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Ben Kempas

Ben is expressive.tv. There are people who call him a workaholic, but he lives in constant denial of this. For Ben, documentary filmmaking is a passion, not a job.

As a student at the Munich Film Academy, Ben started to focus on cultural and political subjects. He made films about a type designer, about the practices of tabloid television, and about the independence movement in Scotland in the run-up to the first Scottish Parliament after 300 years. Ben used to be a student by day, an editor by night.

Ben's film THE LOCH LONG MONSTER was sort of a breakthrough: Shortly after the film's premiere at the Munich International Documentary Festival, three of the protagonists received the Alternative Nobel Prize. The film was shown at various festivals and sold to ARTE and YLE.

In recent years, Ben has been doing a lot of camera work for other production companies, contributing to programmes for various ARD networks, Pro 7, Channel 4, RAI, the History Channel, and others. A journalist visa enables Ben to shoot many of these documentaries in the U.S.: looking behind the scenes of the Waldorf-Astoria, following a Bavarian start-up in Las Vegas, or portaying prisoners in a Louisiana boot camp.

With Alexander Dittner, Ben co-directed GEGEN DIE GRENZE, a contemporary history film commissioned by RBB (an ARD broadcaster). Ben has been running expressive.tv for 15 years now and is currently busy touring festivals with latest film, the award-winning UPSTREAM BATTLE which had its North American premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival.

The D-Word and DOX

Ben is a co-host of Doug Block's worldwide community of documentary professionals, The D-Word. This successful online forum has more than 2500 members from 80 countries. Ben writes for DOX magazine and, together with Tue Steen Müller and EDN, he initiated the first Transatlantic Face-2-Face meeting between filmmakers from North America and Europe in Reykjavik.

> Contact Ben

Films

UPSTREAM BATTLE

Upstream Battle (a.k.a. Salmon Life)

This long-term documentary follows Native American tribes and an energy corporation in their fight over fish, sovereignty, and four hydroelectric dams.

> More info