Ben Willis

Nationally Award Winning Educator & Filmmaker

Ben began his career in Santa Fe, New Mexico documenting disappearing folk art traditions of the American Southwest through a collaboration with the Gerald Peters Gallery. His subsequent work in documentary film involved a variety of award-winning projects as a producer with Magic Stone Productions. During his time there Magic Stone produced Best Worst Movie (2009) and The American Scream (2012), earning official selections at SXSW, AFI FEST, SILVERDOCS, hotDOCS, and winners at numerous other film festivals.

More recently Ben has been focused on utilizing documentary film as a teaching tool to inspire youth to explore a range of subject areas. His recent work to create the National Parks Service’s Video Exploration Program led to him being awarded with a CT Arts Fellowship in 2021 in recognition of his innovative utilization of filmmaking for teaching and community building during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ben has also been recognized on the national level by IMAX as an innovative film teacher through IMAX Infocus, as well as by the National Association of Secretaries of State for Innovative Work Involving Video Storytelling.

Ben continues to teach in a wide range of programs; and currently runs a small documentary production company, WB Willis films, where he focuses on partnerships with nonprofits dedicated to education, social justice & environmental causes. Ben also works as manager for Vermontcast.com a new media company based in Vermont, where he leads a team of young content creators who generate engaging videos about their communities.