Rachel Benjamin

2010 Fellow in Media Arts

Broward County, Florida

Biography

Rachel Benjamin is an awarding-winning filmmaker and founder of Ben Rai Films.  "The Missing Peace" is Ms. Benjamin’s fifth narrative short film. Ms. Benjamin succeeded both in winning a Media Weisman Grant, Columbia-sponsored screenwriting contest for the script, and a Kodak Film grant.  Her movie played opening night at the Black Harvest International Festival at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, in August of 2005.  Following that, Ms. Benjamin received both a 2006 City of Arts Chicago Grant and a 2006 Illinois Arts Grant to facilitate distribution of her movie.  "The Missing Peace" has screened in more than twenty-five film festivals in the U.S. and internationally, including the Cannes Film Festival.

Ms. Benjamin has completed two feature film scripts, "Breathe, Eyes, Memory" adapted from award winning novel Breathe, Eyes, Memory; by author Edwidge Danticat, who has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show Book Club. Second feature film script, "In A Metropolis Unknown," is about Haiti’s political upheaval and the underworld of gangs and kidnapping for money.

Ms. Benjamin grew up in Boston Massachusetts. She holds a M.F.A. from Columbia College Chicago and a B.A. from Boston College. She has received a National Endowment of the Arts Media Fellowship for her work. Her script "Breath, Eyes Memory" was a finalist for the Emerging Narrative Award at the Independent Feature Market in 2006.

Work Samples

Title	Medium/ Dimensions	Details	Completed
The Missing Peace	video 25:17		2005