Ben Scholle(I)

Ben Scholle is a filmmaker and educator from St. Louis, MO. He attended Haverford College and Washington University in St. Louis, earning his BA degree in 1997. He received his MFA from American University in 2000. In addition to multiple short films, Scholle has directed three feature documentaries. Scholle's first feature documentary, HairKuTT, followed a barber struggling to kick his addiction. The film mixes home video footage from collaborator, Curtis Elliot, with after-the-fact interviews and archival footage. It was named Best Feature Documentary at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, Best Social Documentary at the New York International Independent Film Festival, and it won the Director's Award at the Hearts and Minds Film Festival. The film went on to be selected for MoMA's Documentary Fortnight and air on BET and the Documentary Channel. It also played theatrically in Boston and screened in schools and universities nationwide. The Worst Crime, covers the story of a capital murder case from 2002, provoking questions about the death penalty and mental illness. It mixes perspectives of prosecutors, defenders, jurors, victims, and perpetrators in a way uncommon among crime documentaries. The film is distributed by Cineverse and available for streaming on a number of platforms. Catching Bullets chronicles three particularly heavy years of gun violence in the city of St. Louis from 2020-2022. It began as a series of volunteer projects for violence prevention organizations, and it grew into a feature documentary. It incorporates more cinema verité style than Scholle's previous films, and it mixes observational footage with social media clips and behind-the-scenes moments to craft revealing portraits of victims, shooters, and anti-violence activists. Catching Bullets is distributed worldwide by Buffalo 8. Ben Scholle lives in St. Louis, MO. He is a senior professor of cinema arts at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO, and he has involved Lindenwood students and alumni in all of his projects since beginning teaching in 2002.