Ben Reed

He/Him

I'm a Welsh documentary filmmaker and director with an interest in performance and language. My work primarily focused individuals and groups living outside of traditional culture.

My first true documentary, the mid-length film ‘Portrait of Kaye’ (56mins, UK/Finland, 2021), had its World Premiere in the UK Competition at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2021, where it was honoured with the Special Jury Award. In 2022 the film was nominated for a BAFTA Cymru in the Breakthrough Cymru category.

It’s subtle and nuanced use of dialogue and unexpected humour have lead the film to be recently described by the Guardian as “a delight” (Cath Clarke, 15th May ’23) and by the BFI’s Sight and Sound magazine as “part character study, part time-capsule, but somehow far more expansive than either of those terms might immediately suggest.” (Ben Nicholson, May ’23). It’s currently streaming in the US on The Criterion Channel and in the UK on True Story.

Starting out as stop motion animator in the world of music videos, my work in that field slowly developed to focus on conceptual non-fictions, often creating hybrid documentary films that were based around fictional (and semi-fictional) communities and subcultures (from Llandow to Oklahoma to Bangkok) and featured local non-actors, and produced films that were subtly humorous and occasionally absurd. My video for Blur’s Lonesome Street marked a shift in a direction, a pure documentary performance piece featuring an elderly Chinese dance troupe in San Francisco.

I’m currently looking for opportunities to learn more about the craft of performance and am particularly interested in the dramatic mechanics of constructing scenes in physical space and to understand more about the how’s and why’s of choreography and the blocking of action. 

Credits