SuperHumanizer Podcast

From The River To The Screen: Watermelon Pics We'll Be Seen

• Dr. Hani Chaabo & Katie Bogen M.A. • Season 1 • Episode 16

Share episode

Join Hamza Ali, the President of MPI Media Group and co-founder of Watermelon Pictures, as he shares his family's incredible journey from the 1967 war in Palestine to building a media empire in America. Discover how the tragic events of October 7th became the catalyst for a creative revolution, leading to the birth of Watermelon Pictures and its mission to humanize Palestinian stories. From breaking box office records with the controversial documentary 'The Encampments' to fostering Jewish-Palestinian solidarity through films like 'Israelism,' Hamza reveals the power of cinema as a tool for liberation and creative resistance. This episode explores the challenges of fighting industry censorship and threats, while building a new media landscape for marginalized voices.

Check out the new streaming service 🍉 Watermelon+ 👉🏼 watch.watermelonpictures.com

Like to read? 👉🏼 Check Out these Blog Posts:

Seeds of Resistance: How Watermelon Pictures Reclaims Palestinian Narratives

From Family Business to Cultural Revolution: Hamza Ali's Watermelon Pictures

🙏🏻 Help Support SuperHumanizer?

🫂 Click here to join our Patreon community for perks like connecting with our hosts Dr. Hani Chaabo & Katie Bogen.

Click here for a PayPal donation 

👥 Your support helps build our team to create more humanizing content faster! Thank you! 🫶🏻

⭐ Please leave us a review on Apple podcasts or Podchaser and share this episode to help us grow.

❤️ Thank you for putting us in the top charts of more 35 countries worldwide, top 25% of pods on Buzzsprout and top 5% on Listen Notes.

🫶🏻 We'd love to hear from you. Please leave us a comment, we'll reply back!

📱Check out our visual reels on Instagram and Facebook. Video episodes on YouTube.

Welcome to Super Humanizer Podcast, where we promote empathy and understanding in polarizing viewpoints through stories told by people living them.

Katie Bogen:

Hi, y'all. Welcome back to Super Humanizer, where we dive deep into the stories of people who are working to make our world more just more connected and more human. I'm Katie Bogen.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

And I'm Dr. Hani Chaabo. Today we're talking with someone whose family story shows us how the American dream can become a platform for justice. Hamza Ali is the president of MPI Media Group, one of the largest independent distributors of film in America, and the largest Arab owned distribution company in North America. His father and uncles started it in 1976 after coming back from Palestine during the 1967 war. But Hamza isn't just running the family business, he's changing it completely.

Katie Bogen:

In April of 2024, Hamza and his brother Badie started watermelon pictures. In just over a year. They've broken box office records with their documentary, the Encampments launched their own streaming service called Watermelon Plus and started a podcast called The Seeds with Creative Director Alana Hadid. They're not just showing Palestinian films, they're building an entire media world for voices that have been pushed aside.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

What makes Hamza's story so powerful is how he's taken his family's success. And used it to tell Palestinian stories at a time when that takes real courage. His company's motto says it all, from the river to the screen, Palestine will be seen. And for the first time on our pod, today will be an experience of both audio and visual delight. Hamza, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Hamza Ali:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be with you.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Habibi, we're honored too. So before we dive into your incredible work, all the amazing things you're doing at Watermelon Pics and Beyond, we love to start every episode with a game called "What Brings You Joy?" Would you play it with us?

Hamza Ali:

Yes, of course.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Hamza Habibi? What brings you joy?

Hamza Ali:

I have to first say my family, of course. I have my beloved wife and four children

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Hmm. they've

Hamza Ali:

kind of bore the brunt of uh, the sacrifice, I think, because I've been a little bit more disconnected but I love spending time with them. Nothing makes me happier

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Mm.

Hamza Ali:

Very indebted to them.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Beautiful. How old are your kids?

Hamza Ali:

They are two to nine.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Oh, wow. Habibiz.

Hamza Ali:

It's busy.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Yes.

Katie Bogen:

my God. Thinking about a full house like that makes me so

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Mm.

Hamza Ali:

Until you come over. And then,

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

The joy of parenting for sure.

Hamza Ali:

Katie, what brings you joy?

Katie Bogen:

Something that's definitely bringing me joy today is community building, particularly with creatives and people who understand the change making power of storytelling like this is something we talk about over and over on the pod and just having you here to share your wisdom and how stories can really change folks', hearts and minds, I'm really excited about. So that is bringing me joy today. Hani my love. What is bringing you joy?

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

I will echo that as well. What brings me joy today is being here with both of you, always being with people in community, especially you, Hamza. I know it took a while for us to get to this interview, but your kindness and your grace and the many times we had to reschedule and just your investment in making sure that this happened with us. Your kindness brings me a lot of joy and you are doing so many amazing things, but at your core, you're just such a beautiful, sweet human being, which brings me a lot of joy.'cause we need more of that in the world.

