Within days of October 7, Brandon Kramer was filming his family. What began as an effort to document what his relatives were experiencing would become ‘Holding Liat,’ an intimate vérité documentary about grief, uncertainty, advocacy and the fractures that emerge within a family under extraordinary pressure.
“I felt a responsibility as storytellers to pick up our camera and try to document what they were going through and lean into every perspective that was present in the family, every contradiction that was occurring for each character, tried to reveal that and unearth it and just stay true to the authentic experience that they were going through,” said Kramer of making the film.
In his conversation with Awards Focus, director Brandon Kramer discussed the deeply personal process of making ‘Holding Liat,’ which began just days after October 7 when his relatives were directly caught in the crisis. Kramer explained how Yehuda and Chaya’s decision to advocate for the release of their daughter Liat and son-in-law Aviv brought the story into his own Washington, D.C., community and prompted him to document the family’s experience. As a relative rather than an outside observer, Kramer wrestled with when to keep filming and when to put the camera down and simply be there for his family, while striving to capture the contradictions, tensions and fractures within the family without judging them. He also spoke about Darren Aronofsky’s early involvement as a producer, the challenges of filming inside Congress, the film’s editing process, and his hope that ‘Holding Liat’ reaches audiences broadly and contributes to greater dialogue, understanding and peace.
In the aftermath of Liat’s abduction, her father, Yehuda, devotes himself to bringing his daughter home while firmly rejecting the idea that her captivity should be used to justify further violence in Gaza. As he pursues her release, his determination exposes deepening fractures within the family, with different generations struggling to reconcile their increasingly divergent emotional and political perspectives.
After being shortlisted for the Academy Awards earlier this year, ‘Holding Liat’ is now available on VOD.
This interview was conducted the day after the North American premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. A lot has happened since then, including the complete release of the Israeli hostages remaining in captivity.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to meet you. How are you doing?
Brandon Kramer: I’m doing okay. Last night was our North America premiere and so we were out pretty late. It was a really incredible reception. Every screening of this film has been deeply meaningful, and this was no exception.
AF: I can imagine. How honored are you to have the opportunity to premiere ‘Holding Liat’ at Tribeca?
Brandon Kramer: Oh, my G-d. I mean, look, I just came from Israel a few weeks ago. There were people in the audience of our film that still have loved ones in captivity. I sat with Liat’s son, who is still grieving the loss of his father Aviv. He finally had it within himself to watch the film for the first time and had to sit with the pain that he’s still holding on to. I spent time with Palestinian families who are living in Masafer Yatta and suffering from daily violence and destruction there.
It’s a beautiful thing to finish a film and have it recognized and have stand on the red carpet and take photos, but I see this as more than anything, an opportunity to reach as wide of an audience as possible with a film that I truly hope can contribute toward ending these cycles of violence and bringing all the hostages home and creating peace for Israelis, Palestinians and everyone living across the region.
I carry that responsibility with me as a storyteller dealing with a story that is not about the entirety of this conflict by any means. It’s just one family’s experience, but it’s a story I hope can contribute toward greater peace and dialogue and understanding.
AF: What went through your mind when you first found out about October 7 and then learned you had family members taken hostage?
Brandon Kramer: My first thought was I need to call Liat’s parents, Yehuda and Chaya, and check in on them. My first visit to Israel, I lived with the two of them on their kibbutz. They were my introduction to Israel and I love them dearly. I called them and I said I had no inclination to make a film whatsoever. I live in Washington, D.C. I was calling them as relatives and on that phone call, a few things became very clear to me.
One was that Yehuda in a week was getting on a plane with his grandson and his other daughter Tal to come to Washington, D.C., which is where I live, to my doorstep and advocate for Liat and Aviv’s release. So what they were experiencing was about to come into my own hometown.
Two, was that everything Yehuda was telling me about how he felt, what his family was experiencing, was so much more complicated than what was being shown on social media and the media. Our relatives were thrust into the epicenter of a crisis that the whole world was watching and trying to understand. Their experience did not fit into any one box.
I felt a responsibility as storytellers to pick up our camera and try to document what they were going through and lean into every perspective that was present in the family, every contradiction that was occurring for each character, tried to reveal that and unearth it and just stay true to the authentic experience that they were going through.
As a filmmaker, I believe that one of the ways that we as artists can contribute toward peace is by allowing the public to have as intimate and authentic of a connection to people who have had actual lived experience being directly impacted by this conflict. And that’s what we did.
AF: At what point in the process did Darren Aronofsky come on board as a producer?
Brandon Kramer: Darren came on really early. I can’t remember exactly the date, but we had definitely filmed some some of the movie, but not that much. We sent him raw footage of the movie. Our producer and director of photography, Yoni Brooke, knows Darren and sent him some raw footage and just said, “Hey, can you take a look at this and just let me know what you think?”
Darren immediately responded, “This is incredible. How can I help?” And within days, we were on a phone call with him. Darren is obviously an incredible artist and filmmaker, but and he’s also a real believer in the power of cinéma vérité storytelling, of really being able to observe authentic, complex, intimate, character driven stories.
While we were telling the story, every time we started to almost stray from the truth, not intentionally, but because you wind up getting scared, or you feel like this might be too much for an audience to hold all of these different—Darren would sort of help encourage us to stay the course and allow the film to have as much openness and authenticity as possible.
AF: The thing I found most fascinating about watching the film, as we’re talking about authenticity, is how no one is holding back. The rawness really comes through.
Brandon Kramer: Yeah. I’m a relative of this family. I knew them before October 7th. They took a huge leap of faith in trusting me to be present with a camera in the most vulnerable moments, not just dealing with the grief of not knowing if your daughter and son-in-law are alive or dead or going to come home, but also just internal arguments and disputes between a father, a grandfather and a grandson, between a father and a daughter, between two brothers.
