HOLDING LIAT
- Directed by: Brandon Kramer
- Released: 2026 (educational)
- Year of Production: 2025
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 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 questions of identity across generations, as the family is thrust into the epicenter of a global conflict rapidly unfolding in real-time.
An independent production of Protozoa (BLACK SWAN) and Meridian Hill Pictures (THE FIRST STEP).
“Politically potent and emotionally gripping… a lucid portrait… Brandon Kramer does an impressive job revealing the personal and geopolitical aspects of a heartbreaking true story…Kramer’s movie certainly merits attention."
Jordan Mintzer - The Hollywood Reporter (US)
"HOLDING LIAT is a poignant, tragic snapshot of one family's torment as they wait to hear if their relatives have been released after the October 7 attack in Israel. With restrained grace through the filming of their own family's struggles, Brandon and Lance Kramer capture the devastating emotions and violence that divide our world."
John Hall, Film & Television Studies, Boston University
Johanna Evans, Director of Programming Initiatives, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College
"The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long been a source of fascination, yet one that is too often reduced to manichean narratives of light vs darkness, heroes and villains. Since the horrific events of October 7, 2023, those reductive frameworks have become even more entrenched. Holding Liat offers a powerful antidote to such accounts. With remarkable sensitivity and emotional depth, the film captures the human complexities that lie beyond slogans and political certainties. By following one family through an unfolding tragedy, the documentary illuminates the difficult choices and tensions that accompany personal struggle, grief and public action, the struggle to balance private emotions with public advocacy, personal convictions with strategic messaging, and intimate family dynamics with the demands of a global media spotlight. Rather than offering easy answers, Holding Liat invites viewers to sit with uncertainty, contradiction, and vulnerability. A movie inviting us to empathy and human understanding at times when these very ideas are under attack." - Arie M. Dubnov, Associate Professor of History & International Affairs, Max Ticktin Chair of Israel Studies, The George Washington University
Brandon Kramer is a Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures. Brandon directed HOLDING LIAT, which was shortlisted for the 2026 Academy Awards, won Best Documentary at the Berlin International Film Festival, was selected for the Winner’s Circle at DOC NYC, and was broadcast on BBC Storyville. He also directed THE FIRST STEP, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival; CITY OF TREES, which was distributed by PBS and Netflix; and the Webby Award-winning documentary series THE MESSY TRUTH, which aired on CNN. Brandon’s work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Film Independent, Jewish Story Partners and the National Endowment for the Arts. Brandon is a recipient of the Visionary Award from the Sitar Arts Center, and holds a bachelor’s degree in film and cultural anthropology from Boston University.
Host a Screening and Book the Filmmaker at your Event