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Brandon and I sit down in a sunbeam outside Takoma Beverage Company to chat about Holding Liat, which has an upcoming one-night-only screening on Wednesday, April 8th at the Avalon Theatre. We talk about his process as a filmmaker, the role of documentary in a polarized and fractured media landscape, why the DMV continues to be home, why having difficult conversations is part of Brandon’s Jewish values, and empathy as an antidote to hopelessness.
Samuel: How’s it feel being back in DC?
Brandon: I’ve been living on the road for the better part of three years, basically since I started making Holding Liat. It’s been a constant state of needing to travel. The film premiered in February 2025 at the Berlin International Film Festival –
Samuel: Which it won, right?
Brandon: Yeah. Just the experience of premiering a film about one of the most sensitive and contentious issues on Earth at one of the biggest film festivals in the world, and then winning the top prize at that festival, and then getting distribution in 10 countries…it’s set us off on a years-long journey, which has been a fascinating experience.
Samuel: Why is the DMV the place you return to in quieter seasons?
Brandon: This is where I grew up. This is where my family lives. This is where my friends live. This is home and always has been home. I’m a fourth-generation Washingtonian, so my roots are deep. I like the mix of people who live here and are really caring and passionate about issues that affect their lives and the global community. And there’s a really strong creative arts community here, though DC isn’t always known for that. It’s really tight-knit and supportive and there are amazing artists who live here.
Samuel: What is your Jewish community like?
Brandon: I grew up going to Congregation Beth El in Bethesda. My parents are still members there, and I feel a very deep connection to Beth El. We actually showed Holding Liat at Beth El – it was one of the first synagogues. Bringing the film to my hometown synagogue was really important. The film is about how a part of my family navigated two of our relatives being taken hostage on October 7th, and the divisions – the different ideologies and politics and beliefs – that this part of my family holds. For me to take this story about the experiences of a Jewish family and bring it into my hometown Jewish community to start a conversation was really important.
Samuel: What have those conversations been like?
Brandon: One of the reasons I wanted to make the film was because what I was seeing in front of my camera – obviously, for my family’s experience, it was a life and death situation for Liat and Aviv – but what really compelled me to tell this story was that the responses to this traumatic event within my family mirrored the fractures that I was seeing within Jewish families all over America and all over the world. I felt like I had an opportunity to bear witness to how my relatives were navigating these differences amongst themselves, so I could create a film that could be shown to communities that feel very different amongst themselves and actually create dialogue at a time when dialogue around Israel-Palestine is in a state of paralysis.
I don’t think documentaries are meant to just be affirmations for how we feel, for our own ideologies or beliefs. I’m a fan of the kind of films where you see characters that represent how you feel, but you also have to spend time with people that you disagree with, and you have to sit in the discomfort of that. A majority of people are open to that and have an ability to empathize and connect with perspectives they don’t agree with. And it also makes some people very uncomfortable.
But [when] they’re voicing that in a movie theater after a screening, they’re verbally saying it to me…that’s what happens in a democracy. You create art, you show it. Some people love some moments, some love others, and you disagree and debate! What is more Jewish than disagreement and debate? One of the values I learned in Hebrew school and from being part of a Jewish family is curiosity and discussion. We understand the world around us by asking questions, arguing, disagreeing. So I feel the film is a direct representation of the Jewish values I was raised with.
Samuel: As an art form, what do you think documentary’s role is in our current moment?
Brandon: The approach that I take is a tradition called cinema verite. It’s rooted in the idea that you’re following a story as it unfolds with curiosity and openness. You’re not using what happens in front of the camera to make a specific point or advocate a specific position; the filmmaking is a process of observation, research, and empathy so that you can present a deeper understanding of how critical issues affect people’s lives to the public. So for me, after two of my relatives were taken on October 7th, the entire world is talking about the hostages, and October 7th, and the devastation occurring in Gaza. Here in front of me are people who are directly impacted. It’s my role to communicate their experience with as much nuance as possible so the public can see that and make their own conclusions.
We started to film two weeks after Liat and Aviv were taken, and what I was seeing happen in my relatives’ lives was so dramatically different than the narrative about the hostages’ families that I was seeing on the nightly news or on social media. It was night and day, and it was so much more complex. That’s the role of documentary. In a moment where things get reduced and simplified in the news and on social media, documentary allows for the complexities and contradictions. It allows for the shades of gray to come through.
Samuel: How is your filmmaking informed by your Judaism?
Brandon: I’ve spent the last two-and-a-half years creating a film about Israel-Palestine, and I’ve had a front row seat to the ways that this issue is touching all of us at our deepest level – and the ways that this issue is ripping our communities apart. I feel this deep responsibility as a Jew to use my art to try to build bridges and heal divides. My Jewish experience and identity has been rooted in principles of dialogue, empathy, and creating spaces to have brave conversations. What we’re seeing, with so much violence on an ongoing basis, I think the inability for us to have constructive conversations only perpetuates these conflicts and enables cycles of violence that don’t need to be happening.
Samuel: I see a lot of nihilism and hopelessness among young generations – whether it’s about Israel and Palestine, or climate change, or economic and racial injustice – how do you guard against that, even as you’re sitting every day with people who have been deeply impacted and traumatized?
Brandon: One of the first things Liat did when she returned from captivity was that she wrote an op-ed in the New York Times saying: I do not want any Palestinians to be killed or harmed in retribution for what happened to me. I want a more peaceful future for my children and the children of Gaza. She’s been very public about wanting peace, wanting coexistence, wanting reconciliation. Her husband was killed on October 7th. Her children barely survived. She was held for 54 days. I asked her: How do you take a stance toward empathy for both Israelis and Palestinians, given what you’ve been through? And she said to me that it is her way of surviving. It’s not a choice. If she gives in to anger, to feelings of retribution, she feels like it could prevent her from being able to heal and survive.
I feel similarly about this conflict. I move away from indifference, apathy, and turning off…I can’t, the way I was raised, I can’t survive in a world where I’m seeing the ship sinking in front of me. And I do have hope. I was just in Hiroshima, sitting in the space where the atomic bomb was dropped, with a friend whose grandmother survived an atomic bomb dropped by an American president. Two generations later, we’re having sushi together and connecting and bonding. You can get past conflict. But it takes real work. It takes grit and resilience. It takes people like Liat who can see past divisions and hatred and see humanity on the other side of the fence. My Judaism taught me that you treat all human beings with love, respect, and dignity, and the dehumanization hits at my deepest core. I can’t turn a blind eye.
Samuel: A couple quick ones to close. You can bring three people to Shabbat dinner. Who are they?
Brandon: I’d say Nelson Mandela, Dr. King, and Vivian Silver. I’m really interested in leaders who have successfully been able to get through and overcome bigotry, hatred, and dehumanization. Here are three people who I think, in one way or another, have effectively done that for their communities.
Samuel: What’s the next project?
Brandon: Before October 7th, my brother and I were working on our first scripted film. I think we will likely revisit that project.
Samuel: Last one. Finish the sentence: When Jews of the DMV gather…
Brandon: I sincerely hope that amidst the celebrations and laughter and joy that we can share together, we also find the space to have difficult conversations and contribute to a more just and peaceful future for all people in the world.
Samuel: Anything else?
Brandon: I’ve been going to the Avalon since I was a kid, going to see movies that helped inspire me to become a filmmaker in the first place. To be showing my film there to my own community is a pretty profound full-circle moment for us.
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