About Us

Founded in 1970, Benenson Productions uses documentary and narrative film formats to examine the human condition through the prisms of culture, science, and the environment. Each film provides the viewer with a greater understanding of an issue or a people previously underrepresented or misunderstood, while providing a platform to take action and engage in solutions.

Benenson Productions has traveled to the impenetrably dense Honduran jungle to find hidden cities, to the plains of Tanzania to chronicle the lives of Africa’s last remaining hunter-gatherer tribe, The Hadza, and everywhere in between. Using nontraditional methods of filmmaking and distribution, Benenson Productions is pushing boundaries using the films’ individual and collective momentum to connect with audiences and create real, lasting impact for the subjects of the films.

Meet Bill Benenson

billBenenson

 

Bill Benenson (Director/Producer) is best known for his award-winning documentary Dirt! The Movie. In addition to his recent The Hadza: Last of the First, Bill is currently working on a documentary about the search for a lost Pre-Columbian city in Central America using LIDAR technology, work for which he was awarded the prestigious Leading Global Thinkers Award from Foreign Policy magazine and garnered expansive media coverage. Bill, who served in the Peace Corps in Brazil, is a passionate environmentalist and supporter of The Nature Conservancy, The Natural Resources Defense Council, Conservation International, Bioneers, Rainforest Action Network, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Filmography

Honey Boy (2019) (Executive Producer)
Harriet
(2019) (Executive Producer) (Post-production)
Cracked Up (2018) (Documentary) (Executive Producer)
Fantastic Fungi (2018) (Documentary) (Executive Producer)(completed)
The Lost City of the Monkey God
 (2018) (Documentary) (Co-Executive Producer)
A Whole New Irving (2018) (Executive Producer)
Atomic Homefront (2017)(Documentary) (Executive Producer)
Kiss the Ground (2017)(Documentary short) (Producer) (Post-production)
Patti Cake$ (2017) (Executive Producer)
Ram Dass, Going Home (2017) (Documentary short) (Executive Producer)
The Soil Story (2017) (In Production) (Producer / Director)
We the People 2.0 (2017) (Documentary) (Co-Executive Producer
Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA (2016) (Documentary) (Executive Producer)
Beasts of No Nation (2015) (Executive Producer)
The Hadza: Last of the First (2014) (Producer/Director)
Who Bombed Judi Bari? (2012) (Co-Producer)
Suburban Kings (2011) (Executive Producer)
Dirt! The Movie (2009) (Producer/Director)
Feathered Fan and Silken Ribbon (2009) (Executive Producer)
Trucker (2008) (Executive Producer)
Diminished Capacity (2008) (Executive Producer)
Watching the Detectives (2007) (Executive Producer)
Mister Johnson (1990) (Executive Producer)
A Walk on the Moon (1987) (Executive Producer)
The Lightship (1985) (Producer)
Under the Volcano (1984) (Development Executive)
Boulevard Nights (1978) (Producer)
Pumping Iron (1977) (Development Executive)
The Marginal Way (1973) (Producer/Director)
Diamond Rivers (1970) (Producer/Director)
Easter Island Rises (1970) (Producer/Director)

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