On March 28, 2019, Qatar’s new National Museum will open after more than a decade of reconstruction and expansion. Built on the site of the original National Museum of 1972, this new iteration hopes to demonstrate the growth of the small Gulf state’s global and cultural ambitions, especially through its eye-popping (and architecturally challenging) design. But the new museum has an even more vital goal: to tell the state’s version of the national story, which emphasizes the independence and development of the state, the historical centrality of the ruling family, and the unity of the citizenry—even though there are plenty of differences based on sectarianism, ethnic origin, and cultural lifestyle—within this relatively small citizenry (Al-Hammadi 2018). The museum’s formidable goal will be to persuade residents of the validity of this particular unity narrative. It will do this not only through the physical layout of the galleries, as well as text panels that articulate this story, but also through an ambitious media plan. According to interviews with sources, this media plan includes commissioned documentaries and art films by world-renowned filmmakers and local talent; footage from foreign-produced films about Qatar, such as Beduiner, from the 1959 Danish anthropological expedition, or Sea Shell, a 1960 film by the Shell Oil Company; and media from native sources, such as Qatar Television’s “This Is Qatar” history series from the 1970s. This presentation will analyze how the new National Museum uses moving images to support its narrative of unity. It will consider how the images are placed and projected, how the images function within the context of the rest of the gallery exhibit, and how together they tell a story. But it will also examine how footage is selected from films to emphasize certain story points, distinct from the message of the originals. Contributing to the conversation about the relationship between modern museums and nation-building in the Gulf (e.g., Erskine-Loftus, Hightower, and Al-Mulla 2016; Exell 2016; Exell and Rico 2014; Exell and Wakefield 2016)—and drawing upon archival sources (including the Shell Film Unit Archives in London), interviews with the museum’s media content creators, and multiple visits to the museum site—this research will demonstrate how the media plan is “edited” to convey a narrative of unity so important to the Qatari state, especially during the ongoing Gulf diplomatic crisis.