Two Arrested at The Encampments Screening at UCLA
Footage shows police storming the campus ahead of an unofficial showing of the documentary, which focuses on pro-Palestine student protests.
Two people were detained at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus last night, April 30, during an attempted screening of the new documentary The Encampments (2025), according to local reports and a university statement. Videos posted on social media show dozens of university police officers storming the campus in full riot gear at around 9pm as a group was gathering for the unofficial screening, hosted by the school's suspended Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter.
The screening was timed around the first anniversary of the university's Gaza solidarity student encampments on the Royce Quad, during which pro-Palestine students faced intense counter-protester violence and harassment on April 30 last year. Footage and student reflections from the Zionist-led attacks are briefly included in The Encampments.
The Royce Quad was also the initial location for the screening, per SJP's flyer on Instagram, but on April 30 in the afternoon, university police announced that the area would be closed off until the following morning. According to the Daily Bruin student newspaper, a pro-Palestine protester unaffiliated with UCLA was arrested for slapping a security officer during the police closure of the area around 2:30pm. The group set up their equipment at the Wilson Plaza instead, and then shifted to Bruin Plaza before police got involved.
The independent student-run community news platform Poppy Press reported that one of the two individuals detained during the screening shutdown was taken to the emergency room for injuries. Hyperallergic was unable to independently verify this or whether the two people detained were UCLA students.
In a statement published May 1, UCLA acknowledged that a student was "physically assaulted" during the screening shutdown and had his belongings stolen. "We are sorry for what this student experienced, and we have already been in touch with him to offer support," the statement said.
Neither the university nor campus police have responded to Hyperallergic’s multiple requests for comment.
In its statement, UCLA pointed to the SJP chapter's interim suspension and said the group was warned that "moving forward with the unauthorized event would violate campus policy and the terms of the suspension.”
In February, UCLA announced the suspension of the university's SJP chapter as well as the related Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine chapter after pro-Palestine activists protested outside the home of vocally pro-Israel UCLA Regent Jonathan Sures, reportedly vandalizing his property with red-paint handprints and suspended banners. At the end of March, the university proposed to indefinitely ban SJP and to implement a four-year suspension of the graduate chapter.
Hyperallergic has reached out to both student organizations for comment.
Now screening nationally, the film The Encampments dissects the student-led demonstrations that kicked off at Columbia University last year in protest of institutional investments tied to Israel's attacks on Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. The documentary features daily footage taken at the Columbia encampments interpolated with testimony from since-detained graduate student and lead co-negotiator Mahmoud Khalil, since-expelled PhD candidate Grant Miner, and co-negotiator Sueda Polat, among other voices.
Narrated by Palestinian activist and current UCLA student Maya Abdallah, the UCLA encampment's beginnings were also included in the documentary, as were the pro-Israel counter-protester attacks on the students who participated.
