Raise Your Kids on Seltzer is about a middle-aged married couple, Terry and Tessa, who live in the Bay Area. They are exit counselors who have been forced into early retirement.  An "exit counselor" is a professional who is contracted by families to kidnap people away from dangerous cults so they can be "deprogrammed" at a secure location.  Terry and Tessa's cryptic motto during their often verbally and physically abusive deprogramming process: "Raise Your Kids on Seltzer, Bubble per Bubble!"  They have fallen out of favor in this profession in the years since their 1970's and 80's heyday, when cults were "booming" the most in San Francisco.  There is even a festering lawsuit filed by a disgruntled client following in their wake. For the last fifteen years, to make ends meet, they produce stylish, unintentionally humorous corporate media.  However, they are soon called back to do some exit counseling for one last, very special case. Raise Your Kids on Seltzer is a tender, funny, certainly quirky, and occasionally frightening comedy-drama mainly about how people deal with becoming obsolete.

"From the beginning, the viewer finds himself piecing everything together slowly but with great eagerness. The director, Daniel Kremer, feeds in small doses of coherence until the picture is wholly clear. The stunning naturalness of the dialogue, the actors, the quiet poignancy of each scene, allows us to approach the film as though it were a dense novel. What is wholly clear from the beginning, however, is that the story unraveling is one that deals with an array of profound issues – Daniel Kremer opens his film on a Borges quote, 'To fall in love is to start a religion that has a fallible god' and an interview of an attorney being questioned on the cult of his defendant. Scenes shift with perfect fluidity. There are moments of extraordinary storytelling in this film, and the talent of the actors to make us believe them is abundant."
   -Theo Alexander, Unsung Films 

"[It] gives any larger budgeted counterparts a run for their money. Let the odd name make you stop and look, but let the quality keep you in your seat. Technically, there really isn't much to complain about here. Raise Your Kids On Seltzer generally offers up some nice visual candy. As far as indie productions go, I reiterate, some more budget heavy productions I've seen simply don't stack up to what's presented here. This is all pieced together with a very slick edit that keeps the narrative flowing nicely, while showcasing the best aspects. What are they? For me it was a no brainer...the cast of course! Never did I feel like I was watching a scripted film. Would I recommend it? Yes. I would even go as far as to say I would buy myself a DVD."
   -IndyRed 

107 minutes / 2015 / Color / 2.35:1

Produced and Directed by Daniel Kremer; Director of Photography Aaron Hollander; Written by Penny Werner, Jeff Kao and Daniel Kremer

Starring Penny Werner (Tessa), Jeff Kao (Terry), Deniz Demirer (Jurgen), Kris Caltagirone (Dave), Nancy Kimball (Chloe), Barry Newman (Bill Tannery), William Cully Allen (Donovan Grotek), Alanna Blair (Jenny Grotek), Daniel Kremer (Ben)

Ezer Kenegdo is a feature film that Kremer co-directs and co-stars with San Francisco Bay Area filmmaker Deniz Demirer (Nocturnal Jake, American Mongrel). The film tells the story of a Jew and a Pole who approach the spiritual and creative processes with a decidedly different pair of specs. Yisroel “Izzy” Jonigkeyt, a Brooklyn Lubavitcher Chassid on the threshold of marriage, travels to San Francisco to visit Marek Wisniewski, a Polish Catholic born in Warsaw. They intend to collaborate on a project that examines why art world iconoclast Harry Kierk intends to destroy his entire life’s work. As the visit progresses, Izzy and Marek discover for the first time that historical and cultural baggage is impinging on their curious friendship, which grows more and more tremulous with each passing day. Marek’s fragile relationship with his brusque and bigoted Americanized cousin Irek also begins to further obstruct his relationship with Izzy, as Irek also happens to be their only connection to Kierk.  As they delve deeper into their project as a means to distance themselves from their growing interpersonal issues, Izzy and Marek begin to understand, in their own respective ways and through gradually getting a grasp on their own cultural arrogance, why Kierk is driven towards destruction.

