Producer Lance Kramer and director Brandon Kramer recently took home the top documentary prize at Berlinale (the same prize that one of my favorite films from last year, No Other Land, won last year – and it was great to see that film win the Oscar for best documentary this year).
What I love about Holding Liat is that it is not only an incredibly intimate portrait of a family in crisis in the wake of October 7th, but it encapsulates the geo-political struggles of the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as pointed out in the glowing reviews for the film:
From Screen Daily: “Brandon Kramer’s film offers intimate, empathetic insight into the impact of the attacks on the Beinin family; it also depicts a more complex picture of Israeli citizens’ political attitudes than has often been available in the wake of Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza.”
The Hollywood Reporter: “Especially poignant is a closing scene set at Israel’s Holocaust museum Yad Vashem, in which the film attempts to draw a link between the walls erected around the Warsaw Ghetto and those dividing Gaza from neighboring Israel. Some will no doubt find the comparison controversial, but for the Beinin family, it’s a reality they’ve now experienced first-hand, and one they continue to grapple with as life inevitably goes on.”
I had the pleasure to do the theatrical release for the Kramer brother’s The First Step which was what cemented 8 Above’s theatrical approach that Lance coined as “impact event theatrical” and I am consulting on Holding Liat.
Theatrical can be a success Part 2: I coined a category of film rights “Event/Theatrical” in Think Outside the Box Office back in 2010 to include festivals, theatrical and community screenings because they each involve the same audience experience – seeing films in community. I, and I imagine most of you, feel this is an essential component of our art form. It was great to see Sean Baker’s impassioned appeal for the theatrical experience at the Oscars (and his impassioned appeal for independent film at the Spirit Awards).
In the book, I created the following overarching rights categories — Event Theatrical, Digital/Broadcast, Educational and Merchandise — to help filmmakers strategize their releases when faced with the wide array of disparate and often confusing rights that they need to manage. Each of those above categories engage audiences in their own unique way. I have seen repeatedly how this system helps filmmakers conceptualize a windowing strategy which makes sense for their goals. (much more on this in the future).
Sandi DuBowski’s Sabbath Queen continues to sell out theatrical screenings (35 theaters and counting) in the US (even returning to cities several times) while the film still continues on the global festival circuit with 65 festivals to date. What is unique about the Sabbath Queen release is that because Sandi wanted to take advantage of the groundswell of support for the film after the Tribeca World Premiere we engaged the theatrical not even halfway through its festival run. This strategy is not for the faint of heart. Nor for the sanity of your theatrical booker. Or for anyone with any concerns about air travel – I’ve seen some intense filmmaker travel before – but I’ve never seen it on this level. Because community is so important to Sandi, he attends nearly every screening in person.
A much easier and more traditional route would have been to have a robust festival window (in this case of about a year – or at least nine months) and then begun the theatrical. But because the film serves a balm to the political and emotional turmoil so many are going through now, Sandi felt the film needed to get out to audiences, in community both in festivals and theatrical, right away (with community screenings not far behind).
The success of the film again shows how community outreach to targeted audiences is what gets people into theaters. But Sandi takes this to another level (and we’ll do a more in-depth case study later). Not only does each screening build “community and joy” but he uses each screening strategically, building relationships for later community and educational screenings, continuing to fundraise/driving donations, driving more press – turning the movie into a movement that will last years.
Even though our booker has aged a decade in the process – this intense strategy is paying off both in the emotional catharsis of audiences but also economically as the theatrical continues to over perform.https://jonreiss.substack.com/p/kramer-brothers-win-in-berlin