When Hamza Ali was growing up, he didn't see his father as a film distribution executive. "My dad was the guy that played sports with me," Hamza recalls. "He spent a lot of time with us. He always, and still does, put us first." Meanwhile, his uncle was "the fun uncle" who loved James Bond films and once took Hamza and his cousin shopping for birthday presents but came home with TVs instead.
What Hamza couldn't have known then was how his family's business—MPI Media Group, founded in 1976 after his father and uncle returned from Palestine during the 1967 war—would one day become the foundation for a cultural revolution in Palestinian storytelling.
MPI Media Group has grown into one of the largest independent film distributors in America and the largest Arab-owned distribution company in North America. For decades, the company operated successfully in the mainstream film industry, with Hamza himself working there for over 15 years.
But everything changed after October 7th, 2023.
"We all, including myself... fall guilty of keeping our heads down and going through the motions," Hamza admits. "And of course, October 7th and the aftermath, it woke us up."
In April 2024, Hamza and his brother Badee launched Watermelon Pictures, transforming their family's traditional distribution business into something revolutionary: a platform dedicated to Palestinian stories and other marginalized voices.
The company's name carries profound cultural significance. Following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israeli authorities banned the Palestinian flag and its colors in Gaza and the West Bank. This prohibition remained until the 1993 Oslo Accords, though recent years have seen renewed restrictions—in 2023, Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered the removal of Palestinian flags flying in public spaces.
During this period of censorship, Palestinians found a creative workaround: the watermelon. With its red flesh, green rind, black seeds, and white interior, the fruit naturally displayed the forbidden colors of their flag.
The watermelon's transformation into a resistance symbol is often traced to a specific 1979 encounter at a Ramallah art gallery. Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour recounts how an Israeli officer informed him and colleagues that their artwork required military permission and specifically prohibited using the Palestinian flag's colors. When asked if even a painting of flowers with those colors would be banned, the officer replied it would be confiscated, adding, "Even if you paint a watermelon, we will confiscate it."
This threat inadvertently cemented the watermelon's significance. As Mansour told NPR, "This created a kind of sensation among artists... So we had a lot of support from many artists from around the world and also from Israeli artists."
In just over a year, Watermelon Pictures has achieved remarkable success that few could have predicted. Their documentary "The Encampments," about pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, broke the per-theater-average box office record previously held by National Geographic's "Free Solo," grossing nearly $80,000 in its opening weekend at New York's Angelika Film Center.
The company has also distributed "From Ground Zero," an anthology film featuring 22 Palestinian directors that made the Academy Awards shortlist for Best International Film. These achievements are particularly striking given Hollywood's long history of marginalizing Arab voices.
According to research published in ThoughtCo, Hollywood has consistently portrayed Arabs as villains, terrorists, or "misogynistic brutes with backward and mysterious customs." A 2017 Arab American Institute survey found that around 3.5 million Americans are of Arab descent, yet their representation in media remains overwhelmingly negative. One study analyzing approximately 900 movies found only about 50 had evenhanded representation of Arabs, and only 12 portrayed them positively.
What distinguishes Watermelon Pictures from other distribution companies is its comprehensive approach to cultural representation. Rather than simply releasing films, the Ali brothers are building an entire media ecosystem.
In May 2025, they launched Watermelon+, a subscription-based streaming platform that preserves Palestinian films from the past three decades. "It ensures that if these films don't get another outlet, there will still be a place for them," Hamza explains. They've also started a podcast called "The Seeds" with Creative Director Alana Hadid.
This ecosystem approach reflects a deep understanding that changing narratives requires more than occasional films—it demands consistent, multi-platform storytelling that can reach diverse audiences.
Perhaps most remarkable about Watermelon Pictures is its explicit rejection of profit as a primary motive. "Watermelon isn't driven by financial success," Hamza states clearly. "My brother and I and my family were blessed, and our core business has always done pretty well."
Instead, the company operates with a different metric of success: "It's humanizing our people. It's liberation really, that's driving us."
This purpose-driven approach stands in stark contrast to traditional film distribution, which typically prioritizes commercial potential over cultural impact. As Alana Hadid told Variety, when the Ali brothers founded Watermelon, they "definitely didn't go in thinking it was going to be making money."
Yet paradoxically, this commitment to purpose may be precisely what's driving the company's commercial success. Audiences hungry for authentic Palestinian narratives are showing up in record numbers, proving there's a market for stories that have been systematically excluded from mainstream media.
For Hamza, the mission of Watermelon Pictures is deeply personal. Looking at his four young children, aged two to nine, he explains his motivation: "Having to live here, laying the groundwork for them to live in a place where they're not dehumanized, where they're respected."
This connection between past, present, and future runs through everything Watermelon Pictures does. The company honors the legacy of the Ali brothers' father and uncle while creating new opportunities for Palestinian filmmakers and building a media landscape where future generations can see themselves represented authentically.
"We came to the realization that we are the only Arab-led North American distribution company," Badee Ali told Variety. "We should use our platform to do this for ourselves—we can't wait for somebody else."
In a media landscape where Palestinian perspectives are often silenced or distorted, Watermelon Pictures represents something revolutionary: a family business transformed into a cultural movement, planting seeds of resistance that will bear fruit for generations to come.
1. Variety (2025, May 2 ). "Seeds of Change: How Palestinian-Owned Watermelon Pictures Is Creating Space for Underseen Perspectives." https://variety.com/2025/film/news/watermelon-pictures-palestinian-owned-the-encampments-1236368970/
2. NPR (2024, January 8 ). "Why watermelons are a symbol of Palestinian solidarity." https://www.npr.org/2024/01/08/1222718339/why-watermelons-are-symbol-of-palestinian-solidarity
3. ThoughtCo (2025, May 13 ). "Common Arab Stereotypes in TV and Film." https://www.thoughtco.com/tv-film-stereotypes-arabs-middle-easterners-2834648
4. Mideast Journal (2025, August 14 ). "How the Watermelon Became An Unlikely Symbol For the Pro-Palestinian Movement." https://www.mideastjournal.org/post/how-the-watermelon-became-palestine-s-unlikely-symbol
5. Human Rights Watch (2023, December 20 ). "Meta Censored Content on Palestine, Report Finds." https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/20/meta-censored-content-palestine-report-finds
6. The Guardian (2025, May 14 ). "Watermelon Pictures: the company releasing Palestinian films no one else will." https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/14/watermelon-pictures-palestinian-film-distributor
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