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Reality Check Forum 2025 / Panel

Films in Times of Crisis

Patricia Aufderheide, Moderator; Professor, American University

Raney Aronson-Rath, Executive Producer, FRONTLINE; 2000 Meters to Andriivka

Tommy Gulliksen, Director, Facing War

Brandon Kramer, Director, Holding Liat

Lance Kramer, Producer, Holding Liat

Kim A. Snyder, Director, The Librarians

As the world confronts a cascade of crises and global conflicts, documentary filmmakers are rising to the moment, bearing witness to the erosion of democratic values and the toll of war, repression, and terror. This urgent panel explores how contemporary documentaries are responding to these intertwined threats, illuminating both the fragility and the resilience of democratic ideals in an era of profound uncertainty.

Featuring four powerful films from the DC/DOX 2025 lineup, the conversation underscores the unique power of nonfiction storytelling to engage with the high-stakes issues of our time. These works employ a range of approaches—from immersive vérité and frontline reporting to the evocative use of archival footage that connects past and present, and the emotional intimacy of a family’s personal ordeal.

Facing War offers unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to Jens Stoltenberg’s final year as NATO Secretary General, as he navigates the delicate balance of diplomacy and defense amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

2000 Meters to Andriivka follows a Ukrainian platoon through a harrowing mission to liberate a village from Russian occupation, offering a visceral account of endurance, sacrifice, and a war with no clear end.

Holding Liat traces in real time the story of Liat Beinin Atzili, kidnapped during the Hamas attacks on October 7, as her Israeli-American family is thrust into a nightmare of uncertainty and fear. As they fight for her release, their efforts unfold against a backdrop of escalating violence, political polarization, and personal reckoning.

The Librarians documents a rising movement of resistance in the United States, where librarians in states like Texas and Florida are standing up to book bans and censorship, defending intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy.

Together, these films capture the urgency of a moment defined by democratic backsliding and global instability—and reaffirm the essential role of documentary cinema in helping us reckon with the present while imagining a more just future.

Patricia-Aufderheide

Patricia Aufderheide

Professor, American University

Patricia Aufderheide is University Professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. She founded the Center for Social Media, now Center for Media & Social Impact, where she continues as Senior Research Fellow. Her books include Kartemquin Films: Documentaries on the Frontlines of Democracy, Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright, with Peter Jaszi; and Documentary: A Very Short Introduction. A Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellow, she has been honored with awards by International Documentary Association, Women in Film and Video, and University Film and Video Association, among others.

raney

Raney Aronson-Rath

Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer, PBS’s Frontline

Raney Aronson-Rath is the editor-in-chief and executive producer of PBS’s Frontline investigative journalism series, which is produced at WGBH in Boston. In her role, she provides editorial vision and produces more than 20 documentaries each year. She started at Frontline in 2007 and assumed her current role in 2014. Under her leadership, Frontline has investigated the impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine, threats to democracy in the United States, the deep historical and regional context behind the Israel-Hamas war, and the world’s response to a global coronavirus pandemic, among myriad topics. She has also guided the addition of artistic components, including the theatrical documentary coverage, including 20 Days in Mariupol.

FRONTLINE has won every major award in broadcast journalism under Aronson-Rath’s leadership, including its first Academy Award for the 2023 documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, BAFTA Awards, Peabody Awards, Emmy Awards, and, in 2019, the first Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Gold Baton to be awarded in a decade. FRONTLINE’s reporting has been recognized with myriad journalism honors, including Overseas Press Club Awards, Scripps Howard Awards, the Nieman Foundation’s Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism, and the Peabody Institutional Award.

Prior to PBS, Raney worked at ABC News and The Wall Street Journal and at a newspaper in Taiwan. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and her master’s from Columbia Journalism School.

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Tommy Gulliksen

Director, Facing War

Tommy Gulliksen is a Norwegian film director who studied arts and journalism at Oslo University College. He is best known for his award-winning documentary En liten øy i verden (2011), the series Da vi styrte landet (2017), the award-winning documentaries Liberation Day (2016) and War of Art (2019). Gulliksen is co-founder of the Norwegian production company DOX Division.

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Brandon Kramer

Director, Holding Liat

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_Headshot (1)

Lance Kramer

Producer, Holding Liat

Lance is a DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of MHP. Lance produced HOLDING LIAT, The First Step, City of Trees, and the Webby Award-winning documentary series, The Messy Truth. Lance was selected to the 2018 Sundance Creative Producers Summit, the 2017 Impact Partners Documentary Producers Fellowship and was named to the DOC NYC “40 Under 40” list in 2021. Lance was awarded five Individual Arts Fellowships by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities between 2014-2024. In 2014, Lance received the DC Mayor’s Arts Award, the highest honor given to working artists in the city. Lance served two terms as Board Member of Docs in Progress, is a board member of the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film (FAAAF), and has been an active member of the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA) since 2016. Lance holds a bachelor’s degree in history and film from Dartmouth College.

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Kim A. Snyder

Director, The Librarians

Kim A. Snyder directed the Peabody award-winning documentary Newtown, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was named in Newsweek and Huffington Post among the top films of 2016. Newtown screened at premiere festivals worldwide and was theatrically released followed by a national broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens as the most widely watched documentary of the past decade. Snyder’s most recent film, Lessons From a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was awarded Best Documentary Short followed by the DocDispatch Award at the 2018 Sheffield DocFest. The short is a Netflix Original and is streaming in 196 countries. Snyder directed, Welcome to Shelbyville, which was nationally broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens in 2011. In 2007, Snyder co-founded the BeCause Foundation to direct and produce a series of socially conscious short documentaries which have won numerous awards with campaigns furthering the work of the social innovators they highlight. Snyder’s award-winning directorial debut feature documentary, I Remember Me was theatrically distributed by Zeitgeist Films. In 1994, she associate-produced the Academy Award-winning short film Trevor. Kim graduated with a Masters in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and resides in New York City.