Directed by Robert Kramer and John Douglas • Documentary • 1975 • 195 minutes
MILESTONES is a lilting, free-associative masterpiece that follows dozens of characters — including hippies, farmers, immigrants, Native Americans, and political activists — as they try to reconcile their ideals with the realities of American life. In intimate discussions of subjects from communal living to parenting, pregnancy to family, Vietnam to Cuba, city life to country life, and the workplace to the bedroom, the film's diverse protagonists negotiate jealousies, relationships, and the logistical challenges of their rapidly changing world.
Shot in vivid color 16mm, using innovative, layered sound design and editing techniques as well as slides and archival footage, Milestones tracks its subjects through scripted and unscripted moments. It follows them as they share their emotions and dreams, their idealism and disillusionment, their triumphs and defeats of the past, as well as the possibilities for the future.
"[MILESTONES] traverses the entire nation and marks the passing of an era… Kramer's most unforgettable expedition."—Melissa Anderson, Artforum (2011)
"As sad and compassionate a movie as I have ever seen... An attempt to keep alive one of the noble, impossible promises of its time."—A.O.Scott, The New York Times (2008)
Up Next in Featured Filmmaker: Robert Kramer
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Looking for Robert
Directed by Richard Copans • Documentary • With Robert Kramer • 2025 • 74 minutes
Robert Kramer’s politics were as a radical as his approach to making films. A founder of the leftist Newsreel collective, he went on to direct documentaries and dramas, and films that blended both. Disgusted with t...
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FALN
Directed by Peter Gessner & Robert Kramer • Documentary • 1965 • 30 minutes
This 1965 documentary portrait of a civil war is today a remarkable time capsule of Venezuelan political and social history, and valuable background to the ongoing social conflicts in that country.
FALN chronicles key e...
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Route One/USA (part 1)
Directed by Robert Kramer • Documentary • 1990 • 125 minutes
Part 1 of 2 In 1988, nearly a decade after leaving the US for France, renegade filmmaker Robert Kramer returns. “Back,” he emphasizes. Not “home.” To try to understand the contemporary United States, he decides to travel the entire len...
