ’25) said, “struggling for Palestine is just like breathing because the moment we stop, we die.” 

“The Encampments” also follows the occupation of Hamilton Hall, renamed “Hind’s Hall” by student organizers in honor of six-year old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed by the Israeli army in Gaza earlier last year. The takeover of the Columbia academic building was a moment of deep intentionality, a demand for divestment, and for an end to complicity in genocide. 

The first few hours of the occupation were calm, organizers hoped they could use the time to reopen negotiations. Instead, they were met with force. New York City Mayor Eric Adams dismissed the encampment’s demands as discordant, and Columbia University, once proud of its 1968 protest legacy, initiated a violent police sweep that became a green light for nationwide university crackdowns. “I couldn’t even watch the footage of that night,” one student protester admitted. 

Now playing in theaters nationwide, “The Encampments” is a call to action, inviting viewers to   witness, to organize, and to amplify the voices that continue to be criminalized for demanding liberation. Associate producer Ben Becker said at the Engelika screening that “this is a tool for education, a tool for enlightenment.” 

The film ends with footage of Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda reflecting on the impact of student protests and the sense of solidarity they were able to offer. Her words gesture toward the broader global relevance of these actions. For viewers, this moment may act as a reminder that students, particularly those with privilege, safety, and resources, have a responsibility to keep pushing. “The Encampments” underscore the strength and perseverance of student activists, serving as both a record of their resistance and a call to action to sustain the momentum of collective action.