Hamza Ali:

you Hani. Thank you, very nice of you. You've been such a supporter of us. And I just am so grateful for all of that. I remember with the life is beautiful and everything. You really went above and beyond, I think you even bought ads for us. I was like, you don't have to, but it's it's truly we appreciate you much.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Habibi, it was truly an honor and pleasure. I couldn't even believe I was asked. So thank you and I know like you gave us hek a parallel joy, but I still want another one from you. So what brings you joy?

Hamza Ali:

I would say a film that that wasn't meant to be seen but ends up thriving. I think there's a few of those that we've had in our first year to some extent I think we did help amplify Israelism, even though it was already previously available. But with From Ground Zero and Encampments,

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

mm

Hamza Ali:

Are two films that may not have, seen the light of day. And it brings me joy that we were able to

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Yes.

Hamza Ali:

get those stories out there.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Mm mm Amazing.

Hamza Ali:

alright Katie brings you Joy?

Katie Bogen:

Something that's for sure bringing me joy today is I went out for pride last night and I got to reconnect with folks from college and be in queer community and just to move through these social geographies and social spaces where I go from like celebrating queer longevity and these connections I've had with people, and then diving the next morning into this like cross-cultural connection and talking about storytelling. it really is demonstrating the breadth of all of our lives in a way that is profound and lovingly held for me today. So that's bringing me a lot of joy. Honey, baby. What's bringing you joy?.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

It's amazing how we can go into all these spaces and find people that echo what we're trying to do in this mission of freeing Palestine, and seeing a better world, a more peaceful world. The other day I was at my pharmacy, I moved recently so I was at the pharmacy picking up my medication for the first time, and this medication last time I filled it when I got home I saw on the bottle it said, made in Israel. And I was like, darn it. If I had known that when I picked it up, I would've not bought it right. And then I told myself, the next time I pick up this medication, I'm gonna make sure it's not made in Israel before I buy it. And so I get to this pharmacy, it's a big name, not gonna say, just to protect the person, but the tech that was giving me my medicine, as soon as she gave it to me, I opened the box and I'm like looking, she can tell, I'm looking at every corner. And she's what are you doing? I said. Last time I bought this medicine, it it was made in Israel and I don't wanna buy it anymore. And she's like, oh my God, of course I totally support you and she went into the website of the medicine and she looked at the company behind the medicine because it just said, distributed by, didn't say made in. And then it was just like two minutes of us having solidarity there at the pharmacy. It was just really beautiful and that brought me a lot of joy. Hamza, last one. What brings you joy?

Hamza Ali:

I'm gonna

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

I'm good.

Hamza Ali:

maluuba,

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Ah.

Hamza Ali:

it's my my favorite dish. It's a Palestinian dish and me and my friends joke that the only thing, the only meal better than Maluuba is the second Makouba.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Oh, yes. Oh my God.

Hamza Ali:

It just marinates that extra 24

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Mm.

Hamza Ali:

And it's so I would say Maklouba and bonus if it's cooked by a grandmother.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Yes. Love that.

Hamza Ali:

Katie, can I ask you what brings you joy?

Katie Bogen:

Absolutely. So my last joy is a little fraught. I moved back in with my dad for the month before I go to Paris. So I'm moving to Paris for the summer, and it has been so joyful to be home with my dad, who is a fantastic cook, but also to help him care for his wife who has early onset Alzheimer's, so he's not looking after her by himself. And so there's a lot of family joy in being able to assist with that, but it's also such a critical reminder. Of the under resourcing of folks in Palestine who are helping elderly family members or folks with cognitive decline, or folks who have something like dementia or early onset Alzheimer's. And I keep thinking about how challenging this has been for me and my dad, even with all of the resources that we have and how much harder it must be for these other families. So I'm holding lot of joy for being home with my parents and a lot of empathy and grief for people who are not as well resourced. It's a

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Mm mm

Katie Bogen:

Joy. Honey. Baby. What's bringing you joy? I.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Oh, thank you for sharing that, Katie. Dear. We know two days ago that a wonderful human being named Mahmoud Khalil was released finally, and that brought me a lot of joy, especially to know that the law still exists in this country. And that this man is gonna come out stronger and louder and is going to catalyze an even bigger movement for us. And yeah, it just like the timeliness also of this interview and Hamza your work and the encampments, we're gonna talk about that. But all of that is bringing me joy and especially seeing him see his son for the first time. That brought me a lot of joy.

Katie Bogen:

Oh yeah.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Yeah.

Katie Bogen:

Stunning moment. So Hamza your family story is like something from a movie itself. Your father, Malik and Uncle Wad were born in America, but as kids in 1960, they went back to Palestine to reconnect with their roots, and then came 1967, the naa, the six day war, and they had to come back to the United States. And nine years later, in 1976, they started MPI Media Group with almost nothing. Now here you are, decades later using that same company to tell Palestinian stories. Take us back to when you were growing up. What was it like being in this family that had lost so much, but was building something so powerful in America?

