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This past March, two documentaries exploring the consequences of the October 7th, 2023 attacks reached theaters within days of each other. One, titled October 8, centered on the “rise in antisemitism” on college campuses, on social media and on the public spaces” after Hamas forces took the lives of over 1,200 individuals in Israel’s southern region, the majority being non-combatants. This documentary, executive-produced by a well-known actress, was broadly distributed by an maverick film company that has also managed a Trump biopic and a Jamal Khashoggi documentary. Marketing for the film occurred on popular TV shows, and it eventually earned more than $1.3m in the United States, a high total for a documentary with political themes.

Meanwhile, the second documentary, The Encampments, faced a tougher road. A documentary on student demonstrations against Israel’s retaliatory destruction of the Gaza Strip, focusing in part on protest organizer Mahmoud Khalil – who was later detained by federal authorities for his activism – received no celebrity morning show promotion. Its limited theatrical run at a New York theater led to threats of violence, an act of property damage in the cinema entrance and social media censorship. That it was released at all – and made $80,000 in its debut weekend, a notable achievement for the specialty box office – is thanks to a new distribution company, an upstart, Palestinian American-led film funding and release firm founded by brothers the Ali brothers to help films with Palestinian perspectives find viewers they typically cannot, in a market that has historically overlooked or marginalized such stories.

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

These two films evince the different landscapes for Israeli and Palestinian narratives in the US – the first more unified and frequently supported by established organizations, the second more fragmented and more ad hoc, yet growing. The two-year anniversary of the October 7th events highlights this disparity even more – this weekend marks the limited release of “The Road Between Us”, a documentary following a retired Israeli general’s mission to rescue his family members from Hamas forces on 7 October. A compelling Taken-like tale of endurance, pain and grief that does not mention Israel’s subsequent killing of at least 66,000 people in Gaza in retaliation, this documentary received endorsement from celebrities and won the audience choice prize for top documentary at a major film festival. American release rights were rapidly acquired by a consulting firm.

It’s difficult to get any hot-button, politically challenging film funded, much less distributed in the US, especially under the current political climate. But films featuring Palestinian perspectives, or films challenging the narrative of a authority that has used the tragedies of 7 October into a tool for conflict justifying an internationally recognized genocide in Gaza, have found it especially challenging, occasionally unfeasible, to connect with viewers. “I have never produced a film about Palestine that’s ever been distributed,” said one director, the creator behind a documentary titled “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 aftermath of the widespread devastation of Gaza.

With an acclaimed festival run, the director, who is Lebanese Canadian, had aspirations for a distribution deal for Coexistence, My Ass!. “We thought that there could be a chance that Coexistence could succeed just based on the subject’s distinct outlook – it’s such a unique way of looking at the issue,” the creator said. But deals never worked out; the team finally chose a self-release strategy starting later this month, handled by the same company that arranged another film’s self-distribution recently. That film, a powerful non-fiction work by an collaborative group about long-standing struggles to resist occupation in a Palestinian village, won a bittersweet Oscar for best documentary; weeks later, local settlers severely beat a film-maker, who was then arrested by soldiers reportedly ridiculing the prize. It’s still not available for streaming in the US but made more than $2.5m at the US box office (making it the top-earning of the year’s Oscar-nominated docs).

‘We need to do something’: the company releasing Palestinian films no one else will

A separate movie, “All That’s Left of You”, a sweeping epic on multiple generations of a family from Palestine forced from their home in 1948, also looked for a distributor after a successful festival appearances, but ran into concern from distributors over the “subject matter”. “We were optimistic that one mainstream distributor would agree to release it,” said the Palestinian American director. A discussion with an undisclosed firm concluded, according to the director, with a rejection, citing too many films. “That is precisely what they said to another Palestinian movie that debuted recently at a film festival. It all feels like fear of controversy,” she said.

The truth, according to a founder of Watermelon Pictures, is that “there are not a lot of distributors that are going to support Palestinian films”. Major streaming companies have avoided involvement. But a prominent studio recently acquired the global streaming rights to Red Alert, a scripted mini-series produced in part by an Israeli production fund, which depicts the 7 October Hamas attacks on the country that, per the logline, “turned southern Israel into a war zone, challenging human decency and forging heroism through chaos”. The studio CEO touted the series as proof of the firm dedication to storytelling through creative quality and accuracy”. And another platform secured the US rights for “One Day in October”, a dramatized show based on eyewitness stories of the attack that will debut on its two-year mark.

At the same time, “I believe a single Palestinian film has ever gotten mainstream distribution in the United States”, said the director, who has recently established her own release firm, Visibility Films, in wake of the obstacles. “Nobody has truly been prepared to assume the chance on proving that these films could be seen widely.”

“It’s unfortunate that we haven’t had that equivalent backing,” said the founder. “Not a single film has been acquired by a mainstream streamer.” Nevertheless, “the sector is clearly changing”, he said, referencing the recent commitment signed by more than 3,900 prominent entertainment figures to avoid collaboration with Israeli cinema organizations “implicated in genocide and apartheid” against the Palestinian people, adding: “But it seems, unfortunately, like the streamers are not following suit.” (Several celebrities were among those who endorsed a criticism calling the pledge a “document of misinformation”; several cited Israel’s Oscar submission of The Sea, a film about a Palestinian boy who tries to visit the seaside for the first time but is denied entry at a checkpoint. Notably, the national film awards is under threat of funding cuts after the film won the top prize.)

An emerging trend of Palestinian-led, challenging films is finally beginning to crest even without major corporate backing – Watermelon signed on to distribute All That’s Left of You, the official entry from Jordan to the Academy Awards, which will begin its limited theatrical release in the coming year; prominent actors came on board as producers. Watermelon also represents the Palestinian entry for the Oscars, multi-generational story “Palestine 36”, and is a producer on another documentary, which drew rave reviews and a major award at the Venice Film Festival; this movie, which recreates the death of a five-year-old girl in Gaza with her real voice, will be distributed in Europe by a sales company, and has {yet to find|not