Filmmakers

title_Filmmakers   RICHARD TRANK Director, Producer Richard Trank is an Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker whose latest film is The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers, based on the best selling book by Ambassador Yehuda Avner, who served as a chief aide, English language note-taker and speechwriter to Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, and Shimon Peres. The second in a two part series, The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers, examines Ambassador Avner’s experiences with Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin and Shimon Peres, his service as Israel’s Ambassador to England and epic events such as the rescue at Entebbe, Anwar Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem, the Camp David peace process, the war in Lebanon and the Oslo Accords. Written and produced along with Rabbi Marvin Hier, The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers stars the voices of Michael Douglas as Yitzhak Rabin and Christoph Waltz as Menachem Begin. The first part in the series, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers, released in 2013, explores the years Ambassador Avner worked for Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir and the period he served as an aide to Yitzhak Rabin when he was Israel’s US Ambassador in the late 1960’s. It starred the voices of Sandra Bullock as Golda Meir, Michael Douglas as Yitzhak Rabin, Leonard Nimoy as Levi Eshkol and Christoph Waltz as Menachem Begin. The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers is the 14th release by Moriah Films, the documentary filmmaking division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, of which Trank is the Executive Producer and principal Writer/Director. READ MORE   RABBI MARVIN HIER Producer Rabbi Marvin Hier is an Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker whose latest film is The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers, based on the best-selling book by Ambassador Yehuda Avner, who served as a chief aide, English language note-taker and speechwriter to Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, and Shimon Peres. The second in a two part series, The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers, examines Ambassador Avner’s experiences with Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin and Shimon Peres, his service as Israel’s Ambassador to England and epic events such as the rescue at Entebbe, Anwar Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem, the Camp David peace process, the war in Lebanon and the Oslo Accords. Written and produced along with Richard Trank, The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers stars the voices of Michael Douglas as Yitzhak Rabin and Christoph Waltz as Menachem Begin. The first part in the series, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers, released in 2013, explores the years Ambassador Avner worked for Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir and the period he served as an aide to Yitzhak Rabin when he was Israel’s US Ambassador in the late 1960’s. It starred the voices of Sandra Bullock as Golda Meir, Michael Douglas as Yitzhak Rabin, Leonard Nimoy as Levi Eshkol and Christoph Waltz as Menachem Begin. The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers is the 14th release by Moriah Films, the documentary filmmaking division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, of which Rabbi Marvin Hier is the Dean and Founder. READ MORE   NIMROD EREZ Co-Producer and Editor Born and raised in Israel, Nimrod fell in love with movies early in his life. At age 6, a visit to the studios of then Israel's only television station made it clear that would be his path. He graduated from the Filmmaking Department of the George E. Smith High School For the Arts in Jerusalem and went on, like many young men his age, to serve in the Israel Defense Force. As a sapper and infantryman in the Combat Engineers Corps, a blast injury ended his frontline tour of duty and he was reassigned as video producer for the remainder of his service. READ MORE   KATRIN OSMIALOWSKI Co-Producer Documenting and visualizing life, unscripted, has been Katrin’s passion from very early on and is what led her to Moriah Films. She joined the team in 2006 for the production of I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal narrated by Nicole Kidman, which celebrated its international premiere in Katrin’s hometown at the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany. Since then she has co-produced the documentary features Against The Tide, Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny, It Is No Dream,  The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers and now The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers. READ MORE   LEE HOLDRIDGE Composer Lee Holdridge was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. His mother is Puerto Rican and his father American. He spent his early years in Costa Rica, beginning music studies on the violin at the age of ten with Hugo Mariani, then the conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. At fifteen - now determined to be a composer - he moved to Boston to finish high school and study composition with Henry Lasker. READ MORE   MARK FRIEDMAN Sound Design Originally from New York City, Mark is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music with a BA in music. He started his career in sound at David Wolper Productions, working on the first, award winning National Geographic special. Mark then became a recording engineer/music editor at the legendary Gold Star studios and continued his career, for the next decade, with Columbia Records. READ MORE   TIM BOLAND Sound Design Born and raised in a small Jewish community in Dublin, Ireland, Tim followed in the footsteps of the other musicians in his family: his father and three older brothers. As a kid he played in many bands, winning a Coca Cola National Band Search. Tim moved on to become a recording engineer and record producer for many diverse artists including Earth Wind & Fire, Ozzy Osbourne, UB40, Soul Coughing and The Young Dubliners. READ MORE   JASON SPIRA-BAUER Associate Producer and Production Supervisor A native New Yorker and Syracuse University alumni, Mr. Spira-Bauer has been working in the entertainment industry since 2003.  Having taken on many positions initially in the reality television sector from story producing to casting, he found an opportunity through the relationships he developed to apply his skills in the feature documentary world at Moriah Films, starting with Against The Tide and continuing on with Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny, It Is No Dream, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers and Our Boys. READ MORE   AVIVA C. WEINSTEIN Associate Producer and First Assistant Film Editor Aviva Weinstein moved to Los Angeles with her family at age 5 from Edmonton, Canada. She studied at jewish day schools through 12th grade and then received a bachelors degree in film from UC Santa Barbara in 1999. Prior to joining Moriah, Aviva worked on Disney’s Even Stevens and Miramax Films’ Duplex and as an assistant and junior editor on several reality shows and independent films. READ MORE