Ben Niles
Filmmaker. Storyteller.
Ben Niles
Filmmaker. Storyteller.
Ben Niles is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. His film, “Note By Note (The Making of Steinway L1037),” (IFP 2005) won top honors at the Sarasota Film Festival, was nominated for an IDA award and selected to the prestigious American Film Showcase, and has screened in over 30 countries. It has now been translated into 5 languages and has aired nationally on PBS since 2009. His most recent film Some Kind of Spark (IFP 2012) was also selected to the American Film Showcase and will premiere on PBS in the fall of 2016. He is currently co-directing “Still We Rise” with producer Molly Raskin, a film about mental health in Liberia.
Commercially, he brings his documentary approach to produce videos for Ford, Razorfish, J. Walter Thompson and The PBS NewsHour and has worked with artists including Amy Ray of Indigo Girls, Punch Brothers, Wynton Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr., Jason Moran, Lang Lang, Helene Grimaud and Rufus Wainwright. In his earlier years as an Art Director in the record industry, Ben created album packages for Collective Soul (Entertainment Weekly’s Best 100 Album Covers 2000), Jewel, Jon Brion, Hootie and the Blowfish, celebrated box-sets for Phish and George Carlin, and packages and identities for jazz musicians Cyrus Chestnut, James Carter and Henry Butler.
A graduate of the University of Georgia at Athens, Ben attended UGA’s prestigious Cortona program, an intensive fine arts study-abroad program located in Cortona, Italy.
Ben Niles is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. His film, “Note By Note (The Making of Steinway L1037),” (IFP 2005) won top honors at the Sarasota Film Festival, was nominated for an IDA award and selected to the prestigious American Film Showcase, and has screened in over 30 countries. It has now been translated into 5 languages and has aired nationally on PBS since 2009. His most recent film Some Kind of Spark (IFP 2012) was also selected to the American Film Showcase and will premiere on PBS in the fall of 2016. He is currently co-directing “Still We Rise” with producer Molly Raskin, a film about mental health in Liberia.
Commercially, he brings his documentary approach to produce videos for Ford, Razorfish, J. Walter Thompson and The PBS NewsHour and has worked with artists including Amy Ray of Indigo Girls, Punch Brothers, Wynton Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr., Jason Moran, Lang Lang, Helene Grimaud and Rufus Wainwright. In his earlier years as an Art Director in the record industry, Ben created album packages for Collective Soul (Entertainment Weekly’s Best 100 Album Covers 2000), Jewel, Jon Brion, Hootie and the Blowfish, celebrated box-sets for Phish and George Carlin, and packages and identities for jazz musicians Cyrus Chestnut, James Carter and Henry Butler.
A graduate of the University of Georgia at Athens, Ben attended UGA’s prestigious Cortona program, an intensive fine arts study-abroad program located in Cortona, Italy.
Siblings and Juilliard-trained pianists, The 5 Browns were on top of the world after three #1 records and appearances on 60 Minutes, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and more. But beneath the surface of their success loomed a terrible secret: their father, who managed their careers, was responsible for years of sexual abuse against the three sisters. Long before #MeToo, and well aware that their story would devastate their family and possibly the group, the young women bravely spoke out. THE 5 BROWNS follows the siblings’ search for healing through the transformative power of music.
Told intimately using archival family video, interviews, rehearsals, performances and verité footage, Niles weaves together the remarkable story of musical determination and passion mirrored by profound bravery and survival—both personally and professionally—as The 5 Browns come to terms with their broken family and work to find solace and healing in their own individual ways.
In our age of mass-production and consumption, what is the role of the musician — both an instrument's craftsman and its player? Musically, what have we gained? More importantly, what are we losing? The most thoroughly handcrafted instruments in the world, Steinway pianos are as unique and full of personality as the world-class musicians who play them. However, their makers are a dying breed: skilled cabinetmakers, gifted tuners, thorough hand-crafters.
Note By Note is a feature-length independent documentary that follows the creation of a Steinway concert grand — #L1037 — from forest floor to concert hall. It explores the relationship between musician and instrument, chronicles the manufacturing process, and illustrates what makes each Steinway unique in this age of mass production.
Some Kind of Spark is a feature-length documentary that follows five kids from the far reaches of New York City as they embark on a life-changing experience—the opportunity to study music in Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP), a Saturday outreach program for kids from communities that are underserved in the arts.
$20 Available in BluRay or DVD format. Please specify at checkout.
Some Kind of Spark is a feature-length documentary that follows five kids from the far reaches of New York City as they embark on a life-changing experience—the opportunity to study music in Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP), a Saturday outreach program for kids from communities that are underserved in the arts.
Available in DVD $20 or for streaming