Today we’d like to introduce you to Benn Wiebe.
Hi Benn, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I have always appreciated the power of a good story. Stories can be told and shared in ways that transcend culture, language, life practices. We all have a story to tell. Which means everyone is invited when we talk about amplifying and sharing stories. That’s what makes me proud of the work we do at HFP. We cultivate good cinema and spotlight these stories across the world, so we can celebrate the human condition and all that entails. Because many of the people we get to showcase have not had their voices amplified nearly enough. They have been drowned out, lost in the ether, in a world that is talented at exploiting the many for the benefit of the few. That’s a wheel I have long been out to break.
My story started as someone whose voice was largely drowned out by others. Other more dominant personalities, let’s call it that. It didn’t stop my imagination or desire for exploration. I wanted to do lots of things growing up. I wanted to be a teacher because my family has a lot of them and I deeply appreciate their care, respect for knowledge, and dedication to this search for understanding. We all must have had at least one or a few good teachers in our lives who have propelled us forward, challenged our institutional thinking, kept us curious and focused. I wanted to be a psychologist, too, because people are fascinating, messy, and we’re all just looking for a little bit of help. Or maybe even a lot of help. Relationships and social dynamics are messy. Which means our stories are messy too. That’s what’s interesting. Tidy bows at the end isn’t always what we want. Every person in the world knows what messy looks like, so that’s what we can relate to. That’s also why I realized through gravitating towards those areas that at the heart of it all was storytelling. How we talk, share, listen, interpret, learn, see the world, hear the world. It all comes back to stories. Because our lives are themselves a story. Each unique, no two exactly the same. So, the creative landscape and the film world opened up to me.
Since I often felt drowned out bullied along my journey, I knew my concern was less about sharing my own story and more about how I could help others tell theirs. Partly because I felt nobody particularly cared to hear my story. But I wanted to hear theirs. I knew I couldn’t accomplish any of that staying put and remaining where I had always been. I had to become an explorer. That meant becoming open to taking risks going it alone if you have to. I became one of those people who spun a calendar and picked a date and said, “No matter what happens you’re going on this date, rain or shine, win or lose, ride or die”. And I did. I made the trek to Los Angeles with nothing but my car and some clothes, no money, no prospects. Just a drive to help other people shine. Isn’t that what Hollywood is supposed to be about?
It wasn’t Hollywood that built me up though. It was people. Just good, honest, helpful people. From working on shows from Real Housewives of Dallas, World Poker Tour, movies like Twilight, The Road, I worked hard to nurture good relationships with folks, and it sent me around the world to do the thing I always wanted to do. Never did more physical running than working on movie sets, but that kind of hustle prepared me for the hard times. People should understand where they are prepared to make sacrifices and where they set their boundaries. I did everything from sleeping in my car in Vegas parking lots to wake up and work a show, then drive 1000 miles to work local on another show just so I could have a job. So, I am grateful for good folks I’ve met along the way, and it has built my core of empathy and compassion more and more as time goes by.
The greatest outlet I have had though, amidst the hundreds of TV episodes and dozens of movies I have been a part of, is what we are doing at HFP. I became a part of HFP when the company was young and starting up in Denmark. I moved there, an immigrant, just weeks prior. Furthest I had ever moved anywhere. Our founder, Henrik, was one of the first people I met living in this new country, with a language I did not understand. I said, “I have a daughter; can we meet at the children’s museum?” And coming from what I came from, I expected a flat rejection of that idea. He said absolutely. We had our first 3 meetings at that children’s museum. That told me all I needed to know about the man and the mission of HFP. A place where people are the center. Humans and our stories. Championed through the cinema experience, which needs its own crucial support more than ever. Because cinema and movies are a refuge, a safe space to go on a journey, whether real and raw or magical and fantastical, whipping our imaginations into a frenzy. Together we built HFP to expand to Greece and Indonesia and to run film festivals across 13 countries on 4 continents.
