Holding Liat

Directed by Brandon Kramer
Documentary Feature/Drama | USA | 2025 | 92 min | English, Hebrew with English Subtitles

Subjects Yehuda Beinin, director Brandon Kramer, producer Lance Kramer, and Producer / Director of Photographer Yoni Brook expected to attend.

On the morning of October 7, 2023, Israeli-American Liat Atzili and her husband Aviv were at home when Hamas attacked their kibbutz. By nightfall, Liat and Aviv are captives in Gaza along with 250 other people—12 of whom, like Liat, are American citizens. Caught between international diplomacy and a rapidly escalating war, their family must face their own uncertainty and conflicting political perspectives in the pursuit of Liat and Aviv’s release. This agonizing process, and the ultimate fate of their loved ones, challenges how the members of the family understand themselves and their place in the conflict. Through the intimate lens of a family’s experience, Holding Liat poses complex of identity across generations, as the family is thrust into the epicenter of a global conflict rapidly unfolding in real-time.

Official Selection

Berlin International Film Festival, Best Documentary winner
Tribeca Festival
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Centerpiece Documentary

“A profound reflection of the personal impact and broader human experience behind the headlines.”
– Tribeca Festival

“Politically potent and emotionally gripping.”
– The Hollywood Reporter

Director’s Bio

Brandon Kramer is a Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures with his brother Lance. Brandon directed THE FIRST STEP (Tribeca, AFI DOCS); CITY OF TREES (Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, PBS, Netflix); and the Webby Award-winning independent documentary series THE MESSY TRUTH (CNN). Brandon is a Film Independent Fellow, a DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Fellow, a regular collaborator with Kartemquin Films in Chicago, and has served as a media teaching artist for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Brandon holds a bachelor’s degree in film and cultural anthropology from Boston University.