Two folks had been detained on the College of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus final night time, April 30, throughout an tried screening of the brand new documentary The Encampments (2025), in response to native experiences. Movies posted on social media present dozens of college cops storming the campus in full riot gear at round 9pm as a bunch was gathering for the unofficial screening, hosted by the college’s College students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter.
The screening was timed across the first anniversary of the college’s Gaza solidarity pupil encampments on the Royce Quad, throughout which pro-Palestine college students confronted intense counter-protester violence and harassment on April 30 final yr. Footage and pupil reflections from the Zionist-led assaults are briefly included in The Encampments.
In February, UCLA introduced the suspension of the college’s SJP chapter in addition to the associated Graduate College students for Justice in Palestine chapter after pro-Palestine activists protested exterior the house of vocally pro-Israel UCLA Regent Jonathan Sures, reportedly vandalizing his property with red-paint handprints and suspended banners. On the finish of March, the college proposed to indefinitely ban SJP and to implement a four-year suspension of the graduate chapter.
Hyperallergic has reached out to each pupil organizations for remark.
Now screening nationally, the movie The Encampments dissects the student-led demonstrations that kicked off at Columbia College final yr in protest of institutional investments tied to Israel’s assaults on Gaza and the Occupied West Financial institution. The documentary options each day footage taken on the Columbia encampments interpolated with testimony from since-detained graduate pupil and lead co-negotiator Mahmoud Khalil, since-expelled PhD candidate Grant Miner, and co-negotiator Sueda Polat, amongst different voices.
Narrated by Palestinian activist and present UCLA pupil Maya Abdallah, the UCLA encampment’s beginnings had been additionally included within the documentary, as had been the pro-Israel counter-protester assaults on the scholars who participated.
Rhea Nayyar (she/her) is a New York Metropolis-based workers reporter at Hyperallergic. She obtained a BFA from Carnegie Mellon College and has a ardour for small-scale artworks, elevating minority views,…
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