Coming Up Next: Benedict Campbell

Posted on 01. Sep, 2008 by Administrator in Profiles

words by Jason Dean, photo by Serena Kuo

The plot is a piece of textbook cinema: A young college grad with big dreams spends the summer managing an anonymous beachfront movie theater off the coast of Rhode Island. One year later, he’s winning awards coast to coast on the festival circuit for his indie short film.

What a difference a year makes. Benedict Campbell’s upward trajectory as a filmmaker hasn’t been as sudden as the above scenario might suggest, but it’s not that far off. He has earned notable attention for his film Lloyd Neck—most recently at last month’s 4th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival, where he was awarded the Best Director prize.

After completing the film, his final project as an undergrad at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, the 24-year-old screenwriter/director decided to get away for awhile. “I answered an ad on Craigslist,” he laughs. Hence the seaside summer job.

When he started thinking about submitting to festivals, a friend suggested he start at the top: Sundance. He dutifully followed the advice but says he had no expectations beyond that. He left in November for India on what was to be a four-month exploration of the country, a trip he had been planning since his graduation. One week in, he got a call. His short film was one of 80 chosen from 5,000 submissions to screen at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. He immediately outsourced his vacation from New Delhi, India to Park City, Utah.

Lloyd Neck is a snapshot study of Taylor – who is soon off to college – his kid sister Alex, and his best friend Jesse. Taylor and Jesse share a mutual, if unrequited, attraction. The close relationship between brother and sister is interwoven with this dynamic to create a sweet, intimate portrait of a carefree “day in the life” of a young man approaching adulthood, where things are never quite so simple.

“The idea came from remembering what my junior year of high school was like,” he tells me. “It’s complete fiction, but some of the small details are personal. I wanted to do something about siblings, specifically a brother/sister relationship.”

And the title? “That was the hardest thing to come up with,” he admits. “We had two weeks before we had to finish, and I ended up choosing the place where we filmed much of the movie.” Lloyd Neck is an area along the North Shore of Long Island, where Campbell spent a lot of time as a boy.

The movie will screen in 25 festivals this year, including in Australia, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. Aside from the opportunity to meet people and network, Campbell, who is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Italy, enjoys seeing how a geographical cross-section of the public responds to his work, because, ultimately, lasting success depends on developing a style that people respond to.

“I’m not really interested in going ‘Hollywood’,” Campbell explains. “I like New York. I feel I can make movies that are more personal.” He has also given more than a passing thought to making documentary shorts, partly because it would allow the chance for more travel.

The next logical step, which many filmmakers take after similar success with a cinematic short, is to expand the idea into a feature-length film. “It definitely won’t be the same characters,” he says. If not for the film’s success, Campbell might still be pondering whether committing to a filmmaking career was the wisest choice. “[Winning] definitely convinced me to give it a shot,” he says.

Outside of festivals, getting exposure for a short film can be a challenge. Campbell points out that Lloyd Neck can be viewed on iTunes, Netflix, and Xbox. And with any luck, one day it may even play at an anonymous beachfront movie theater in Rhode Island.

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