‘Bearing Witness’ Is a Film the World Needs to See — Whether We Want To or Not'

David Alpern along with Mihran Kalaydjian of DFI-LA were invited to a preview of OCTOBER 7: BEARING WITNESS TO THE MASSACRE (october7film.com), which is being released to the public this fall (October 3, 2025) on Amazon Prime Video and other VOD platforms. The film is a documentary and serves an important role in that it focuses on the history of the conflict to better understand what motivates the parties to the conflict, specifically focusing on the Muslim mindset, and why their culture has such a radical proclamation toward violence, and are willing to sacrifice their own life toward the goal of capturing the entirety of the land that is known today as the State of Israel. This is a concept foreign to most Western thinking. The film references for example, how this mindset allowed ISIS to recruit 40,000 fighters nearly overnight.

One of the strengths of the movie is the frequent return to having the wonderful Einat Wilf provide perspective. Ms. Wilf is a former member of Knesset and has a tremendous grasp of the history of the Arab world. The movie is further supported by having Daniel Gordis, the famed American Israeli author, provide frequent commentary over much of the film.

The documentary does such an effective job of combining historical perspective, with news reporting all comingled with interviews and visuals filmed as Todd Morehead explores what happened on location. Much footage is spliced in so to help understand the actions, the motives, and the reactions. In essence, this isn’t a movie; this is evidence.

This is not a film about war. There are no soldiers shown in combat. There is no analysis of military operations or political policies. The focus is singular and chilling: the deliberate killing of unarmed civilians. Whether or not you support Israel’s government is irrelevant in context of this film. The footage doesn’t ask you to take sides. It asks you to recognize shared humanity. The suffering on screen is not abstract — it’s deeply personal. And that’s what makes it so urgent.

364 were killed at the Nova festival and 44 were taken hostage into the dungeon tunnels of Gaza. European style pogroms came to Israel on October 7, 2023. Exactly what Israel promised its people would never again ever happen to them… sadly did happen to them.

For those of us in Los Angeles—a city with one of the largest Jewish populations outside Israel, and a growing and passionate Palestinian community—this film poses a deeply uncomfortable civic question: Can we recognize suffering, even when it challenges our politics? Can we make space for grief without immediately converting it into accusation?

Yes, the film is traumatic. People have left screenings in silence. Some wept. Others could not speak. That reaction is normal. It’s human. But if the footage is real—and it is—then the pain is not staged. It’s the documented aftermath of a real human catastrophe.

Some argue this is not the right time to show such imagery. But if not now, when? How long do we wait before we allow ourselves to confront the truth? And if we turn away from this, what else are we willing to ignore?

In a time of deepfakes, disinformation, and willful denial, Bearing Witness is a stark reminder that some truths are not up for debate. The film does not exist to comfort. It’s not trying to persuade. It exists to document — to ensure that what happened is neither forgotten nor denied.

To bear witness is painful. But it is necessary. Because once we have seen this footage, we can no longer say, “We didn’t know.”

Watch the trailer: https://www.october7film.com/gallery?pgid=mcccsxdx-d851953a-532c-40c0-bfb8-0d64cbc12fb7