I got to where I am, just like HFP has gotten to where it is now, through forging a path of credibility. Where people see and sense that there is a care and concern at the heart of the journey. That there is a belief deep within our DNA that we can make great things and be decent and expect decency at the same time. I believe anyone who has their sights on being involved with things, whether professional or not, that are tied directly to their personal values we have to be open about it. We have to be willing to search down every avenue, talk to lots of people, even to an exhaustive degree. Many people told me I was crazy for searching down so many avenues that I would get sidetracked and never find my way back again. But what really happened was I was relentless in the search that I would find others, people, and organizations that eventually shared my goals and values. It took a lot of time and sacrifice to find, but inevitably I did. And I did not hesitate to be proactive in where I could be of use to them. Because that’s what allies do, in this mission, we are all on.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Bumpy, rocky, cataclysmic, rarely smooth, some paved parts in the middle, before you get to the open road. And even then, the open road doesn’t last forever. But things aren’t beautiful because they last. We prepare ourselves for inevitable turns and twists in that road. Keeps us focused. Keeps things interesting. Keeps us curious. So many things in this life can be a struggle. > The challenges largely stem from HFP beginning as a bootstrapped startup, so when the global pandemic hit, it hit us particularly hard as HFP produces live film festivals at our core and nobody went to anything in person for a long time. It definitely pushed us to stretch our creativity to get innovative. And it has strengthened our teams resolve. We can get through anything. For anyone who doesn’t want to be painted into a single box, I know that challenge very well too. That’s the nuance in the story of our lives. Nobody can fit into just one box. Nobody. But it’s easy for folks who don’t want to relate and choose apathy over empathy to paint with that brush.
I have experienced this, particularly in working to activate creative initiatives on social impact, where HFP has played an important role. Companies not wanting to share data, resources, IP with each other, even in the face of existential crises on issues like social justice, restorative environmental work, mental health infrastructure, is a common battle. I had calls with two film organizations that both galvanize the industry to be better as their mandate, literally doing the exact same thing in different places and yet they are at odds with each other. I literally had one of them say “Why do we need them?”. And then watched one of them openly undercut the other in public discourse, in talks on stages even, on purpose. Which means the point has been missed in its entirety. When you know what it’s like to be torn apart and put back together, you learn quickly that we need solidarity. We need solidarity across nations and denominations in whatever ways we can find it. And when you’re genuine about that mission, nobody can use it against you because it’s clear you have laid a path of careful curation. Of thoughtful, considered lines of action.
The biggest reason I see for why the path is far and narrow and rarely smooth is that many of us are brought up to believe that everything is about competition. And It’s about conquest. Hustle culture is designed completely around this concept. But just like eternal growth is not possible, neither is competing at all costs. It keeps us divided. It keeps us close-minded. Keeps us working in support of institutional thinking, which rarely, if ever, serves the interests of the many. I have been defrauded, ripped off, intentionally isolated, and made to feel completely alone, much in my professional life and beyond more times than I can count. When it comes to working to build up other people and support those who have been neglected or outright exploited, there are, unfortunately, many out there who are simply opportunists and self-promoters who see social justice, climate action, missions of this nature as a career opportunity for them. Then we all end up back where we started. With infighting and organizations who should be fighting for others instead fighting amongst themselves so they can stay in the sun. So, since we’re talking a lot about what makes a good story, consider this when you’re faced with such hurdles. Evil isn’t this obvious thing. It’s not fire and violence all the time. What it really is is the absence of kindness. It’s taking from others. Wanting others not to have. Which inevitably leads to isolation and loneliness. Wanting people to feel isolated and alone is an evil act. Because then despair starts to set in, and we lose hope. But hope is the one thing they can never fully take. I implore people to look for collaboration, not competition. Because nobody truly got anywhere alone. Don’t ever insist you don’t need anyone’s help. If we reject it enough, it might not be there for you when the chips are really down. We all have needed help along our journey. And the spirit of that needs to be ever-present. Because as I see it, it’s the biggest hurdle in the road. I owe a lot to some key people who have been there for me along the way. And people like that can be hard to find. So, do the same for others. That’s how we heal this broken road.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a film producer, social impact strategist, and entertainment executive. I have an immense need to champion people’s voices through the creative landscape who have largely gone unheard, so identifying ways to build up those people will always be the lens in which I view the mission I am on. Known for producing powerful documentaries such as “Beautiful Something Left Behind,” that won SXSW and the UNICEF Prize; serving UN-related creative initiatives like Entertainment & Culture for Climate Accord with the UNFCCC, or UNEP’s Playing for the Planet Alliance; for building bridges between Hollywood and China in producing the first-ever live-streamed event into China for the Billboard Music Awards, as well as daily and weekly entertainment news programs across SE Asia; but most importantly for me, for the work we have been doing at HFP to build and nurture film communities in running film festivals across 13 countries on 4 continents.
