Colorado Young Democrats hosted a panel discussion and screening of the documentary “The Encampments” on Wednesday as part of their broader anti-war education campaign. The film documents the historic encampments at Columbia University that sparked a nationwide student movement pushing for universities to divest from U.S. and Israeli war manufacturers.

Widespread demands for universities to divest and disclose funds were part of a larger movement condemning the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, which is still ongoing.

CYD collaborated with Colorado State University’s chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America as well as Students for Justice in Palestine to facilitate the screening. CYD members Kacey Hicks and Khalid Hamu, as well as CSU YDSA Faculty Adviser Michael May, ended the night in a panel discussion with CYD Fort Collins chapter leader Sophia Johnson.

“I don’t think that we’re going to get the political change we need if we’re not out here building communities of like-minded people,” said Chris Davis, chair of CYD.

“The Encampments,” directed by Michael T. Workman and Kei Pritsker, showcased behind-the-scenes moments of protests through phone footage, interviews with journalists and students, timelines of university negotiations and testimony from university administrators.

“The reason some of those moments are just so powerful for people is it touches people to humanity,” Davis said. “(We’re) seeing all these parents and their children, grandparents, brothers, sisters, mothers, husbands, fathers — seeing the violence conducted against human beings with our tax dollars.”

“They took the action; they took the step, and that rolled out to nationwide solidarity encampments, not just in their local area. And I think that’s the important step, is understanding you, as a local person, might only have so much power. But if you take a stand and show that power, then people around the world and around everywhere will have that same conviction to do the same thing.” -Alejandro Sandoval, Colorado Young Democrats member

The film’s candid version of the encampments stood in stark contrast to how the movement was reported at the time, with members of Congress, university press releases and some news sources describing a violent and antisemitic takeover of Columbia University.

“That’s something that, for me at the time, watching news and reports on this stuff, I found so appalling during the Biden administration,” said Alejandro Sandoval, attendee and member of CYD. “How the pervasive tendency of the news was to correlate Zionism with Judaism, and then to then justify crackdowns by police or, you know, justifying the actual genocide with just, ‘Well, we shouldn’t care about that because that’s antisemitism.’”

Footage of the encampments showed people cheerfully dancing, singing and chanting as negotiations with the university were underway. One anonymous interview with a former Columbia University communications administrator detailed how the school had intentionally boosted claims of antisemitism without evidence while suppressing testimony from activists.

“If you sit down and you talk to anybody who was at any of those encampments, they’re all going to say the same thing: It was a very welcoming community space that really championed serious values and focused on the issue,” Davis said. “It’s important to draw attention to that because it dispels the myths that there were antisemitic teachings going on, the myths that the students themselves were potentially violent.”

Avery Podell-Blume, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, said part of supporting Jewish liberation is supporting liberation for all.

“Jewish voices are privileged in this country on the issue of Israel and Palestine, whereas Palestinian voices have been completely silenced for decades and decades,” Podell-Blume said. “I believe part of what’s important for us is to come out and lift up Palestinian voices and lift up others that are speaking up for the cause.”

Interviews in the movie with student leaders, including Sueda Polat, Grant Miner and Naye Idriss, revealed that negotiations with Columbia University were ultimately unsuccessful due to stipulations in the university’s proposals that failed to bind the school to the students’ demands.

“There’s a wide gap between what (students) value and what the administrations value,” Hicks said in the panel. “They’re trying to make a little bit more money, and especially from what the stakeholders at places like Lockheed Martin value, … I would say that that’s kind of what factored in and, like, what really woke people up.”

The encampment eventually came to a halt when Columbia University ended negotiations and allowed police to disperse the crowd and make arrests. Videos from that night show police being openly brutal, leaving many students bloody and incapacitated.

The film speculates that universities were inclined to quash the protests because mass student mobilization indicates that the people in power may be losing control of a narrative.

“When you have these kinds of protests on these kinds of campuses, it demonstrates that the current ruling class is losing control of the narrative because those are the campuses where their children go,” Davis said. “If the children of the people who are running the country right now are calling for change, I think in the long run, we’re going to see that change.”

Several students faced retribution like expulsion, suspension of financial aid, criminal charges and revoked visas. Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist, was infamously detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in June this year.

“Administrators in general, they care about how they look,” Hamu said in the panel. “When they want to repress, they do it in these clandestine ways, so fear is their most used tool. … It’s not about not being afraid anymore, but it’s just the ability to persist through your fear to achieve your political aims.”

Much of the movie focused on the carnage in Gaza that led students to protest in the first place. Attendees left the screening teary-eyed at vivid footage of mangled Palestinian children, decimated hospitals and universities in Gaza, displacement camps and police brutality against students.

One scene in the film featured audio of 6-year-old Hind Rajab pleading for help beside the bodies of her dead relatives, leaving many viewers upset.

“It’s so horrible — it’s almost impossible to really feel it fully, to feel the whole weight of it, and to know that that’s not the only phone call,” Podell-Blume said. “A new phone call like that is created every day, multiple times a day. Or more likely, they never even had a chance to call in the first place.”

Members of the audience still managed to find a hopeful message, though. The movie emphasized how effectively encampments at Columbia University inspired other universities around the nation to take a stand.

“This was organized by just everyday people; these people were just random students who maybe had a passing interest or active interest in activism before,” Sandoval said. “They took the action; they took the step, and that rolled out to nationwide solidarity encampments, not just in their local area. And I think that’s the important step, is understanding you, as a local person, might only have so much power. But if you take a stand and show that power, then people around the world and around everywhere will have that same conviction to do the same thing.”

Davis discussed how political action that pushes the envelope is important to remaining on the right side of history.

“I’d rather go down on the right side of history than triumph on the wrong side of history,” Davis said.