100 minutes / 2017 / Color / HD24P with 35mm Adapter / 1.85:1

Written, Produced and and Directed by Deniz Demirer and Daniel Kremer; Directors of Photography Jeff Kao and Gustavo Ochoa

Starring Deniz Demirer (Marek Wisniewski), Daniel Kremer (Yisroel "Izzy" Jonigkeyt), Kris Caltagirone (Irek Stuhr), Rob Nilsson (Harry Kierk), Penny Werner (Minnie), Joshua Safdie (Levi), Menachem Mendel Azoulay (Mendy), Jeff Kao (Preacher Chen), William Cully Allen (Rabbi Spieler), K.J. Linhein (Rabbi Topin)

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A Simple Game of Catch is an unusual feature-length chamber drama shot over a six-day time-frame with minimal crew and literally no budget. It tells the story of a young woman named Emily, who has just arrived in New York from her hometown of Pittsburgh. She recently has changed her name to Chazz. Jobless, she responds to a job ad involving parrot-sitting for a Manhattanite going out of town, and must weather the emotional repercussions of the humiliating thing she decides to do while cooped up house-sitting, which precipitates in her eavesdropping on the neighbors, all the while having unreciprocated conversations with the parrot.

"A very affecting and well-observed film that reminded me of Michael Haneke's Amour.  Alanna Blair leads the way in a film full of impressive performances.  Kremer really needs to keep doing what he's doing.  I don't see much American stuff like this."
    -Rob Nilsson, Cannes Film Festival and Sundance Grand Jury Prize award-winning filmmaker

74 minutes / 2012 / Color / HD 24P / 2.35:1
Directed by Daniel Kremer; Written by Daniel Kremer and Alanna Blair, Produced by Daniel Kremer; Director of Photography Daniel Kremer; Associate Producer Stephen Kaufman and Aaron Hollander; Executive Producers Brett Johnson and William McKeever; Original Music by Thomas Wahnish
Starring Alanna Blair (Emily "Chazz" Powell), Tango the Parrot ("Reggie"), Katya Quinn-Judge ("Yvonne" - Sci-Fi Actress), William McKeever (Russ Madaras), Dave Coleman (Gabe), Hanshi Kaufman (Larry Etzel), William Cully Allen (The Rabbi), Jacob Green (Voice of Joey Vugrincic/Student Neighbor), Abigail Waxman (Next-Door Blanche), Lara Morrow (Concerned Neighbor), Pascal Rawls-Philippe (Meatball Salad)

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The Idiotmaker's Gravity Tour is an exciting and innovatively edited feature film shot and set primarily in India. Max Plugin is a jaded relic of the 60's who has recently turned 57 years old. Currently in a state of high malaise, Max ran away from home at age 16 to hitchhike cross-country from New England. A guru-like figure named Teschlock took Max under his wing when Max reached the Lost Coast area of California. Teschlock invited Max to come to India with him and a few other 'disciples' to live on an ashram. Max, following a truly transcendent meditation experience, declined and returned home. Now, decades later, full of vague regret, Max finds himself in Uttar Pradesh in search of his guru's unknown grave-site. A year after arriving there, Master Teschlock went off and vanished one day in remote rural India, never to be heard from again. It is said that Teschlock buried himself. Max has now come to India for the first time to find the gravesite, following a trail of cryptic clues.

“The Idiotmaker’s Gravity Tour is a no-budget, do-it-yourself excursion to India, from a filmmaker of considerable enterprise and admirable aplomb. Actor William Cully Allen has a very dynamic face -- there is a piquant, tragic quality there that makes one understand and gravitate towards him and his mission. The beautiful cinematography and the compelling story guarantee a 'gravity tour' to the East that you won’t regret taking.”
   -Rob Nilsson, Cannes Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival award-winning filmmaker

"Kremer directs The Idiotmaker's Gravity Tour with a fine eye for delicate visual excitement. Local Indian rituals are filmed with the type of respectful calmness you might expect from a filmmaker of more years and experience. Capturing this foreign world is essential to the film’s success and Kremer thankfully allows his scenes to breathe. It’s a refreshingly mature work for a filmmaker still in his 20s. William Cully Allen is excellent in a challenging lead role."
   -Frank Cassella, Philly Broadcaster

"Your life will be enriched by the creator of The Idiotmaker's Gravity Tour.  I promise you."
   -Mostly Film