Hamza Ali:

To be honest, I didn't know my father as a film distribution, executive or owner. My dad he was the guy that played sports with me. He spent a lot of time with us. He always, and still does put us first. He prioritizes us., I never considered Considered him as a film executive. My uncle passed, allah yer7amo(RIP), he was very much the fun uncle, you know, and, he was much, much more of like a cinephile. He loved film and my dad was working his way up in different, arenas in America, trying to make it and just really make ends meet. And he was doing a good job because he is a hard worker and he's a smart businessman. And my uncle convinced him to go into this avenue. And, you know, initially, of course it wasn't easy, and my dad's what did you do to me? I was doing fine. But, But no, my uncle, he used to put us in the backseat and he would, he loved James Bond and he was obsessed with James Bond. He wanted to be James Bond. He would put on the James Bond theme song and blast it and then, go way too fast with kids in the car. Um, and he would pretend his eyes are closed. Of course they weren't, but like we would just be screaming and, whatnot. So he always loved film and he was creative. One time, I think we were seven or eight, he took me and my cousin to, it was a, I think it was my birthday or her birthday, he took us to, target to buy a present and came home with TVs like, you know, we were like eight years old. My dad's like, what are you, like my dad's much more frugal, businessman, very you get one, one toy, small toy. But Anyw who always between the two of them, they complimented each other so well, and yeah. By the time I was, of age, they were already having success in the And I just wanna say one more thing, that they always wanted to go this direction, and, really push towards this arena of, humanizing our people and supporting our people. And, we all, including myself, I've already been here for, I don't know when I started, 15, over 15 years, 20 years we fall guilty of keeping our heads down and going through the motions. And of course, October 7th and the aftermath, it woke us up. And so it's past due. But anyway, that's the story.

Katie Bogen:

That's such an incredible story and I love hearing too about your father and your uncle's personalities. The whole point of this podcast is humanizing people and so knowing beyond what they did, who they were, is a really important piece of this family history and there is this inevitable connection between, the loss of home and no matter how many decades it takes to find the mission. The mission was finding you the entire time. Like this thread was pulling you, whether your family knew it or not. And fighting back through these stories is so I. Powerful. And your family over time has turned your pain and the struggle that you've gone through into a way to help others tell their stories, and now you're doing something similar in a completely different time. Watching the trailer reel for watermelon pictures is, it's remarkable. It's inspirational. It's just a stunning combination of. Stories and I thought we could all watch it together today for our listeners, you can see the video version of our podcast on our website, Spotify, and YouTube from the links in the episode description, we're gonna show that clip now.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Amazing. Wow. What a work of art. I really love every single reel, every single creative thing that Watermelon pictures does. It's always just inspirational and so well done. Such creativity. You've said that Watermelon pictures was born after October 7th, and what happened in Gaza? You and your brother Badie realized as you put it, that we need to do something. But you weren't new to this business. You've been running MPI for years. What was different about this moment for you that birthed watermelon pictures, and what made you feel like the normal way of distributing films wasn't enough anymore?

Hamza Ali:

A really short answer to this is, watermelon isn't driven by financial success and, my brother and I and my family were blessed and, our core business has always done pretty well. And so we always, like my father, like my mother, my whole family, we always prioritize family. But with watermelon we realize there's a much more important mission, and it's humanizing our people. It's, liberation really, that's driving us and it was the dehumanization that occurred that kind of also helped drive me is, you know, you watch the mainstream media not only are we having to watch the genocide unfold, but then we watch the mainstream media basically debate on whether or not it's justified.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Yeah.

Hamza Ali:

And for me it was looking at my kids, having to live here laying the groundwork for them to live in a place where they're not dehumanized, where they're respected. So, I think that's the key difference is that's what's driving us is the mission and not any kind of business or financial success.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Wow. In your mission. This is really just being done as purpose work. It's not even really bringing any kind of financial benefit back to you, but it's really about reclaiming this narrative, especially the narrative that was twisted about us. I. And as Arabs and the word terrorists being thrown left and right, Hollywood, talking about James Bond movies, they're often, like the villains are often in our part of the world or somehow associated to them. And watermelon pics trailer actually really talks about the narrative and it shows all that imagery that was used in Hollywood to propagate the narrative around us. And you are really helping us reclaim that narrative. thank you so much for that selfless work you're doing that's born out of your mission. And the watermelon logo and watermelon Pics has so much symbolism behind it. Can you tell us more about that?

