Brothers Brandon and Lance Kramer, who grew up in Bethesda, took home the documentary film award for Holding Liat at the Berlin International Film Festival in February. Two distant relatives of theirs in Israel were among the hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023. When family members came to Washington, D.C., to advocate for their release, the brothers say they felt a responsibility to document their story. Over the course of a year and a half, Lance, 41, a producer on the film, says they tried to represent each family member’s experience with empathy and care. “For every moment that the camera was rolling, there were many more moments that the camera was down and we were just trying to be supportive,” he says. Brandon, 38, directed the film and accepted the award in Berlin. “We had a rare and intimate window into a family wrestling with conflicting points of view on how to return their loved ones, hold on to their values, and seek a more peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians,” Brandon said in his speech. “In this polarized moment, many people told us it would be safer to shy away from telling a story like this because it didn’t fit neatly into a box or provide any easy answers. This is exactly why this story was so important to be told.” The Kramers, who live in Washington, D.C., co-founded Meridian Hill Pictures in 2010. The film will be shown at festivals around the world, including a likely upcoming date in D.C.
Ashley Parker got her start in journalism at The Black & White, the student-run newspaper at Bethesda’s Walt Whitman High School, where she was in the class of 2001. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Parker worked at The New York Times for 11 years and at The Washington Post, covering the White House and politics for eight years. Parker, 42, took a job as a staff writer at The Atlantic in January. “I always wanted to try magazine writing and work those muscles,” says Parker, who now lives in Washington, D.C. “I’m looking forward to a little more time and space, to the challenge of writing some articles at least that are 10,000 words instead of 800 or 2,000. … The other thing I really like about The Atlantic is the ability to do my beat and break news, but also to write about ideas and culture, and in a personal way, when it makes sense.”
Tiffany Dragos, 35, says time in her garden makes her feel rebalanced and grounded when she’s frustrated or stuck. The Ashton mom of a 3-year-old son wants to help others feel that way, too, and make the most of their outdoor space. Last summer, Dragos started Golden Hour Garden Co. to share what she’s learned about how to successfully design, plant and maintain a garden—with an emphasis on sustainability and what works in the local climate. “I want people to enjoy what they’re doing so gardening doesn’t feel like a chore,” says Dragos, who grew up in Rockville. A fan of raised garden beds for vegetables, native plants that support pollinators, and often a trellis to make the setting beautiful, Dragos puts on workshops at local nurseries and coaches clients on how to customize a garden. “What I teach really resonates with other young, busy moms,” she says. “A lot of clients want to figure out how to create an experience for their kids to learn to connect with nature.”
Bethesda’s Miranda Spivack says that when citizens try to get answers about a problem by filing a public records request, they often face an “information blockade” from government officials. In her book, Backroom Deals in Our Backyards: How Government Secrecy Harms Our Communities and the Local Heroes Fighting Back (The New Press, May 2025), the former Washington Post reporter and editor shares the stories of five people who have learned to become local watchdogs. And she provides a playbook for those she calls “accidental activists.” One chapter is devoted to Richard Boltuck, who worked for years to obtain public records about safety along River Road and ultimately got a traffic light installed near his Bannockburn neighborhood in Bethesda. “There is hope. Individuals do have the ability to identify problems, seek solutions, pressure government and private industry, and achieve change,” says Spivack, 73, now an independent journalist.
Gaithersburg’s Manna Food Center has a new CEO: Craig Rice, 53, who served as a Montgomery County councilmember from 2010 to 2022 and lives in Darnestown. Rice says he’d like to take the organization to the next level and expand services to the community, operating as a hub to link people to other available support. “The ultimate goal is to make sure that the people who are coming to us are more needing temporary food assistance and not long-term food assistance,” says Rice, who took over in February. “Until we start taking this seriously and—more than just a meal—really providing wraparound services to families, we’re not going to get to that ultimate goal.”
You Deserve to Know (Forge Books, March 2025), Aggie Blum Thompson’s fourth psychological thriller, centers on the lives of three tight-knit mom friends in East Bethesda whose lives are changed when tragedy strikes at one of their weekly Friday night dinners. “It’s a typical whodunit in that it’s on a small cul-de-sac, a fixed number of people, one person is murdered and everybody is a suspect,” says the 54-year-old Bethesda author and former newspaper crime reporter. “But there are a lot of twists and a lot of unraveling of this quiet community. The last chapter takes everything you thought you understood about them and kind of upends it.” Thompson says she got the idea while thinking about how suburban parents often are connected through their kids’ shared interests but don’t really know each other—and then imagined a dark scenario that underscored the fragility of the friendships.
Part coffee shop, part “pre-loved” clothing store—that’s what Eduardo Carcamo, 42, says of his new business, Upcycled. Located at 18959 Bonanza Way in Gaithersburg, there also are two tables set up inside with board games and puzzles for customers to enjoy. “The idea is to create a community to the business where people can come hang out, connect, and maybe even make friends,” says Carcamo, who lives in Gaithersburg, works in real estate and runs Upcycled as a side gig with his mother, Ana, 62, and his 22-year-old son, Jason, with input from his daughter, Savannah, 19. “The vibe is very relaxing and inviting. We always have music playing and a candle going, so it’s a super chill atmosphere.” To give back to the community where Carcamo has lived since he came from El Salvador at age 12, the business plans to donate some of its proceeds each quarter to a different local nonprofit.
This appears in the May/June 2025 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