2011 / 106 minutes / Color / DVCAM 24P to 16mm / 2.35:1
Directed by Daniel Kremer; Written by Daniel Kremer and William Cully Allen, Produced by Erin Lovett Sherman, K.P. Rai and Kevin Eldridge; Director of Photography Aaron Hollander
Starring William Cully Allen (Maxwell Abraham Lowell Plugin), Glenn Walsh (Amos Liggett), Alanna Blair (Megan the Vegan), Julie Edelstein (Nessa Weymouth), William McKeever (Walt Sannfield), K.J. Linhein (The Honored Q. Mordechai Teschlock), Pappu Rai (Pappu), Prashant Pandey (Prashant), Erin Lovett Sherman (Gi Leone), John Gross (Pascal the Hitcher), Khedo Rhajbor (Khedo the Fossil)

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A Trip to Swadades is an award-winning feature film drama that tells the story of Schweitzer Haas (Robert Swenson), a 74-year-old retired professor who returns to Philadelphia, the city of his youth, for the first time in twenty years to visit his hermit brother Ezra (Glenn Walsh). The two have never quite seen eye-to-eye, but it seems that Ezra has developed a freakish steel-trap memory, and has been keeping complex memory logs to document their past. As a result, however, Ezra's apartment is a den of bad smells and filthy living conditions. When Schweitzer goes out to get his brother cleaning supplies and gets lost in the city he once knew like the back of his hand, he is found by old friend Claude Schoonover (Stephen Hatzai), a world-class cut-up with a wisecracking but nonetheless laconic "chauffeur" Doobie (Kenneth John McGregor). Claude and Schweitzer visit a place of importance from their past: an old shvitz bath-house. It is there that Schweitzer realizes that he must reconcile with his brother before it is too late and time ultimately runs out for him.

"This film represents a brave and fearlessly creative new voice in American cinema."
    -Henry Jaglom, Filmmaker (Eating, Festival in Cannes, Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?)

"Films like this just are not made anymore, which makes A Trip to Swadades among of the most intriguing films of the last few years."
    -Indiewire

2008 / 65 minutes / Black-and-White / Super-16mm / 1.85:1
Written and Directed by Daniel Kremer; Produced by Colin Malone; Executive Producers Kevin Eldridge, Yvonne Yao and Phillip Schneider; Associate Producer Ephraim Asili; Director of Photography Aaron Hollander; Production Designer Paul Sylbert; Art Director Jeffrey Heinbach
Starring Robert Swenson (Schweitzer Haas), Glenn Walsh (Ezra Haas), Stephen Hatzai (Claude Schoonover), Kenneth John McGregor (Doobie), William Cully Allen (Joe the Grocer), Katya Quinn-Judge (Woman in Dream), Naoko Masuda (Strange Minstrel), Gregory Lytle (Young Ezra), Matthew Savoca (Young Schweitzer)

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A Collection of Chemicals is an absurdist comedy/drama that tells the story of terminally bored recent widower Si Foster (William Cully Allen), an eccentric and terribly lonely puzzle of a man who is also a self-proclaimed eggplant connoisseur. His daughter Sonya (Katya Quinn-Judge) was kidnapped two years prior and, for reasons unknown to her, the ransom somehow never wound being paid. As the Fourth of July approaches and Si finds that he has virtually no one with whom to celebrate the holiday, he finally gets up the nerve to contact the kidnappers through their intermediary. He agrees to pay the ransom with the inheritance he was left and is soon reunited with her...only to find that she has accepted her captors as her new family and has grown to love them as such. Alas, the oddball Si is clueless and inept in interacting and trying to re-establish his relationship with her. But Sonya has a few tricks up her sleeve to get him to reveal why she was seemingly abandoned by her father two years prior...with the help of some strange cargo she has brought back home with her.

2009 / 28 minutes / Color / HD-24P / 1.78:1
Written, Photographed and Directed by Daniel Kremer; Produced by Kevin Eldridge, Yvonne Yao, William Cully Allen and Daniel Kremer; Associate Producers Aaron Hollander and Ephraim Asili; Executive Producers Max Margulies and Cynthia Eberly; Production Designer Charles Thackeray; Sound Design Andrei Litvinov and Alena Kruchkova; Graphic Designer Doctor Pizzoli
Starring William Cully Allen (Si Foster), Katya Quinn-Judge (Sonya Foster), Gabriel Allen (The Masked Man), Keith Baxter (The Pharmacist)

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Yarns To Be Spun on the Way to the Happy Home is a multi award-winning short autobiographical documentary essay film about using art as an escape from the limitations of a speech impediment. Filmmaker Daniel Kremer explores and parallels how Spalding Gray, the renowned monologue performance artist, used his own creative life as an escape from his own depression. An analogy is made to how the filmmaker used cinema to escape the pain of his stuttering disorder.  This film won four Best Documentary Awards at film festivals across the country.

