Oscar-Winning Filmmaker Makes Aliyah and Documents October 7 Survivors

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Richard Trank has made a life-changing move leaving Los Angeles to begin a new chapter in Israel, where he is now focusing his lens on the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. Trank, best known for his decades of work with the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Moriah Films, arrived in Tel Aviv this fall and immediately set to work on his latest and most personal projects yet.

“I wish I had made this decision earlier,” Trank said, reflecting on his aliyah. After over 40 years shaping powerful Jewish and Israeli narratives from afar, he realized it was time to come home not just spiritually, but professionally. The move was prompted by leadership changes at the Wiesenthal Center, which redirected its film division away from its hallmark documentary work. For Trank, that meant the mission that once defined his career had outgrown its home.

Now working under his own banner, Sea Point Films and Media, Trank is diving into stories that matter deeply to Israel and to the world. His leading project, “The Road Home,” explores how survivors of the October 7 massacre are beginning to rebuild their lives after unthinkable loss.

“How do you come out of that? How do you rebuild your life?” Trank asks. It’s a question that echoes through Israeli society and through Jewish history.

Trank draws clear parallels between his current work and his Oscar-winning film, “The Long Way Home,” which traced Holocaust survivors’ journeys after World War II. “This is about Israelis who are rebuilding their lives,” he said. One of the film’s key voices is a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre whose courage and resolve left a lasting impression on him.

Despite the film’s heavy subject matter, Trank emphasizes the strength and determination of those he interviews. “The trauma that she went through, but at the same time, this determination to go on with life and rebuild it moved me,” he shared.

He’s also at work on another meaningful documentary, “Always 28,” telling the story of Jewish American officer Nathan Baskind, whose remains were recently recovered from a Nazi mass grave and reburied with honors. It's yet another tribute to Jewish perseverance and memory.

Trank says that moving to Israel has given him not just purpose, but clarity. “Landing here and knowing that as I got off that plane, I was a citizen… was very, very, very exhilarating,” he said. He believes his voice as a filmmaker can have greater impact from within Israel, especially as it becomes harder to tell Israel’s story honestly in other parts of the world.

“I need to be here. I don’t have to hide who I am,” Trank said. And from here, he’s telling the stories that need to be told raw, powerful, and profoundly human.

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