Filmmaker Bios

CRAIG OUELLETTE (Director, Cinematographer, Editor)


Craig Ouellette is a Texan and Coloradan of equal measure with a splash of Iowan thrown in. He went to film school at the University of Iowa where he met fellow filmmaker and friend Daniel Kraus. At Iowa Craig made numerous shorts and was the only other crewmember on Daniel Kraus' multi-award winning documentary "Jefftowne" (currently available on Troma DVD!)


After college, Craig moved out to Hollywood and has worked as a crewmember on many projects including the "C.H.i.P.s. Reunion" and "American Beauty". Always wanting to make his own films, in 1999 Craig shot his first narrative feature "All The Days Undone". For this movie Craig was the writer/director/cinematographer/editor and Daniel Kraus was the only other crewmember. Even though "All The Days Undone" was never screened outside of friends and families living rooms, it was a great learning experience and a lot of fun.


A part of him had always wanted to make a documentary, but wasn't sure what to make it about. Life gave him the opportunity. For as he finished "All The Days Undone" Craig's mother became sick. He immediately began documenting her battle with brain cancer. During the next year he was consumed with this event in his life.


Even though he wrote numerous scripts during the following years and co-produced Daniel's award winning feature "Ball Of Wax", Craig always came back to the documentary of his Mom. In January 2003 he began editing in earnest and spent 18 months sorting through 108 hours of footage to make the final 99-minute film.


Check Out Craig’s other film work at www.craigofilm.com


Since it’s “completion”, Craig has done a couple re-edits on The Closer She Gets, fine tuning the film to be more powerful and focused, finishing the 88 minute cut in 2007. He has spent the last year and a half making over a dozen short films (www.trespassingonthelot.com).


In addition to filmmaking, Craig loves to travel, rock climb, and scuba dive, dance and sing karaoke (he sings a quite memorable "Total Eclipse of the Heart") Craig looks forward to his next feature film, which he describes as "something of a Zombie film".


DANIEL KRAUS (Editor)



Daniel Kraus is a multi-award winning filmmaker and New York Times best-selling author from Fairfield, Iowa. He attended the University of Iowa where he met fellow filmmaker and friend Craig Ouellette. Daniel's final project in college was a feature length documentary about a 40-year-old man with Downs Syndrome who hung out at the local movie theater where Dan worked. The film went on to be accepted to the Slamdance film festival, to win the New York Underground Film Festival and play at many others. It is currently available on Troma DVD with lots of extra features! (www.troma.com)


Daniel moved to Wilmington, North Carolina after college to pursue filmmaking. With the great friends and contacts he made there he was able to make the award-winning feature film "Ball of Wax" (www.ballofwaxmovie.com). He also made the feature documentary "Sheriff" (www.workseries.com) which showed on PBS and dozens of film festivals.


In January 2004 Daniel flew to LA to help Craig edit "The Closer She Gets". His objective eye, great sense of humor, and considerable experience with documentaries, made his input invaluable in the shaping of the film.


Daniel currently lives in Chicago where he is writing novels such as “The Shape of Water” (based on an idea he and Guillermo Del Toro shared), “The Living Dead” (with George Romero), 

All Films, Stills, Graphics & Text Copyright ©2008 Craig Ouellette.