In The Country - Robert Kramer

In the United States in 1966, Robert Kramer directed his first feature film, In the Country, outside all existing production systems and with the political fellow travelers who had just filmed him in the documentary Troublemakers. In the Country shows what is left out of Troublemakers: the documentary shows actions (community organizing, militant activism) that the fictional film keeps outside the frame in order to focus on a relationship crisis in which the man fails to put aside, for a few days, his obsessive political activism. Twenty-five years later, the Videoletters exchanged with Stephen Dwoskin recreate as in an open mosaic this melancholic and lyrical treatment of separation.

“‘In the country’ is the place where one comes into contact with other, absolutely non-political and everlasting rhythms of things. Their guardian is the woman: she is wise and can appear in many forms, but she knows quite a lot about finding a harmonious balance between your own needs and those of others. Another form of logic.” (Robert Kramer)