Robert Kramer

Born in 1939 in New York, N.Y., Robert Kramer died in November 1999 in Rouen, France of spinal meningitis.

Better known in Europe than the United States, Kramer's work exemplifies the political ideals of American counter-culture of the 60s. Kramer worked closely with a grass roots collective that made 16 mm and films about current events using donated film stock from tv news stations on the East Coast. The results were projected in church basements and community centers, often leading to what is now referred to as "empowerment."

 


Kramer first wanted to be a writer. He completed several novels, poems and plays that were never published. As a reporter, Kramer ended up working with Norm Fruchter and Robert Machover on their Newark film Troublemakers (1966) reflecting his experience helping out in the African-American community in Newark, New Jersey. He labored as a journalist and quickly was caught up in the youth movement's fight against the war in Vietnam. His first film, In The Country, captures the political climate of the mid-60s and the fight against U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Ice was described by Penelope Houston as "a view from the New York Jewish Intelligensia of America's Alphaville.'" Milestones was Kramer's most accomplished film of the 70s. A consistently engaging three-hour 15 minute saga, the film captures the layered and often pessimistic outlook of American society through the eyes of rural communities.

Cites de la plaineReturning to the U.S. from France in the late 1970s, Kramer told Les Cahiers du Cinéma, "I had the impression I was a Martian. I didn't have any money. I worked as a truck driver for a year. I basically asked what was to become of me."

Kramer resurfaced in 1989 with his fascinating feature documentary Route One as he follows life in America along the famous highway from Maine to Florida.

By the early 1990s, Kramer began teaching film at a school in Fresnoy, France and still managed to make almost one feature film a year. Locarno is showing his last work, Cités de la plaine.

Filmography

Cités de la plaine (1999)
Saykomsa (1998)
Ghost of Electricity (1997)
Le manteau (1996)
Fear/Far/Future (1995)
Point de départ (1993)
La roue (1992)
Ecrire contre l'oubli, Amnesty International, Fidel Intusca Fernández, Perú (1991)
Sous le vent (1991)
Berlin 10/90 (1990)
Route One (1989)
Doc's Kingdom (1987)
Diesel (1985)
Notre Nazi (1984)
A toute allure (1982)
Guns (1980)
Scenes From the Class Struggle in Portugal (1977)
Milestones (1976)
People's War (1975)
Ice (1970)
The Edge (1968)
In The Country (1967)

Glenn Myrent