In the darkest hour, ‘family embraces empathy, peace, self‑determination for Israelis, Palestinians’

In the wake of the October 7th attacks, filmmaker Brandon Kramer just learned the unthinkable: two of his own relatives had been taken hostage by Hamas. Immediately he calls Liat’s parents, Yehuda and Chaya Beinin, only to discover that the Israeli government had not been forthcoming. So they fly to Washington DC to advocate for the release of their family members: “We began documenting three generations of family at their most intimate and vulnerable,” explains Mr. Kramer, only to realise this was far more complex than the official narratives broadcast across the globe. Through cinema, Brandon Kramer captured the very essence of family each waking moment during their darkest hours and through the immense pain. But it never occurred to Liat and her father, both overtaken with enormous grief, to call for vengeance and retribution, rather peace and reconciliation.