Audiences Want Documentaries on Gaza, Israel and Palestine. Why Are Distributors Still Hesitant?

It is not only "NAZA" and "No Other Land" that have been self-distributed. Documentaries on both sides of the platform divide are struggling, even as box office results affect them.

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When the Oscar-nominated drama The Voice of India Rajab, about a Palestinian girl trapped under Israeli army fire, opened at New York City's Forum in late 2025, the theater's concurrent screening was the documentary Holding Liat. That film, which won Berlin's best documentary prize a year after doing the same, chronicled an Israeli family's efforts to recover their kidnapped daughter after being captured in the October 7 attacks.

These two films were not in conflict with each other. They were talking to each other. The films were not consciously planned together, but the screening of each did not provoke widespread protests outside the venue or outrage that one group's viewpoint was equal to another's. Related Stories "The Magician's Brother" Trailer: A Stairway to Narnia That Only Greta Gerwig Could Build The Bay Theater in Palisades Village, closed since the Los Angeles fires, will reopen thanks to Paramount and Rick Caruso.

"This movie is about this family, and it's not the penultimate story of what's going on at this point," Lance Kramer, co-director of "Holding Liat," told IndieWire. "This university that should live in a collection of many stories made by Palestinian filmmakers, made by other Jewish filmmakers, made by all kinds of people. We've always said that and we've always supported it. But it was hard for those platforms to see or believe."

Kramer believes that not only does it not hurt to show these films side by side, but it may be necessary to show a variety of stories about the Gaza crisis at a moment when broadcasters are unwilling to engage in that conversation.

"Hind Rajab" was released by WILLA and Watermelon Pictures, an upstart distributor that specializes in sharing Palestinian-led stories, taking advantage of a market opportunity to release these films that others don't want. And "Holding Liat" was distributed on its own and released in theaters without the help of a distributor and proper marketing. In the absence of dedicated marketing and even suppression of these stories, creating grassroots conversations between films with different perspectives will be key to reaching audiences.

“It became a model for others to follow. But then there were other theaters and other markets where they didn't even watch the movie." "It's more common for people to say, 'I love the movie, but I'm afraid what will happen if we play it,'" Kramer said. "Usually that fear came from one or two people in the community who were really afraid of it, and that can be the difference between presenting the film to the whole community."

Leaving aside the usual post-Covid problems for any documentary to succeed at the box office, films specifically about Israel and Palestine post-October 7 face a particular gatekeeping problem. The reasons may seem obvious: It's a very polarizing topic, especially in Hollywood, and when people buy movie tickets, they want an escape from reality, not a harsh dose of reality. These apprehensions naturally worsened after October 7.

But something beyond oppositional political films like "From E. "Ask Jean" happens in the face of them. Hind Rajab has finally landed on Hulu after its Oscar nomination, but many of Watermelon's other titles haven't been released through the streamer, even facing the same social media hype that films like The Mask reportedly faced. "Holding Liat," which was released digitally earlier this month, will only be released as a TVOD rental, with no other broadcasters supporting it.

Hamza Ali, co-founder of Watermelon Pictures, told IndieWire, “We really feel like the industry hasn't reached out to the audience. There is an appetite for many of these films. We show it. But we are still not getting mainstream distributors for many of our films. I won't name names, but the only exception was The Voice of India Rajab, which was nominated for an Oscar, and to be honest, that's what it took. It was a nomination. Outside of that, we just don't see it. I don't know the answer. "They really need to get with the program and get caught up."

This month's Oscar-winning No Other Land and NAZA are the most prominent examples of the challenges these films face. The films by filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Zor are each self-distributed, and with the involvement of indie distribution consultant Michael Tuckman at Targeted Distribution, and after deciding against a distributor for Another Land, Naza immediately cut out the middleman and went straight to an independent release, and The Guardian plans to release it online in November. "No Other Land" ended up grossing $3.6 million worldwide, and "NAZA" has already surpassed half a million dollars domestically after just two weekends in which it expanded to just a handful of theaters.

Other documents have found their audience. Watermelon's "American Doctor" has grossed more than half a million from a domestic release this year, all from art houses and independent theaters. "Holding Liat" has grossed only $80,000, but the film has been screened at more than 70 festivals, 25 countries and 40 US cities, not including local and university screenings. Coexistence, My Ass, about an Israeli comedian who also helped out with Tuckman, earned $37,000 in just a few weeks in theaters.

With such numbers, distributors may not be seeing the positives that can come with risks, but the question is, what risks? What are they really afraid of?

"I've never come across a single thing worthy of this fear," Kramer said. What I saw was people going to the theater and watching a movie that they cared deeply about or didn't know much about. It was a protest that happened among more than 300 screenings of the film. Even then, I talked to the protesters, there was a dialogue. It was an example of people who have these forms of responsibility and power, working through some of their personal insecurities and fears, and not trusting that they can give the audience the opportunity to do that for themselves.

During the filming of "Holding Liat," Kramer said, all the distributors he spoke with "were looking for a balance that was difficult to articulate" in terms of the story's political and human elements. They wanted to know how the film would end and what their angle was, all this while Liat was still in captivity and finally the makers stopped these talks. When the film was released in Berlin, the talks started again but it was no different.

There were people who told us no one would ever see the movie or if you play this,” Kramer said.

"The contrast we experienced was these companies kept telling us it was too divisive, too polarizing, and what we were experiencing in over 100 of them was the exact opposite," said co-director Brandon Cramer. "They weren't motivated by division, they were tired. "They want opportunities to experience movies from different perspectives."

Theaters, not just distributors, are similarly concerned. They also feel that even planning a film creates the impression of a political stance, and they don't want to take that risk without knowing whether the intended audience will show up. Watermelon Pictures then does more grassroots advertising, identifying local support groups and not leaving it up to the theaters themselves.

"I feel sorry for theaters because it's survival for them in terms of programming at this point," said Justin DiPietro, head of Watermelon distribution. “Theaters that were so adventurous with their programming before the pandemic now have to be careful what they put on the screen to make money. "It's a lot easier to throw in an extra page of Spider-Man than it is to take a risk on a really good documentary." He adds that people may feel they can wait to see a movie in progress, but that's not always the case with Gaza movies.

Richard Lorber, CEO of art house distributor Kino Lorber, pushed back at the idea that distributors were unwilling to house these films. While mainstream streamers may not have the same appetite, he believes there are other Indians like himself who have a "commitment and passion to address the issues of the day". Despite the widespread belief that "No Other Land" had no interested distributors, Lerber said Kino made an aggressive push to release the film before it distributed itself. The company also recently released the Palestinian film "Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk" and even released the narrative drama "Yes" from an Israeli filmmaker.

However, Lorber has seen how the NAZA team has benefited from their distribution strategy, which allows them to be nimble and unfettered about where they play in a way that other traditional distributors can't, which is how he and others came up with the urgency to release these films. Kino did just that with Mr. Nobody vs. Putin and used the film's momentum to win an Oscar. Watermelon also moved up the release date of the documentary Encampments by several months when its protagonist was detained by ICE and made headlines. And the success Naza has achieved in such a short period of time can and should inspire other Gaza docs to use it as a test case, but not all can achieve the same success with their distribution.

"There are a lot of other filmmakers who might try to follow the same path and might come up empty-handed or find the result very disappointing, not just financially, but in terms of reaching an audience that wants to go beyond the echo chamber of a small group of viewers. They need us, but we need them too."