Country: France, Portugal
Year: 1987
Duration: 90'


The encounter between a father and a son, coming from one continent to another. Doc is a doctor who lives on the outskirts of Lisbon where Europe and the West slip into the Third World. He has been suffering from a disease that he caught during the war in Africa. He is disillusioned by now and is drowning his longlost ideals in alcohol. Jimmy lives in the United States with his mother. When his mother dies, he discovers a letter from his father, whom he thought had been dead for years. He takes off to look for him. At the end Doc and Jimmy meet, but will they have anything to say?

"Doc's Kingdom gets back into my material: the USA, a home, a home land, what you are inevitably a part of and what you are forever outside. It was also the first time working with Paul McIsaac since 1968. 20 years ago we began Doc's story in Ice, a chronicle in which Paul plays the leader of a mythical underground revolutionary organization. And Doc's Kingdom is a prelude to Route One / USA..." (Robert Kramer, 1988).

Biography

film director

Robert Kramer

Robert Kramer was born in New York in 1940. He studied philosophy and Western European History at Swarthmore College and Stanford University. He has written two unpublished novels, numerous poems, plays and short stories. In 1965 he organized the Newark Community Project (N-CUP) in an African-American community. He worked as a reporter in Latin America for various American publications. He worked with Peter Gessner on a film on the guerrilla movement in Venezuela. In 1966 he created Alpha 60 with Norman Fruchter, Robert Machover, Peter Gessner, and Mike Robinson. It was a sort of free cooperative of director-producers who later were channelled into the Newsreel movement, which Kramer helped found and organize. Kramer's Newsreel experience lasted from 1967 to 1971, during which about sixty short- and middle-length films were produced - documentaries, films of struggle, and agitation films. In the early 1980's he moved to Europe, and he currently is living and working in Paris.

FILMOGRAFIA

Regista/Director: Faln [Faln, 1965, In the Country [In campagna, 1966], The Edge [Il margine, 1967], Ice (id., 1969), People's War [La guerra del popolo, 19691, Milestones [Pietre miliari, 1975], Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portugal (Scene di lotta di classe dal Portogallo, 1979), Guns (Fucili, 1980), Un grand jour (en France) - Naissance [A Great Day (in France) - Birth / Un gran giorno (in Francia) - Nascita, 1981], A toute allure [As fast as you can / A tutta velocità, 1982], La peur [The fear / La paura, 1983], Sarkis al Woodrow Wilson - Musée d'Art Moderne [Sarkis at Woodrow Wilson - Museum of Modern Art / Sarkis at Woodrow Wilson - Museo d'Arte Moderna, 1984], Notre nazi / Unser Nazi [Our Nazi / Il nostro nazista, 1984], Diesel [Diesel, 1985], Un plan d'enfer [A Plan of Hell / Un piano infernale, 1986], X-Country [X-Country, 1987, inedito], Doc's Kingdom [Il regno di Doc, 1987], Route One / USA [Route One / USA, 1989], Dear Doc [Caro Doc, 1989, inedito], Maquette (brouillon de film) [Scale model (Draft of a Film) / Modello (Abbozzo di film) , 1990, inedito, incompiuto], Berlin 10/90 [Berlin 10/90, 1990-91], Sous le vent [Leeward / Sottovento, 1991], Series of Videoletters: Steve Dwoskin / Robert Kramer [Serie di videolettere: Steve Dwoskin / Robert Kramer, 1991, inedito], Ecrire contre l'oubli: pour Fidel Intrusca Fernández, Pérou [Writing against forgetting: for Fidel Intrusca Fernández, Peru / Scrivere contro l'oblio: per Fidel Intrusca Fernández, Perù, 1991], Point de départ / Starting Place (Starting Place / t.l. Punto di partenza, 1993), La Roue: Greg Lemond - Andrew Hampsten [The Wheel: Greg Lemond - Andrew Hampsten / La ruota: Greg Lemond - Andrew Hampsten, 1993], Walk the Walk [Walk the Walk, 1996], Le Manteau / Der Mantel [The Mantle / Il manto, 1996], Ghosts of Electricity [Fantasmi dell'elettricità, 1997].
Attore, sceneggiatore / Actor, screenwriter: Gestos e fragmentos (Gestures and Fragments / Gesti e frammenti, 1980-82) di Alberto Seixas Santos, Der Stand der Dinge (The State of Things, Lo stato delle cose, 1981) di Wim Wenders.

Cast

& Credits

Director and screenplay:Robert Kramer.
Director of photography: Richard Copans, Robert Machover.
Editor: Sandrine Cavafian.
Music: Barre Phillips.
Sound: Olivier Schwob, Vasco Pimentel.
Montaggio del suono: Guy Lecorne.
Cast and characters: Paul McIsaac (Doc), Vincent Gallo (Jimmy), João César Monteiro (César), Ruy Furtado (Senhor Ruy).
Production company: Paulo Branco e Dominique Vignet per Filmargem (Lisbona) e Garance (Parigi).
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