Hamza Ali:

The logo itself. We have our watermelon pictures logo, which is in the, a shape of a watermelon wedge, and then we have our seed mark, which is, if you see our animated logo, it's like seeds populating, but it's basically, almost like an auditorium or theater type seating where people are coming in and essentially. We're saying that, the stories are seeds, but also the people that are coming to watch the films are seeds. And then they leave the cinema and they spread the seeds. And it's also people coming from diaspora together. And so there is a lot of symbolism to that. And, essentially we were thinking a lot about what is our name, what is our logo? And I remember me and my brother just texting back and forth. Initially we were gonna do everything out of our core label. And as we started to go further down the road, we said, no, I think there's a label here. And so we went through every type of Palestinian or, olives and PAL films, and we ended up deciding, and actually watermelon was the first thing that came to mind. And then we did 200 others and came back to watermelon. And we get this question a lot of, why did we go with the watermelon? We get it from people that don't know what the watermelon is which is truly the vast majority of people they like. I know for us it's it clicks, even like my employees are like, what's the watermelon? And we have to explain and it's the creative resistance, it's the banning of the flag, it's the social media virality. So all of that, but we also get the question from arabs in the industry and one question we get very much is, why weren't we more covert? Why weren't we more strategic? And the answer is, we wanted to plant our flag and we believe in authenticity and we're very happy that we did that because really the allies that are out there and there are many, they basically came to us and they appreciate what we stand for. And so it, it definitely sent a signal. At the same time, the watermelon itself is a fruit, and it's friendly, and it's shareable and it's juicy and it's sweet. it's very disarming, so it shouldn't be offensive. And if there are people out there that may be, offended by the watermelon. Those aren't necessarily people that we need to work with, and we don't need, we don't need everybody to support us, but the people that are out there that do support us, they're making themselves known to us. And the conversations that we're having in the industry from places you would never expect people coming to us from Major studios saying, Hey, we're with you. How can we help?

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Wow. and that's because

Hamza Ali:

we're watermelon and also authenticity in our community really appreciate it wouldn't have resonated to go with some kind of name. We, yeah, we, again, we planted our flag and we said we're watermelon pictures and I also like to say, it worked for Apple, so.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

yes.

Hamza Ali:

So

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Well said.

Hamza Ali:

That's the backstory of the label. And we had a great marketing agency on that helped us Envision what it would look like and whatnot. So, Yeah.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Beautiful. Yeah. Creative resistance and using something that is maybe benign or maybe has an association to something communal, something fun. But right behind it, there is this profound mission, the same mission that's driving us all. And to like paint the story a little more, in 1979, there was three Palestinian painters that opened a gallery in Ramallah, Israeli forces raided and confiscated all the paintings with Palestinian flag colors. So when the artist asked about painting flowers in those colors. The Israeli occupiers said, even if you paint a watermelon, we will confiscate it. So that's the watermelon became the symbol of resistance because it also shares the colors with a Palestinian flag, as you said, and to see that imagery woven into your logo, the new streaming service you're doing. Everything that we are doing also as a community, the emoji of a watermelon is everywhere, and it's just such a testament to that what happened in 1979 and those people that chose that energy and that life still continuing through us and what we're doing. So thank you so much for choosing that out of 200 and it's amazing how a crisis can make our purpose so clear. You had all the tools and knowledge, but it took this moment to realize that you needed to use them perhaps a little differently, and you've been getting involved in some pretty serious stuff with pretty serious risks. Let's watch this next trailer about the encampments before we dive into it.

Katie Bogen:

This is probably one of the most important documentaries of our time, so let's talk about the encampments. The documentary was exclusively produced by Macklemore and is about the Columbia University protest, showing Mahal Khalil a student activist who's been held by ICE for months without any charges, and it was finally just released thank goodness. Hallelujah. You moved the release date up from fall to March because you felt people needed to see it right away. And it opened at the Angelica Film Center in New York and broke the record for documentaries.$80,000 in one weekend, which is almost unheard of. But you also got threats of violence, vandalism. Your ads were censored on social media. Police rated UCLA and stopped the screening from happening on campus. You are really bringing to light things that activate folks who find Palestinian liberation to be a threat and find this storytelling even about how people are resisting to be threatening. Can you tell us both about the amazing success and the real danger that happened around the work of creating and releasing the encampments?

Hamza Ali:

Yeah. The encampments specifically struck a chord, both I think with the industry side and, there was a lot of pushback. But also from the Zionist movement. And then I would say it definitely was one that was tricky for us as far as distribution because it was such a hot button. That, there was hesitation from journalists and exhibitors. But that also to us speaks to the importance of it. It countered a narrative that wasn't necessarily being countered. And, the whole notion that the student encampments were anti-Semitic and the film actually puts you inside the encampment. So it directly challenges it in such a strong way because. Again you're getting access to the inside. And as we often see there were, a lot of Jewish voices behind this. And uh, one of our two directors, one is Michael Workman. The other one is Kay Pritzker, and he is Jewish. And also in the film is Grant Minor, who is Jewish. And he was actually expelled from Columbia for his involvement in the student encampments. Beyond that, inside the film you'll see. A lot of Jewish solidarity Shabbat there's so much of that so it's like, as Kay says I think in one of his interviews he's reading news about the anti-Semitism, and then he looks up in the encampment and he's surrounded by, you know, anti-Zionist Jews that are supporting. And it's all in the film which is great. yeah, it was definitely, moving up the release. We wanted to be out in the fall, right when schools were, coming back and then Mahmud was, you know, as we all know, abducted by ice and we immediately felt obligated. Actually, the film wasn't finished. We were still in edit It's not necessarily like the final version of the film, but

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Wow.