As one of the first members of HFP, I really found a place from the beginning where the ethos really matched with the product the company set out to make. HFP cultivates independent cinema. On a global scale. That’s really the core of what it does. So, within that, it has been a natural evolution of our DNA to really champion vast perspectives and nurture community in ways that open people’s ideas on what it means to connect to each other. The film industry largely comes off as a closed community, exclusive for those of privilege and access to money, talent, resources, and industry insider knowledge in order to execute and make powerful films. But that is a fallacy packaged to make many people feel fall in line; it’s not the reality of what we see at HFP. We see a breadth of fascinating stories from fabulously talented voices ready to be amplified and are being made regardless of the response from large benefactors or traditional studio distributors. That’s why we also work with organizations such as the United Nations or Sony Pictures on film events that challenge creatives to consider tackling stories about crucial issues going on in the world and giving them an audience with folks like the UN General Assembly or major studio executives in LA.
I am most proud of HFP continuing to expand its offering so that we now have an education initiative with Oscar/BAFTA/Emmy winning instructors onboard, a mentorship program with esteemed leaders across the industry, and seeing the impact our festivals have had as we not only host events here and across the US, but also in Greece, Australia, Italy, Denmark, Iceland, Indonesia, Czech Republic, Scotland, and even in the deep Arctic in Svalbard. This really sets us apart from others because most film events are provincial, and they break up what is local with what is “international.” I have always thought that if you categorize something creative as international, it just becomes easy to stigmatize as if it’s going to be harder for your audience to relate to it. In Texas alone, there are numerous cultural perspectives that make up the communities here, so we’re always more global than we realize when we commune together. We aim to put stories together from all parts of the world so that people open themselves up to such perspectives and give them a chance to discover something they may end up loving. If we want to fight division and find ways to converse and understand one another, this is one fine way we can accomplish that I think. That’s really the personal mission I am on, and it’s the mission of HFP, too.
That’s why it feels particularly exciting to be putting on the Dallas Independent Film Festival again, so we can get back to nurturing community with great cinema from around the world. And people here do show great care in their appreciation for the kinds of stories we showcase, and have always helped us establish a cozy and intimate environment for storytelling. The Violet Crown has particularly been a welcome partner in hosting together with us, and we look forward to continuing this tradition for many years.
What makes you happy?
Bringing a little bit of light back into the darkness. I’m an empath, an INFJ personality, which makes complete sense since I function largely on intuition feeling, work to understand people’s perspectives and motivations, and like to be in tune with how actions impact others. So, even if it means putting my own self-preservation secondary, I am more likely to fight for the good of community and other people until I’ve run out of steam. My fortress of solitude is the sea. That is where I am most at peace. Not attached to cities or man-made structures. Perhaps I spend so much time-fighting battles and searching for the good people that are out there that the quiet calm and the raging storms of the sea both are a welcome home to me. Because in order for us to nurture an environment that is conducive for all species to thrive and survive, we must return to having more communion with our natural world. We are part of it. Not kings and queens here. So, it makes me happy to be able to just breathe fresh air, be on the open waters, and embrace the art of what’s around us. That’s what makes telling stories and spotlighting other people’s stories such a happy practice for me, too. Since my trauma has led me to believe that few people care about my own story, I find happiness in helping others realize, reconcile, and showcase their stories. My family makes me happy. I spend every possible second I can with my daughter. We go everywhere together. I’ve taken her around the world, especially to events, to Comic Cons, GDC, Cannes, SXSW. She’s marched for human rights in LA, San Francisco, Washington DC, New York, Copenhagen, London. And she has her own limited edition game character in the most downloaded game of all time, Subway Surfers. Nurturing her journey and giving her a life that keeps her curious, interested, challenged, and focused on kindness is the biggest thing that makes me happy. If I feel I have succeeded in that mission, that’s all I need in life.
Pricing:
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Contact Info:
- Website: https://hf-p.com/
- Instagram: hfp_indiecinema
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HFP.IndieCinema
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hf-p/
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennwiebe/
