The District of Columbia Office of Cable Television, Film, Music and Entertainment is pleased to honor documentary filmmaker Brandon Kramer as the April 2016 Filmmaker of the Month.
Brandon Kramer is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, participatory video practitioner, youth media educator and a fourth-generation Washingtonian who lives in Adams Morgan. Brandon is also the co-founder DC-based documentary production company Meridian Hill Pictures, which he co-founded with his brother (and December 2012 Filmmaker of the Month) Lance Kramer.
Brandon’s newest feature-length documentary, City of Trees, tells the story of a District-based nonprofit’s struggle to implement an ambitious ‘green jobs’ program that hired 150 unemployed residents to plant trees in parks in underserved DC neighborhoods. The film follows the struggles of the program and the journeys of the program trainees that see the program as an opportunity to turn their lives around.
City of Trees was recently honored with the 2016 American Conservation Film Festival ‘Audience Choice Award’and selected to screen at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, DC Environmental Film Festival, and FilmFest DC.
City of Trees will have its US television premiere Tuesday, April 19 at 8 pm on WORLD Channel as part of the fourth season of the documentary anthology AMERICAN UNFRAMED. The film will be available for digital streaming on www.worldchannel.org starting April 20.
Since 2010, Brandon has directed and produced over 20 short character-based documentaries and educational videos commissioned by local and national nonprofits including the AARP Foundation, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Ashoka Foundation, International Baccalaureate Organization, Washington Area Bicyclist Association, National Park Service, Ford's Theater, Seeds of Peace, Mundo Verde Public Charter School and the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.
Brandon is currently directing the feature documentary Project Sing, a story of a group of low-income senior citizens in DC who attempt to use community organizing to break a cycle of isolation among their older neighbors; and Kramer & Sons, a short film about his family's butcher shop formerly located at the Union Market in Northeast DC.
OCTFME launched the Filmmaker of the Month initiative to feature and highlight the talents and creative contributions of District of Columbia filmmakers. The Filmmaker of the Month initiative is part of OCTFME’s mission to elevate the national and international profile of the District’s talented filmmakers.
Visit our Filmmaker of the Month section to see previous Filmmakers of the Month.
*** If you know of a filmmaker that would make a great future Filmmaker of the Month, you can send OCTFME your recommendations using this nomination form.