Hamza Ali:

but we thought it was strong enough enough. And and it is, and it resonated. But we ended up basically like on a Monday saying, okay, we're releasing on Friday, and so five days, whereas we generally schedule these five months in advance. We, we basically were five days out and it was extremely stressful. And then we had another release on the tail end of that, which was the teacher, another brilliant film, and then the platform launch. you know, I've been pushing my team a lot harder than typical. And but that's also the beautiful thing, is our team is like they immediately understood, actually, they were like, we have to go. And I was like they get it. And so it's a beautiful thing having a team that's also very rooted in solidarity. But yeah, not an easy one. We just felt we needed to do it for Mahmud, we needed to do it to counter another film that was out just like a week or two prior, which I'm not even gonna say name.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Right.

Hamza Ali:

but we're very happy with the results.

Katie Bogen:

I mean, You're doing this miraculous work of myth breaking and shifting social norms and speaking truth to power and speaking against propaganda like you have all of this stunning corrective information in your work beyond being inspirational and beautiful. It's didactic like it's teaching viewers a new way of seeing, and the fact that this film can simultaneously break box office records and face threats, demonstrates how hungry audiences are for these stories, how important it is that they're seen, as you said. Even when powerful forces are trying to silence them, and it makes me think about how you navigate the business side of this deeply activist work, including expanding to a new streaming service, and we will watch the trailer for that streaming service as well, but there tends to be this bisection across activism and more business work and your capacity to marry those two things, I think is going to be effective for the movement and really ground us in a way to pull from so many different audiences and so many different communities who can be moved by this work. So here is the trailer

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Hamza, you're not just distributing films, you're building an entire world. There's watermelon plus your streaming service that launched in May with over 70 films, including Oscar nominees, Omar, Five Broken Cameras and Thieb, and serves as cultural archive for three decades of Palestinian cinema with plans to expand beyond Palestinian content, to other marginalized voices, so important. There's also the Seeds podcast with Alana Hadid that just started in June. You've got partnerships with a AMC theaters, Apple tv, even Cannes film festival. It feels like you're creating what major studios do, but for voices they won't touch. Was this always the plan, or did you realize along the way that you needed to build everything from scratch?

Hamza Ali:

No, honestly, I'll be honest, when we started it was much more let's support the filmmakers that are struggling, let's support the films that don't have distribution. And became very clear that there was much more that needed to be done there. when we launched in April of 2024 we ended up having like a weekend retreat where we laid out, year goals, three year goals, five year goals, and we've already, you know, I have to say like praise to God. We've already hit our five year goals, and

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Wow.

Hamza Ali:

now we're

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Yeah.

Hamza Ali:

like, we're moving the goalposts, based on that. So definitely we see, like the goal is to build a mini studio and to do it for underrepresented voices, marginalized voices or purposeful content in general. Like you said, we we're just over a year old.. Palestine will always be at the core in, in our hearts, but we do see the, the need to branch out and also to bring all of these. Voices under, under one label. As you said, we have Sudan Remember Us, which is a beautiful documentary which is very, it's a very akin to the encampments. It's about the youth movement in Sudan. And it's a beautiful film winning awards left and right.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Wow.

Hamza Ali:

we have an animated film from Pakistan, an anti-war film called The Glassworker.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Wow.

Hamza Ali:

and we have some Black Lives Matters films as well that haven't been announced. So there's a lot of, great projects. But we do have our sites set a lot higher than when we initially had gone down this road.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

It's amazing I think about streaming services, like Gaia for example, that has a focus on spirituality and the esoteric, and then, you have all these different streaming services like Discovery Plus that's science-based and stuff, but we don't really have a streaming service that's fully dedicated to social justice. Especially this intersectional solidarity of social justice and what you're creating is that for the first time, if you wanna go somewhere and nourish your soul and understand how your struggle for human rights, freedom, liberation is the same as the struggle for human rights and liberation of other people that may look completely different than you. This is the streaming service to go to, which is so beautiful. Yeah.

Hamza Ali:

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. That's exactly what we're hoping to achieve.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Thank you. So for our listeners, you can subscribe to Watermelon Plus today for just 7.99 a month, and it's available on iOS, Android, Apple tv, Roku, Fire tv, and Chromecast. What strikes me is how you're not waiting for permission from the industry. You're just building your own. And speaking of building, let's talk about some of the specific stories you're telling. Starting with the nakba. Let's see the trailer for Farha together.

