Ronnie Cramer is an American artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and filmmaker.

Born in Bismarck, North Dakota

Bismarck, North Dakota

Bismarck is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Burleigh County. It is the second most populous city in North Dakota after Fargo. The city's population was 61,272 at the 2010 census, while its metropolitan population was 108,779...

, Cramer currently lives and works in Denver, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

. During the 1980s he produced watercolor paintings, video installations and played guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 in several rock bands, most notably Alarming Trends, the subject and title of his first film (1987). Cramer's musical compositions include an award-winning score for the Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang

Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...

 sci-fi classic Metropolis (film)

Metropolis (film)

Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and...

. As a director, Cramer gained national attention with his film Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend

Even Hitler Had A Girlfriend

Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend is a 1991 black comedy film about a lonely security guard who spends his life savings on call girls in less than two weeks. It was directed by artist/filmmaker Ronnie Cramer and is based on a story by T. G. Baker...

, a 1991 black comedy

Black comedy

A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...

 which was named "Best Drive-In Movie of the Year" by cult critic Joe Bob Briggs

Joe Bob Briggs

John Irving Bloom , who uses the pseudonym Joe Bob Briggs, is a syndicated American film critic, writer and comic performer.-Early years:...

Cramer's first documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 was Highway Amazon

Highway Amazon

Highway Amazon is a 2001 documentary film directed by Ronnie Cramer. It chronicles the life of body builder Christine Fetzer, as she travels across the USA wrestling men in hotel rooms...

(2001), which told the story of Christine Fetzer

Christine Fetzer

Christine Fetzer is an American bodybuilder, model and wrestler known professionally as Christine Rocks.Fetzer has won several body building competitions, including her first, the 1995 Virginia Classic...

, a female body builder who travels the country wrestling men in hotel rooms. The film was named Best Documentary at the Humboldt Film Festival

Humboldt Film Festival

The Humboldt Film Festival is a short film festival held annually each spring in Arcata, California.The Humboldt Film Festival has been bringing independent and alternative short films to Humboldt County for forty-four years...

 and has won other similar awards. More recently, Cramer's multimedia

Multimedia

Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...

 piece Pillow Girl combined traditional film techniques with pulp

Pulp magazine

Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

 imagery and experimental music

Experimental music

Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

. It has been screened at over 100 film festivals worldwide and was named "Best Experimental Work" at several events, including the Miami Short Film Festival

Miami Short Film Festival

The Miami Short Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Miami, Florida, USA. The festival was established in 2002 by William Vela and takes place around the second and third week of November...

 and the Big Muddy Film Festival at Southern Illinois University

Southern Illinois University

Southern Illinois University is a state university system based in Carbondale, Illinois, in the Southern Illinois region of the state, with multiple campuses...

. Cramer's latest work includes the experimental films Cantata in C Major and Mugs.

Films

• Sixty in 60 (2011)
• Mugs (2008)
• Cantata in C Major (2007)
• Pillow Girl (2004)
• 30 Miles (2003)
• Highway Amazon
  Highway Amazon
  Highway Amazon is a 2001 documentary film directed by Ronnie Cramer. It chronicles the life of body builder Christine Fetzer, as she travels across the USA wrestling men in hotel rooms...
  
   (2001)
• The Hitler Tapes (1994)
• Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend
  Even Hitler Had A Girlfriend
  Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend is a 1991 black comedy film about a lonely security guard who spends his life savings on call girls in less than two weeks. It was directed by artist/filmmaker Ronnie Cramer and is based on a story by T. G. Baker...
  
