Bill Benenson

Roles: Director

Bill Benenson is known for his award-winning documentary Dirt! The Movie, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and was broadcast on PBS/ITVS for the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. His film The Hadza: Last of the First, produced in association with The Nature Conservancy, was screened as part of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. As a result of his work on The Lost City of the Monkey God, about the search for a lost Pre-Columbian city in Central America, Bill was awarded the prestigious Leading Global Thinkers Award from Foreign Policy magazine. He was the executive producer of Beasts of No Nation, producer of Boulevard Nights, and has been involved as a producer or executive producer on dozens of films, including Patti Cake$, Atomic Homefront (HBO) and the upcoming films Fantastic Fungi, Kiss the Ground, and Changing of the Gods. After graduating from Columbia University, Bill served in the Peace Corps in Brazil, which is where he was inspired to make his first film Diamond Rivers (aired on PBS in 1975) about an abandoned diamond region in the interior of the North Eastern state of Bahia. He is a passionate environmentalist, a supporter of The Natural Resources Defense Council, Conservation International, Bioneers, Rainforest Action Network, Defenders of Wildlife, the Union of Concerned Scientists and The Nature Conservancy.