Katie Bogen:

So Farha directed by Darren Salaam was Jordan's Oscar submission, but it faced enormous backlash. The film tells a story of a 14-year-old Palestinian girl during the 1948 Nakba based on true events showing this girl hidden in a storage room. Witnessing horrific violence through a small hole, and many people have drawn parallels to Anne Frank calling it basically a Palestinian Holocaust film. But the controversy was so intense. Israel campaign to cancel it. Websites like Stand With Us, which many call an Israeli propaganda site claimed it wasn't based on true events. There were even issues with original distributors holding it back and Netflix faced pressure, but did keep it on the platform. When you're dealing with stories, this sensitive stories that some people will truly do anything to silence, how do you honor your mission as a storyteller with the reality that powerful forces are going to try to stop you from being heard?

Hamza Ali:

Yeah, I think ultimately, cinema has to be a place of artistic freedom and expression, and we hope that the cinemas and the platforms and, the industry in general, Recognize Recognize that. And I think ultimately we're seeing that a lot of this, attempt to silence us is falling on deaf ears. You mentioned, and I think the situation there was that actually Netanyahu might have even tweeted about the film and ultimately brought it this like massive attention. In some instances it even work to our favor. We had a lot of attempts to silence us with From Ground Zero. We heard from the cinemas and they had no intention of backing down. We really hope that they continue to like, make the right decisions. As we saw No Other Land, won an Oscar. I think in a lot of ways people know like the best way to deal with a bully is just to ignore them. And also a lot of this pushback is coming from, a few organizations. And I think a lot of it is coming from bots, there's like mass spam email attempts and things of that nature, but ultimately. We're navigating and in the end we, what we say to like our partners is we just wanna distribute films like we have been for the past 50 years. And I think fact that we have these relationships and they know us it's helpful because they know, like they know us on a personal level and there's no reason to, succumb to, external pressures.

Katie Bogen:

Absolutely. I think speaking about a sort of institutional cowardice that you all just don't have you are turning your business into this grappling space where folks who might be reticent to approach anything of controversy are instead being invited to excavate the controversy of, is this really controversial? Do most people actually agree with us? When people hear these stories, is their empathy expanded? Like you are doing the exact opposite of institutional reticence, which is such a stunning mission, and it's clear that you see art as a form of fighting back, which really connects to the watermelon symbol itself. How Palestinian artists use the fruits colors when the flag was banned. That spirit of creative resistance runs through everything you do, everything your business does. And what's hopeful is this co resistance that we're seeing in intersectional solidarity, particularly as you said earlier, between Jews and Arabs. Just so stunning. So let's watch this next trailer together for Israelism.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Okay, let's talk about Israelism for a moment because it also is one of the most important films of our time. This documentary follows two young American Jews who went from being strong supporters of Israel to becoming pro-Palestinian activists. Perhaps some of the most outspoken that we have right now. It's won seven awards and has been screened at over a hundred colleges, but it's also caused huge fights on campuses. What's interesting is that it was made by Jewish filmmakers, but now you a Palestinian owned company are distributing it. The films, codirector said, working with Watermelon models how Palestinians and Jews can work together for freedom and justice. How do films like this help bridge communities that are often seen as completely opposed to each other?

Hamza Ali:

Yeah, no, I'm glad you asked this. It's extremely important to separate, Judaism from Zionism, as we all know. Israelism does this so well, and it's, I truly believe that this film in particular is a perennial tool to deflating, Zionism and it was our second release. And the beauty of it is it demonstrates what can be, and we've worked so closely with Aaron, Sam Daniel and Simone on that film, and it also demonstrates that this isn't about religion, it's about justice, it's about humanity, it's about liberation. We also have Jewish members on our team and actually we've had them before and we've added new ones after. And it's not because they're Jewish, it's because they're good at their job. And, they happen to be Jewish and there's no issue with that. As the film Israelism and the Encampment show, it's completely farcical to suggest that, there's an issue between Islam and Judaism or Palestinians and Judaism. So yeah Israelism is such an important film and it's one that people keep coming back to. One of our employees that we hired more recently said that Israelism actually helped change her life and see that. So those are the stories that really keep us going and we're honored to have distributed it.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

When I saw Israelism for the first time, they were struggling with distributing it, and I remember they were in my inbox asking me to, to share it, and I was like, of course. But am I ever gonna be that catalyst for it really going out there and when I watched it, I was so touched to my core and I shared it with all my Jewish friends and there was a lot of backlash from some that just didn't wanna watch it. And when I saw that Watermelon Pics, picked it up and distributed it and made it the success that it is today, I was just so proud of that work. And I want to say, we are also in a movement that has a lot of colors and a lot of ideas and, extremism, rigidity exists and all movements, and I love Hamza you are what I consider a more moderate activist in this space, and I've seen comments under some of the Israelism posts, under some of Watermelon Pictures posts that say things like "why are you highlighting Jews? Why are you making a film about Jews? Palestinians should always be in the forefront" and I thought as you, as somebody that is a figure for us that we look up to maybe you could say a few words about that in particular.

