BEN POWELL, FILMMAKER

Award-winning filmmaker and cinematographer Ben Powell is a native of the Mississippi Delta whose work centers on people and places often overlooked. Compelled to view the world through a lens from an early age, Ben went on to study Film, Animation, and Video at the Rhode Island School of Design. His work has premiered at film festivals nationwide and spans feature-length documentaries, short films, and music videos, with projects produced across the United States, Japan, India, Switzerland, and Alaska.

Ben made his directorial debut with BARGE, a documentary about America’s busiest inland waterway and the communities connected to it. The film premiered at South by Southwest in 2015 and went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature at both the Dallas International Film Festival and Indie Memphis.

Beginning his career as a cinematographer, Ben has since directed and shot documentaries and visual projects for a wide range of artists and organizations, including Google, The New York Times, GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, The Daily Show, and the University of Mississippi. His documentary work has also involved collaborations with musician Phil Collins.

After 12 years in Austin, Texas, Ben returned to the Mississippi Delta, where he continues to tell regionally rooted stories with cinematic vision. He is a board member of the Mississippi Film Alliance and a founding member of Alluvial Films, a production and creative agency based in Cleveland, Mississippi, focused on documentary-style storytelling and compelling narrative.