The US college encampment protests were a defining news event of 2024. The pro-Palestinian anti-war demonstrations that swept across American universities captured the world’s attention, and seemed to either rile or resonate with onlookers globally. A demand that US educational institutions cut all financial ties to Israel had become the US’s biggest student-led movement in half a century, and brought with it impossible-to-ignore ramifications for US politics and foreign policy. We knew as Al Jazeera’s digital documentary strand that we had to not merely document it, but make a way for our audiences to feel like they were experiencing it. Our goal was to provide a first-person perspective from inside the movement, following someone ‘in the thick of it’ who had a compelling story to tell, who was relatable, who was genuine and humanly ‘flawed’, who was an authentic voice among the protesters and who was motivated by the pursuit of positive change.
As is so often the case with breaking news, our strategy had to be formulated incredibly quickly and be responsive to events as they were unfolding. We wanted to focus on New York and find a case study in the city where the movement first sprung up, and so we immediately deployed a local crew to Manhattan where crowds were gathering and where police had begun to block streets to prevent marchers from proceeding.
Setting out to produce a film like this invites a set of unique and plentiful challenges. Chief among them is the unpredictability of how things will unfold as well as the inherent risk of physical injury when filming in the midst of an impassioned crowd. Our cameraman was pepper sprayed in the face during one of the shoot days, for instance. Our crew were also, along with other media outlets, prevented by law enforcement from entering Columbia University’s Morningside campus as events came to a head there, requiring us to formulate a new plan. One unexpected difficulty we faced was the rather extreme suspicion and skepticism from the student protesters themselves about the media and their fear over how they would be portrayed and whether they would be misrepresented and ultimately vilified. Finding a protest participant who was willing to be filmed and followed over the course of multiple days was a true obstacle that we only overcame through perseverance and patience, sensitivity and steadfastness. Our breakthrough came when we locked in our central character, through whose eyes we experience NYPD’s crackdown on protesters and who reveals just how high the stakes are for all those who speak out.
We hoped to provide a compelling front-row seat into the immense wave of campus protests sweeping the United States in support of Palestinians in Gaza. Through crafting a riveting narrative that feels urgent, dramatic and earnest, we feel we achieved our objective and amplified a voice seeking to make positive change through peaceful activism.
The film’s impact was tangible in terms of social engagement and viewer response. On Instagram, it quickly garnered more than 1M views, 90k likes, 13k shares, and 7.5k saves, making it one of Close Up’s strongest performing documentaries. A similar resonance was seen in performance across other platforms, reaching a combined 750k views on X, Facebook and YouTube. What truly affirmed our belief that we achieved our goals was the response gleaned from more than 4,000 comments that expressed deep appreciation for our thoughtful approach.
We felt the film confirmed Close Up’s working hypothesis that audiences crave raw, personal stories that take viewers deeper than the headlines and allow them to ‘feel’ a news event as it's unfolding in real time. The success of the film’s vertical version on Instagram and Facebook demonstrated that audiences have an appetite to consume much longer vertical content on their phones than is typically assumed, as long as the storytelling is compelling and the piece contributes to a topic already at the forefront of digital consumers’ minds. We’re convinced we pulled that off with ‘University Uprising for Gaza’ and humbly submit it for the Shorty Impact Awards.
We hoped to provide a compelling front-row seat into the immense wave of campus protests sweeping the United States in support of Palestinians in Gaza. Through crafting a riveting narrative that feels urgent, dramatic and earnest, we feel we achieved our objective and amplified a voice seeking to make positive change through peaceful activism.
The film’s impact was tangible in terms of social engagement and viewer response. On Instagram, it quickly garnered more than 1M views, 90k likes, 13k shares, and 7.5k saves, making it one of Close Up’s strongest performing documentaries. A similar resonance was seen in performance across other platforms, reaching a combined 750k views on X, Facebook and YouTube. What truly affirmed our belief that we achieved our goals was the response gleaned from more than 4,000 comments that expressed deep appreciation for our thoughtful approach.
We felt the film confirmed Close Up’s working hypothesis that audiences crave raw, personal stories that take viewers deeper than the headlines and allow them to ‘feel’ a news event as it's unfolding in real time. The success of the film’s vertical version on Instagram and Facebook demonstrated that audiences have an appetite to consume much longer vertical content on their phones than is typically assumed, as long as the storytelling is compelling and the piece contributes to a topic already at the forefront of digital consumers’ minds. We’re convinced we pulled that off with ‘University Uprising for Gaza’ and humbly submit it for the Shorty Impact Awards.