Hamza Ali:

Yeah, as we know, there's a lot of anger and resentment out there, and not always easy and we had, conversations and had to deal very strategically with it being our second release. But ultimately what we do at the end of the day is we discuss internally, we have a lot of these conversations. What is best for the movement? And it's not to say we don't care what the movement says, but ultimately, what is going to move the needle for, Palestinian liberation? And that's what guides us. And we're gonna have instances where people, disagree and sometimes it's like the loud minority, but there was also just so much and positivity, when we decided to do that, that's what guides us is what is the best. And people have different opinions about what is the best for the movement. But, we have a whole staff here of, industry people, but also movement people. Alana Hadid is part of our team. We have two members from the Palestinian Youth Movement. So have these discussions and and then we make a decision based on what we think is again, best for the movement. So that's what guides us.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Well said, so the partnership really shows the power of storytelling to bring people together around shared values of justice, even when they come from different backgrounds. Israelism as a collaboration and form of solidarity also brings to mind, like you said, the recent Oscar winner, no other land codirected by Palestinian filmmaker, Basra and Israeli Journalist Yuval Abraham, which chronicles the struggle of Palestinians in the West Bank's mata area against Israeli demolitions of their homes. The more we come together to dismantle oppressive systems and further common humanity, the stronger we are and more visible we become. And I would add, I love what you said about, it's about furthering the mission no matter what, and no matter what's good for the mission. So before we move on to our last segment, I was wondering if there are any other works you'd like to highlight, especially in light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza?

Hamza Ali:

We have a lot of really amazing projects in the pipeline that I can't necessarily discuss yet, but but as far as like more directly on the horizon, we have The Teacher, which

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

mm-hmm.

Hamza Ali:

Available and I can't say enough how much I want everybody to see this film because it educates, but it's also highly entertaining, it's such a treat. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Farah Nabulsi such a talented director. So that one is already available. I would encourage you to see it, right away. And then the other one that's coming just next month is To A Land Unknown and that's from director Flayfel. It's not necessarily a political film, but it's about two Palestinian refugees in Greece and what they have to go through, and that film in specific is really just cinema at its finest. It's like a hundred percent positive reviews. It's just great cinema. And it also challenges the whole theory of the perfect immigrant. These Palestinians were driven to be refugees and they're not perfect. And, you know, we don't have to be perfect to be human, and I think this film really highlights that. So we're really excited by that when it's coming out in theaters. So just, those are two that I would highlight most immediately.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Thank you. Thank you for sharing a little bit of what's coming up as well, and I will watch the teacher right now as soon as we finish this interview.

Katie Bogen:

Yeah, so excited.

Hamza Ali:

It's a good one.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Thinking about all the ways the intersectional solidarity work we're doing is building for the future of peace, freedom, life, and dignity for all people. It's important that we get as creative as possible in delivering that message in many ways, including podcasts. Here are some clips from your newest venture, the seeds.

Katie Bogen:

The SEEDS podcast hosted by Alana Hadid, she's the sister of supermodels, Gigi and Bella Hadid, and she interviews folks like Hassan Piker and Melissa Barrera and the tagline for her pod is "Every story starts with a seed", which really recalls some of the imagery you talked about and the Watermelon Pictures icons. It feels like you're not just preserving Palestinian stories, but you're helping grow the next generation of storytellers and activists and people who are gonna carry this work forward. You are sewing us all together regardless of our backgrounds, with activism being the focus of our line of work. So what role do you see podcasting playing in this bigger mission, and how does it feel to watch Alana as your creative director build her own platform within this platform and mission that you've crafted?

Hamza Ali:

You both are doing it, super humanizer, right? It's so important and we have to click on all the different mediums and podcasting is a crucial one. And. Watching Alana and her passion for the seeds has been really like such a joy and so podcasting. Absolutely beyond that we don't want people to subscribe to our platform just out of solidarity. Our goal is for it to bring value and to be the communities plus one. You know, If you have your Netflix or your Hulu or your HBO or whatever it may be, we wanna be your plus one because we're giving you that value. So eventually we foresee, cooking shows, reality tv, standup comedy, genre films, all kinds of different things that are just humanizing and speaking to us because we have a thirsty demographic that isn't being targeted and we wanna make sure that we change that.

