Daniel Kremer
Filmmaker, film historian, biographer, and professional film archivist Daniel Kremer grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated Temple University's film program and now lives in San Francisco. In 2007, while living in Philadelphia, he directed his first feature Sophisticated Acquaintance (2007). His second feature A Trip to Swadades (2008), which was shot on black-and-white super-16mm film, won three Best Feature Film awards. Following that film's international festival tour (which included Rotterdam), he moved to New York City, where he lived for nearly seven years. At one point, he studied to be an Orthodox rabbi, but gave it up to continue pursuing film. In 2011, he completed his acclaimed follow-up feature, The Idiotmaker's Gravity Tour (2011). The film was lensed predominantly in India. Subsequent to that, he directed Raise Your Kids on Seltzer (2015), Ezer Kenegdo (2017), Overwhelm the Sky (2019), and Even Just (2020) in the San Francisco Bay Area, using independent filmmaking icon Rob Nilsson's regular cast and crew. The critically lauded Overwhelm the Sky was given special coverage for having been released in the classic epic "roadshow" format, and was picked up for distribution by Kino Lorber. His partly autobiographical cinema-themed essay documentary It's a Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point (2023) garnered raves from the British Film Institute, veteran critic Gerald Peary (For the Love of Movies), and many others. Kremer has screened work at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Joseph Conrad Festival in Krakow, Poland, Maryland International Film Festival, San Francisco Independent Film Festival, Brussels International Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Fantasporto Film Festival in Porto, Portugal, Rivers Edge International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, and many other international venues. His second book, currently in editing at Oxford University Press, is the first to cover filmmaker Joan Micklin Silver (Hester Street, Chilly Scenes of Winter, Crossing Delancey). His first book, about the life and career of filmmaker Sidney J. Furie (The Ipcress File, Lady Sings the Blues, The Boys in Company C, The Entity), was published by University Press of Kentucky's Screen Classics Series in November 2015. His third book, now being researched, will be the first to cover the life and career of classic Hollywood director Irving Rapper (Now Voyager, The Corn is Green, The Brave One, Marjorie Morningstar). As a film scholar, he has provided DVD/Blu-Ray commentary tracks for sixteen companies. As a Trailers from Hell guru, he is listed alongside other gurus like Guillermo del Toro, Luca Guadagnino, Eli Roth, Joe Dante, Edgar Wright, John Landis, Roger Corman, John Sayles, and many others.
It's a Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point
as NarratorWorlds collide in this unconventional essay film, when filmmaker, film historian, and archivist...
Movie pageDead Neon: The Many Faces of Lenny Bruce on Film
as NarratorLenny Bruce's depiction on film did not start or end with Bob Fosse's Lenny (1974). Through...
Movie pageLooking to Get Out: A Comparative Analysis of the Ted Kotcheff Vision
as NarratorWhat do the movies First Blood and Weekend at Bernie's have in common? One man with a clear and...
Movie pageThe Brando Interregnum: The Decade of Marlon's Dirty Dozen 1962-1972
as NarratorBetween One Eyed Jacks (1961) and The Godfather (1972), Marlon Brando appeared in twelve feature...
Movie pageBen Fries the Slaves
as Dan KramerFourteen year-old Ben Fries has a cult following, a 22-year-old girlfriend, and a mortal enemy...
Movie pageCruel, Usual, Necessary: The Passion of Silvio Narizzano
as NarratorPerhaps at first glance, the filmography of Silvio Narizzano appears unremarkable. Thanks to his...
Movie pageEzer Kenegdo
as Izzy JonigkeytFrictions develop when Yisroel "Izzy" Jonigkeyt, a Chassidic Jew from Crown Heights, travels to...
Movie pageParalyzed Segments: Suzanne Pleshette Tangled Up in Codes
as NarratorA video essay about fifties and early sixties social and sexual mores, in life and in cinema,...
Movie pageArid Cut
as JuddSky-high housing costs, rents no one can pay, urban development, and street crime make life...
Movie pageThe Great Ecstasy of Tree-Climber Otto, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Late Preminger
as NarratorOtto Preminger wasn't only one of the most famous directors of classic Hollywood. He was a...
Movie pageJack of Three Trades: In Focus on Nicholson the Director
as NarratorWe all know Jack Nicholson the actor. But few know the history of Jack Nicholson the...
Movie pageThe Fourth Movement
as AriFour interlocking stories with a Jazz theme. Four Women go out to visit the sites of the jazz...
Movie pageSurvival Scars: Franklin J. Schaffner as Auteur
as NarratorFranklin J. Schaffner is the man behind a great many iconic American films: Planet of the Apes...
Movie pageThe Wind Blows Where It Wishes
as Don MarcoCarla Durkow is a filmmaker from Istanbul who screens her latest work, entitled Farewell Mighty...
Movie pageElective Vicissitudes: The Radical Exiles of Jules Dassin
as NarratorIn 1968, filmmaker Jules Dassin collaborated with Ruby Dee and civil rights activist Julian...
Movie pageCinema of the Pilpul: A Talmudic View of Early Holocaust Cinema
as NarratorThe most that mainstream culture knows of the Talmud is from the finale scene of Schindler's...
Movie pageClear Lines of Sight: Sidney J. Furie at Paramount
as NarratorCanadian-born filmmaker Sidney J. Furie made his name with British hits like The Young Ones...
Movie pageDavid Cronenberg Presents Wireless Internet
as Dan KramerDavid Cronenberg (the well-known Canadian director's American film-student counterpart) is...
Movie pageLa Vie en Gris: The Anglophone Louis Malle in Seven Pictures
as NarratorFilmmaker Louis Malle worked adjacent to the French Nouvelle Vague, but was admittedly never...
Movie pageAmmo for Shooting Clouds: John G. Avildsen Before Rocky
as NarratorJohn G. Avildsen has only recently cemented his reputation as the "king of the underdogs," owing...
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