Director Elan Golod’s latest documentary film, NATHAN-ISM recounts the wildly
improbable life and times of former US 
Army soldier Nathan Hilu. Nathan is the son of Syrian Jewish immigrants to New York, who at the end of World War II receives a life-changing assignment from the superiors. He and his group are ordered to guard the top Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. This experience fueled a lifetime of artistic inspiration for Nathan, a virtually unknown “outsider artist”, who spent the next 70 years obsessively creating a visual narrative from his memories. But what happens when those memories take on a life of 
their own? This gripping exploration follows the extraordinary journey of 18-year-old Nathan Hilu, the son of Syrian-Jewish immigrants to New York, who at the end of World War II receives a life-changing mission from the U.S. Army: to guard the most notorious Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. For a whole year, Hilu keeps suicide watch while getting an up-close and personal look at these 
men and the horrors they committed. This first-person exposure to humanity’s greatest evil serves as Nathan’s coming of age. Nathan, a virtually unknown “outsider artist”, would spend the next 70 years obsessively creating a visual narrative from his memories. Nathan-ism delves into Nathan’s relationship with his own stories, and the compulsion he has to share them with a world that doesn’t always listen. Filmmaker Elan 
Golod has created an enthralling documentary portrait of the aging artist but what begins as a peek at a unique witness to history grows into an absorbing study of the function of art as archive and invention. Daring to question an artist’s stories, “Nathan-ism” is a fascinating look at one man’s need to share truths with a world that doesn’t always want to listen. Nathan-ism offers not only a narrative of historical significance but a captivating study of the function of art as archive. It offers an opportunity to confront the nature of memory, and the significance of collective memory in today’s global context.
For more go to: nathan-ism.com
Shortlisted for IDA Documentary of the Year Award 2023 Yad Vashem Award winner for “Cinematic Excellence in Holocaust Documentary Filmmaking
About the filmmaker – After transitioning from a background in visual arts to filmmaking, Director /Editor Elan Golod made his mark in the New York film industry as an editor on a diverse array of projects and as a short-form documentary director. He was part of the editing team for Mike Birbiglia’s film “Sleepwalk with Me” (Sundance, SXSW) and co-directed and edited the documentary short “Mike Birbiglia: How to Make Whatever This Is.” While working on his feature documentary “Nathan-ism,” he co-edited Birbiglia’s “Don’t Think Twice” (SXSW, Tribeca) and Maya Zinshtein’s documentary “‘Til Kingdom Come” (DocAviv, IDFA).
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“Nathan-ism feels like a journey toward understanding the intersection of art and memory, truth and trauma, time and creativity…much like its subject matter, is far more complex than that which meets the eye.” – Richard Propes, The Independent Critic
“Drawing from the real-life inspiration and using animation to recreate key moments, this is an engaging story told with compassion by Golod.” – Dallas King Flick Feast
“…one of the most salient examinations of the vagaries of memory and the role of non-fiction filmmaking to weed out truth from the remembrances of a subject, no matter how charismatic or sympathetic they may be.” – POV Magazine
“Nathan-ism is a great exploration of an artist who dared to speak out loud about the monsters of war,all through the very special art he made.” – Movieblogger.com
“Nathan-ism is an intimate portrait of a peculiar and complex artist, the individual challenge of making art and the quest to keep memories alive and have them transcend the limits of our own existence.” – Hoy Sale Cine