They allowed me, and thereby the audiences who watched the film, to bear witness to tensions and fractures that occur in every family, but you relatively rarely get to see and amidst the backdrop of their loved ones’ lives actually at stake.
The reason they did that was because there was this trust before we started filming. It was essential for me that they saw the film before it was released so I had one-on-one screenings with everybody in the family that was ready to watch it. Like I said, there was a few people in the family that were not emotionally ready to watch the film.
They gave me their blessing that the film represented them authentically. But there’s no way a film like this can be made in the days after an event like this with somebody who’s coming from the outside, who doesn’t already have that relationship. We were filming within days of October 7.
AF: What was the most challenging aspect of making the documentary?
Brandon Kramer: I’ve never made a film about family before, about people I’m related to, about people that I have this intimate of a connection to. I think knowing when to show up as a documentarian and observe something, even when the family was at the lowest possible moment, and still roll and still capture those moments, and then knowing when to put the camera down and just hug them and cry with them and hold them, that was really, really challenging for me.
There were so many times when I feel like I missed something really important because I was like, I need to just be with them, I’m not filming this. There’s lots of moments where I filmed—I was literally living with them. I was sleeping on the floor right outside their hotel room while they were in Eilat where all the displaced people from the kibbutz were living, because I wanted to be able to capture the 2 AM phone calls that they were getting every night when they were in Shomrat and their kibbutz, I was living in their house with them.
We filmed a lot of really difficult moments that—at the end of the day—I’m really glad I pushed through my own internal discomfort to keep the camera rolling, but when people you love are going through something really difficult and they’re not showing all of their best colors, it’s sometimes hard to film those moments.
The film is never looking down on them ever. Gordon Quinn, my mentor, taught me, you never look down the lens of your camera at anybody. Even though there are moments where these characters, these protagonists are not at their best, it’s never looking down on them.
They’re not at their best because their daughter and son-in-law or sister is not with them and they don’t know if she’s going to live or die. It’s not because they’re bad people. Everyone in this film is a good person.
AF: Did you run into any trouble with getting the camera in the room with members of Congress?
Brandon Kramer: I grew up in the D.C. area and I’ve lived in D.C. now almost 20 years. I’ve learned how to be a vérité filmmaker in our nation’s capital. There’s so much fear around cameras amongst Congress people and senators and White House, understandably. There’s just a lot of gotcha journalism out there that’s just looking for the moment.
I’ve learned a relational practice to building relationships with not just the members, but also their teams. You have to actually build a level of trust to get your camera in the door.
Sometimes, that works. And sometimes, I’d go with Yehuda to a meeting and they’d be at meeting with a senator. We’d walk inside, and I’d say, “Look, I’m a relative. I’m making a documentary, this is why I’m making the film, it’d be really meaningful for us to capture this conversation.” And then the member would say, “Okay, let the camera in.”
I’ve come up with lots of different ways to be able to film behind-the-scenes moments within Congress, which is a skill set I never wanted to develop. But I have.
AF: How long was the initial rough assembly cut?
Brandon Kramer: Jeff’s edit process is he moves slower on the first cut and then faster. It took a good six months, I think, till we had a first cut of this film. That’s because Jeff’s process is he watches every minute of footage. He doesn’t just watch selects or what we think. He really sits with everything that’s been filmed and the movie is built around that.
AF: How long was that first cut in runtime?
Brandon Kramer: I don’t know for sure, but I would guess two and a half hours.
AF: You previously made a film about Van Jones. Given how public he’s been in being an ally to the Jewish community and wearing a yellow hostage pin, I’m curious as to if he reached out to you.
Brandon Kramer: I’ve connected with Van about this. I was in touch with Van while I was in Israel. I’ve talked to Van since we’ve completed the film and he’s been incredibly supportive of Lance and I telling this story.
Not only has he been supportive to us making this film, but Van is a real bridge builder in the world. I learned that by making ‘The First Step’ and following his work on the passage of the First Step Act and bringing a very unlikely coalition of conservatives and progressives together to free thousands of people from federal prison.
Even though he’s not a filmmaker per se, but as an activist, as an artist, as a leader, I’ve learned from him how to build bridges through storytelling in my work.
AF: Many October 7 related documentaries have turned to self-distribution because the majority of streamers don’t want to touch them. If ‘Holding Liat’ were unable to find distribution, would you look into self-distribution?
Brandon Kramer: We’re absolutely going to distribute this film as widely and broadly in the world as possible no matter what happens. It is certainly a lot easier to do that when you have a distributor whose work and craft and experience and reach is this. We’re hoping that the film is able to find distribution all over the world.
It already has started to find distribution in different countries within Europe and other places abroad, and I truly hope that that happens here in North America as well.
This is an urgent story that must be told and based on the way it’s landing with audiences in Berlin and Poland and Israel and New York City and elsewhere, it’s deeply needed and I’m not just saying that as the director of the film. I talked to maybe a hundred people after last night’s premiere at Tribeca. That’s why I sound a little raspy.
I talked to people who are coming into this story from very different lived experiences: Jews who live here, Jews who live in Israel, people from Egypt, and everyone no matter what their politics are, their beliefs, they connect with the humanity that is exhibited by the Beinin Atzili family in this story.
AF: Thank you so much.
Brandon Kramer: Danielle, thank you so much. It really means a lot that you took the time.
AF: I’m a Jew and a proud Jew and I feel like I’m one of the few who’s been regularly covering any of the October 7th related films. I’ve got colleagues that won’t even touch them.
Brandon Kramer: Yeah, it really means a lot. I read your review this morning and I really appreciate your care. It really means a lot.
AF: You’re welcome.
Brandon Kramer: Take care, Danielle.