"This film is heartbreaking cinematic poetry."
-Andre Gregory (My Dinner with Andre)

2007 / 15 minutes / Color/Black-and-White / DV/DVCAM / 1.33:1
Edited and Directed by Daniel Kremer; Associate Producer Michelle Parkerson; Featuring Photography by Peter Nicks; Additional Camerawork Max Margulies, John Gross and Colin Malone

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This short narrative-documentary hybrid is a poignant and often hilarious examination of two men well past their prime. 85-year-old Joe very apparently struggles with a desire to retain the illusion of youth. 69-year-old Angel wakes up every morning and finds himself entranced and captivated by shapes he sees on his ceiling when he looks straight up, trying to perceive objects in abstract figures caused by the chipped ceiling paint. The curmudgeonly Joe cannot see, and perhaps refuses to see, these objects.  Screened at the 2011 Maryland Film Festival.

2010 / 11 minutes / Color / DVCAM / 1.78:1
Edited, Produced and Directed by Daniel Kremer; Associate Producer Brett Johnson; Featuring Angelo Selada and Joseph Rechner

"A beautiful, sincere and nearly heartbreaking semi-documentary."
   -David Lowery, Filmmaker (St. Nick, Some Analog Lines), reviewing the 2011 Maryland Film Festival

"A funny doc about two New York roommates who can’t get along: a cranky, toothless old man and his younger roommate, who is obsessed with finding patterns in the paint on the ceiling."
   -Baltimore City Paper

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Charles at the Threshold is a tender drama that tells the story of Charles and Sabina, two intelligent and well-read teenagers who have just graduated high school at the top of their class. They decide to get married at eighteen just one week after they graduate, only to divorce at the age of nineteen. The years pass and Charles, a self-professed “old soul,” begins seeing a woman named Jillian, a fragile free-spirit who had a child when she was twenty. When a seemingly typical friendly lunch meeting with Sabina approaches, Charles begins showing signs of anxiety—and from just observing him, Jillian realizes where the mysterious Charles’ true feelings may lie, and that the love he held held for Sabina might have been more than impulsive or lacking in maturity.

2006 / 27 minutes / Color / 24P / 1.66:1
Written and Directed by Daniel Kremer; Produced by Andrei Litvinov; Director of Photography Kyle Pahlow
Starring David Coleman (Charles), Liat Tayar (Sabina), Brooke Somers (Jillian)

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Sophisticated Acquaintance is perhaps the most unusual film project in Daniel Kremer’s filmography, in that it began production in November 2006, continuing until mid-2007 when director Daniel Kremer abandoned the film to pursue other projects.  Over five and a half years later, in 2012, Kremer returns to finish the film, changing many things from the cut he left behind and reconsidering and otherwise reinventing the content.  Known for making films that polarize audiences, Kremer holds by this tradition more than ever in Sophisticated Acquaintance.  Experimenting with a much more fragmentary form of do-it-yourself  filmmaking, mixing elements of narrative, experimental and documentary in an unlikely but strangely pleasing stew, the film is the portrait of a tormented individual whose short life and long death were affected by a great many factors.  It is a film about the creative process,   the heartbreaking depiction of a rigid father-son  relationship and the need to connect…and,  most of all,  it is a film about individuality.  Filmmaker John Gross plays Klaus Mann, a stylized and fictionalized version on the real writer of the same name.  Klaus lives in the shadow of his father, the successful intellectual, novelist and Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann (Ernst Hohmann).  Featuring a soundtrack of artists from the fiercely independent Constellation Records label, Sophisticated Acquaintance is a film that is sure to intrigue, vex, exhilarate and challenge.  Formerly known as Umlaut: The Klaus Mann Project.

2007 / 74 minutes / Color / 1.33:1
Produced and Directed by Daniel Kremer; Written by Daniel Kremer and Eric Jeitner; Music by Black Ox Orkestar
Starring John Gross (Klaus Mann), Ernst Hohmann (Thomas Mann), Katya Quinn-Judge (Gia), Maya Baruch (Sprezzi Milton), William Cully Allen (Sidney Imbanathan), Glenn Walsh (Bruce Jummaquin), Patricia Fries (Klaus' Landlord), David Allen (Spellacy), Brooke Somers (Carrot Girl)

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