After Liat Beinin Atzili is kidnapped on October 7th, her Israeli-American family faces their own conflicting perspectives to fight for her release and the future of the places they call home.
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 challenge 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). The film had its WORLD PREMIERE at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival in February where it WON the prestigious 2025 BERLINALE DOCUMENTARY AWARD. It will continue its festival run throughout 2025 and 2026.
THE FILMMAKING TEAM
BRANDON KRAMER director – 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.
LANCE KRAMER producer – Lance Kramer is a Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures. Lance produced THE FIRST STEP (Tribeca, AFI DOCS), CITY OF TREES (Full Frame, PBS, Netflix), and the Webby Award-winning series THE MESSY TRUTH. Lance was selected to the Sundance Creative Producers Summit in 2018, the 2017 Impact Partners Documentary Producers Fellowship cohort, named to the DOC NYC “40 Under 40” list in 2021, and received the DC Mayor’s Arts Award, the highest honor given to working artists in the Nation’s Capital. Lance is a former Board Member of Docs in Progress, a member of the Documentary Producers Alliance, and currently serves on the board of the Foundation for the Augmentation of African Americans in Film (FAAAF). Lance holds a bachelor’s degree in history and film from Dartmouth College.