Brandon Kramer

Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures. I direct and produce films that tell personal stories about complex social issues. Working with my brother Lance and teams of filmmakers from Kartemquin Films and Big Mouth Productions, we've put a lot of care into the stories we tell, the relationships we build, and how we bring films into the world. I see film as a powerful medium for connecting people and have worked to develop innovative ways to incorporate film within institutions, movements, education, emerging technologies, and anywhere people convene.Most recently, I directed THE FIRST STEP (Tribeca Film Festival, 2021), a feature documentary that follows Van Jones and a team of criminal justice advocates as they controversially work across party lines to pass a landmark criminal justice reform bill. The film was recently awarded the Best Documentary Feature Award at the Boston GlobeDocs, Oxford and Bozeman Film Festivals.Prior to the THE FIRST STEP, I directed the feature documentary CITY OF TREES (Netflix, PBS, 2016) and the Webby Award-winning documentary series THE MESSY TRUTH (CNN, 2016). I was awarded Best Director at the 2016 Chesapeake Film Festival and Indie Capital Awards, and am a three-time DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Individual Arts Fellow from 2015-2022. Since 2010, I've directed over 30 short documentaries and documentary series commissioned by national nonprofits including the AARP and US Institute of Peace. Before starting Meridian Hill Pictures, I worked as a staff teaching artist for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. I grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, and have a bachelor’s degree in film production and cultural anthropology from Boston University.