Katie Bogen:

absolutely. There's something so beautiful about how you're creating this space for specific voices to grow, and be able to use this platform is obviously going to make change and bring a lot of people in who might underestimate the quality of these conversations and think, this is a moment in history. This is just people taking advantage of this one moment. It's so obviously not true. You all have such spectacular things to say about the depth of human connection and the way there liberation is intertwined. And it reminds me of the seeds in your logo. Each person in the audience, has the power to continue spreading these stories. I mean the two of us created super Humanizer as a way to seed ourselves in this larger movement and to support its growth with a similar mission to MPI Watermelon Pictures and the Seeds podcast, which just gives us so much hope for the future and how this is socially contagious. So we really loved this reel on watermelon pictures, Instagram about cinema as liberation. So here's one last packed visual delight for our super humanizer. It is time for us to reclaim the narrative. Such a powerful message. What message do you have for those in the film industry or other film distributors, creatives, and those with influence in Hollywood and internationally and streaming? What would you say to them?

Hamza Ali:

I would say to the film industry help us to combat this dehumanization help us with, representation. Honestly, we don't wanna combat it alone. the time for courage is now. We hope that the board, nobody succumbs to, the pressure of allowed minority pushing back against our films and, wanting to keep us silenced, wanting to keep us as a statistic, as opposed to a story. So yeah, I would say in general we just we really wanna see support within the industry and we are and we hope that continues and grows.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Beautiful. Moving us from being statistic to a story. I love that sentence. Thank you for sharing that. So we are here at the end of our interview with one last question that passed really quickly. Such a joy being here with you. But Hamza, would you share with us as we close something that we call a heart share, this is where we invite our guests to share something that keeps them grounded. Maybe a quote, a poem, a practice, or just a simple truth that helps you stay connected to your purpose when the work gets hard, especially your work. What would you like to share with us?

Hamza Ali:

there's a saying from the prophet that if the day a judgment arrives and you have a seed in your hand, we've been talking a lot about seeds. If you have a seed in your hand and the day arrives. You should still plant it. Again, this for me is like the one that I always go back to because it's, what we're trying to do is we're trying to plant seeds and we don't necessarily see the harvest. And we hope that. there is a harvest soon, and at least our children get to see that harvest. But we're gonna plant the seed anyway, if the world is crumbling, even if the world is ending, which sometimes it feels like it is, like now we're still gonna continue to plant these seeds and these films are hopefully those seats. So that's a quote that I continually come back to.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Beautiful Inshalla Ya Rabb (God willing). My share. I spoke yesterday with a volunteer at the organization, Children Not Numbers, which I'm also a volunteer at, which is helping rescue children from Gaza who need life-saving care. One of the conversations centered around appreciation as a tool that we can anchor to while we navigate everything that we're going through. Katie and I talk about this often in, in some of our discussions about mental health is like, how do we hold two things at the same time that could be helpful to each other. And so I had a heart conversation yesterday with one of these volunteers who was really struggling with the nature of the work she was doing, casework and being connected to parents on the ground. And as we were talking, we started thinking about the small things that we can appreciate about ourselves as we're in this volunteer work. And something as simple as when we're pouring a cup of water to just appreciate that we have this clean water that we can drink right now. And this clean water is nourishing me so that I can keep pouring into the movement so that one day the people in Gaza will also have clean water. And something about appreciation is what cushions are suffering as we go through everything that we're going through. And I will also expand that a little bit and say that connecting with you Hamza, and doing work with you guys in Watermelon Pics and this interview and all these things that we do together is something I really appreciate that cushions my suffering. As I go back into social media after our interview and see is World War III happening right now? I also am gonna hold this time together that we've had and very dearly and appreciate that, so that I can navigate what we're about to see unfold together.

Katie Bogen:

I have a heart share as well. Honey, I'm actually prepared today. Always forget this. So I've been reading the English translations of the work of Maram Almasi, who is Assyrian poet, who publishes mostly in Arabic and French. And I found a series of English translations including one beautiful poem called Look At Me, which I think speaks to some of the themes we've been discussing today. So I'm just gonna read it. It's short. Look at me. Do you remember me? I'm the one who brought you into the world, who gave you milk. at your brothers. I've told you so much about them. Say hello to them in French. It's enough to kiss them or exchange a smile. They don't resemble you. You are more brown. But if we look closely, we see you share the same traits. go repeat their names after me. Matthew? Yes. Matthew, Guillaume.. You see, It's not so difficult to speak the language of love. I just love I

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Beautiful

Hamza Ali:

beautiful

Katie Bogen:

it's not so difficult to speak the language of love. Hamsa, thank you so much for your courage, your vision, your stories, and for showing us really what it looks like to turn family legacy into a force for justice and really collective activation. I mean, Beyond working toward a mission. You are motivating so many other people to join this mission. Thank you for the gift of being with us in our community on super humanizer today

Hamza Ali:

Thank you

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Thank you so

Hamza Ali:

Annie and Katie really appreciate the time and I'm honored that you would even consider me, so thank you.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

Thank you.

Katie Bogen:

you're such a darling. We've been rabidly looking forward to this like very excited. We'll end with our closing prayer. May all beings everywhere thrive in peace, dignity, and share in all our joys.

Dr. Hani Chaabo:

And may we see true peace in the Middle East for all in our lifetime. Amen.