Visual artist Margreet Kramer’s camera focuses, often literally, on daily rituals and their meaning. Themes such as the masses versus the individual and human vulnerability play a defining role in her work.The film FELICITY OF A RICE GRAIN shows us symbols of luck from various cultures. For the Armenian people, the pomegranate is an important symbol of luck. Throwing rice is a symbol of love and happiness in both the East and the West.
Director: Margreet Kramer
Producer: Miel van Welzen
Key Cast: Eline Bakker
Cinematographer: Martijn Melis
Project Type: Experimental, Short
Runtime: 8 minutes 4 seconds
Completion Date: November 1, 2017
Production Budget: 7,000 EUR
Country of Origin: Netherlands
Country of Filming: Netherlands
Shooting Format: Digital
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Film Color: Color
First-time Filmmaker: No
Student Project: No
Director Biography
Margreet Kramer
EDUCATION
Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, 1991-1996
Open Studio and Crea (Documentary), Amsterdam, 1988-1991
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (History of Art), Amsterdam, 1987-1988
Kramer graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. She won several Awards and became regular Finalist. Her work has been selected for several International Filmfestivals Toronto, Holywood, Calcutta, Brussels and Tokyo etc.
A permanent video is presented in the Videobusstop by Rem Koolhaas in The Netherlands.
She participated in numerous exhibitions in public space, galleries, Art Events and acquired a lot of Video Assigments.
SELECTIONS/AWARDS/NOMINATIONS
2021 Finalist Roma Short Film Festival IT
2021 Finalist International Short Film Festival Seoul SK
2020 Finalist International Short Film Festival Tokyo JPN
2019 Selected West Europe International Filmfestival Brussels BEL
2018 Award Winner Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood USA
2018 Selected Experimental Short BLOW UP International Arthouse Film Fest Chicago USA
2018 Finalist Indie Best Film Festival, Santa Monica California USA
2018 Semi Finalist, Bengals International Film Festival IND
2018 Finalist Aphrodite Film Awards New York USA
2018 Award Winner and Golden Fox Award Calcutta International Cult Film Festival IND
2014 europeancultureseries.net DE KUS
2014 Selected Toronto Urban Film Festival, (TUFF) CAN
2012 Nomination for The One Minutes Awards video ME
2010 Selected for TenYears The One Minutes, KAdE Amersfoort Miss. B
2007 Selected 700IS: Experimental filmfestival SHE AND ME Reykjavik Iceland
Director Statement
To whom does the space in between one’s fingers belong? Around the body, just outside the skin, it’s no man’s land. An area that is not claimed by anyone. Where is the line between no man’s land and the outside world? Does this line define the buffer between the individual and the things around us? Margreet Kramer tampers with the size of this no man’s land, the buffer. Both with herself and others. The size of a human, not the grandeur of the world, is the true measurement. She moves boundaries and pushes them further, pulls them closer. She peels, scrapes and shells, in order to get as close as possible to others, the things around her and herself. Only in that vulnerability one can truly use ones senses and connect with others. You reach the inside, the vulnerability, the essence. Your body’s memory, the memory that cannot renounce itself. It blushes, trembles, stammers, longs to be touched and keeps breathing. One knows and recognizes oneself in these acts. The body has memorized. Daily activities that we do not have to learn anymore, that stem from a series of other acts. Unparalleled, inevitable. A shirt on one’s naked skin. Hands that touch. Hands that peel potatoes. A cleaner who operates the buttons and yet makes the garbage disappear. Breath.