   (1991)
• Back Street Jane (1989)
• Alarming Trends (1987)

Awards

Cramer's film awards include

• Silver Sierra Award, Yosemite International Film Festival (2011) Highway Amazon
• Northern Lights Emerging Talent Award, Alaska International Film Festival (2011) Mugs
• Best Experimental Film, Route 66 Film Festival (2011) Pillow Girl
• First Place for Experimental Feature, The Indie Gathering (2011) Sixty in 60
• Gold Medal for Excellence, Park City Film Music Festival (2011) Sixty in 60
• Audience Award for Music/Comedy, Film Festival of Hendricks County (2011) Cantata in C Major
• Aloha Accolade Award, Honolulu Film Awards (2011) Highway Amazon
• Best Production Design for an Experimental Film, Los Angeles International Film Festival (2011) Sixty in 60
• Best Editing for an Experimental Film, Los Angeles International Film Festival (2011) Sixty in 60
• Merit Award for Experimental Film, Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood (2011) Sixty in 60
• Experimental Film Honors, Best Editing, Best Visual Effects, Los Angeles Reel Film Festival (2010) Mugs
• Golden Reel Award, Nevada Film Festival (2010) Mugs
• Golden Reel Award, Nevada Film Festival (2010) Cantata in C Major
• John Muir Award for Animation, Yosemite Film Festival (2010) Mugs
• Experimental Gold Short Award, JamFest (2010) Mugs
• Platinum Award, American Pixel Academy (2010) Mugs
• Best Experimental Film, Route 66 Film Festival (2009) Cantata in C Major
• Best Digital Film, San Francisco Frozen Film Festival (2009) Mugs
• Gold Kahuna Award, Honolulu International Film Festival (2009) Mugs
• Best Experimental Film, Humboldt Film Festival
  Humboldt Film Festival
  The Humboldt Film Festival is a short film festival held annually each spring in Arcata, California.The Humboldt Film Festival has been bringing independent and alternative short films to Humboldt County for forty-four years...
  
   (2009) Mugs
• Silver Palm Award, Mexico International Film Festival (2009) Cantata in C Major
• Aloha Accolade Award, Honolulu International Film Festival (2009) Cantata in C Major
• James W. Johnson Award, Flatland Film Festival (2008) Cantata in C Major
• Juror's Award, River's Edge Film Festival (2008) Cantata in C Major
• Best Independent Experimental Work, Carolina Film and Video Festival (2008) Mugs
• Final Cut Award, Lake Havasu International Film Festival (2008) Mugs
• James W. Johnson Award, Flatland Film Festival (2007) Pillow Girl
• Best Documentary, Humboldt Film Festival
  Humboldt Film Festival
  The Humboldt Film Festival is a short film festival held annually each spring in Arcata, California.The Humboldt Film Festival has been bringing independent and alternative short films to Humboldt County for forty-four years...
  
   (2007) Highway Amazon
• First Place for Animation, Iowa City International Film Festival (2007) Pillow Girl
• Audience Award Winner for Best Animation, Buffalo Niagara Film Festival (2007) Pillow Girl
• Best Experimental Work, Big Muddy Film Festival (2007) Pillow Girl
• Best Experimental Animation, Trail Dance Film Festival (2007) Pillow Girl
• Special Jury Award, Portland International Short Short Film Festival (2006l) Pillow Girl
• Award Recipient for Experimental Film, Indie Gathering (2006) Pillow Girl
• Best Experimental Film, Golden Star Shorts Fest (2006) Pillow Girl
• Best Animated Short, Denver Underground Film Festival (2004) Pillow Girl
• Best Documentary, Miami Short Film Festival
  Miami Short Film Festival
  The Miami Short Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Miami, Florida, USA. The festival was established in 2002 by William Vela and takes place around the second and third week of November...
  
   (2004) Highway Amazon
• Best Experimental Film, Miami Short Film Festival
  Miami Short Film Festival
  The Miami Short Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Miami, Florida, USA. The festival was established in 2002 by William Vela and takes place around the second and third week of November...
  
   (2004) Pillow Girl
• Best Experimental Film, Coney Island Film Festival (2004) Pillow Girl
• Concept Award, Filmstock UK (2004) 30 Miles
• Best Documentary—Experimental Genre, New York International Independent Film Festival (2002) Highway Amazon

External links

• Ronnie Cramer Official Website