Writer-Director Ben Kegan always knew he had a strong passion for character, film and storytelling. His growing up in a John Hughes-esque Chicago suburb is apt considering his eventual exploration of the sex-quest genre of teen movies in college. His evolution through the wrestling biopic short, Team Taliban, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival; the complicated love-triangle surveyed in Commencement, which he shot at Whitman College, his alma mater; the Hypocrite; and After Christmas featuring Chicago theatre legend Barbara Robertson, helped exhibit his versatility as a cleverly-synchronized writer-director. His most recent efforts include the renowned short, The First Men, which featured Maria Blasucci (Ghost Ghirrls, Family Tree, Key and Peele) and the enigmatic, menacing force of Bo Mitchell (Cobra Kai, Eastbound & Down, October Road); Fractions of Speed, a documentary short profiling the mid-distance runner and Olympic hopeful Peter Callahan, which he just shot as a feature film; and the military-themed documentary Expiration Term of Service. In our conversation, the Columbia MFA graduate remarks about the films which impacted his unique approach through the lens of Chicago, improvisational comedy and the subjects he portrays in his films.
Opening Credits: One Man Book - Scaffold of Repeated Addition I Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0); Closing Credits: Ketsa - Another-Day I Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)