Ben Proudfoot (born October 29, 1990) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

filmmaker. He is most noted as director of ''

The Queen of Basketball ''The Queen of Basketball'' is a 2021 American documentary short film by Ben Proudfoot about basketball legend Lusia Harris. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 10, 2021 and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject ...

'', winner of the 2021 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject; as well as codirector with

Kris Bowers Kristopher Bowers (born 1989) is an American composer and pianist. He has composed scores for films, video games, television and documentaries including ''Bridgerton'', '' Green Book'', ''Madden NFL'', '' Dear White People'', and ''Kobe Bryant's ...

of the short documentary film '' A Concerto Is a Conversation'', which was an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nominee for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the

93rd Academy Awards The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. The ceremony was held on April 25, 202 ...

in 2021.Victoria Ahearn
"Canada’s Ben Proudfoot up for Oscar for short doc ‘A Concerto is a Conversation’"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'', March 15, 2021. Born in Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Proudfoot is of Scottish heritage. He was active as a sleight-of-hand magician in his youth, winning several international magic competitions, before attending film school at the

USC School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

.Susan Bradley
"Ben Proudfoot wins best director for short film at Raindance Film Festival"

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca ...

Nova Scotia, September 28, 2015. He launched his own film production company, Breakwater Studios, in 2012, and has directed a number of other short films including ''Dinner with Fred'', ''ink&paper'', ''Life's Work: Six Conversations with Makers'' and ''That's My Jazz''. On July 27, 2021, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' website published a 16-minute film by Proudfoot about the life of astronomer

Jocelyn Bell Burnell Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell (; Bell; born 15 July 1943) is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. The discovery eventually earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in ...

. Entitled "The Silent Pulse of the Universe," the film shows her instrumental role in the research on the discovery of pulsars and how she did not receive recognition for her work in the attribution of the Nobel Prize received by Antony Hewish and

Martin Ryle Sir Martin Ryle (27 September 1918 – 14 October 1984) was an English radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems (see e.g. aperture synthesis) and used them for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sourc ...

. Bell Burnell also describes the extreme prejudice she faced at school, at university and in her career as a woman scientist. On August 24, 2021, the ''Times'' website published another 16-minute film by Proudfoot. "Almost Famous: The First Report" profiles

Jason Berry Jason Berry (born 1949) is an American investigative reporter, author and film director based in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is known for pioneering investigative reporting on sexual abuse in the priesthood of the Catholic Church. Life He att ...

, the Louisiana reporter who broke the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal back in the 1980s — in large part, before the world was ready to listen. In 2002 ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' did much the same, this time garnering a Pulitizer Prize and inspiring the

-winning feature film ''

Spotlight Spotlight or spot light may refer to: Lighting * Spot lights, automotive auxiliary lamps * Spotlight (theatre lighting) * Spotlight, a searchlight * Stage lighting instrument, stage lighting instruments, of several types Art, entertainment, an ...

'', whereas Berry spent ten unrewarding years trying to get traction for his amply documented stories of the church protecting and enabling pedophile priests. ''

'', Proudfoot's film about women's basketball legend

Lusia Harris Lusia Mae Harris (February 10, 1955 – January 18, 2022) was an American professional basketball player. Harris is considered to be one of the pioneers of women's basketball. She played for Delta State University and won three consecutive Ass ...

, won the

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject); Shaquille O'Neal and Steph Curry served as executive producers.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Proudfoot, Ben 1990 births Canadian documentary film directors Canadian magicians Film directors from Nova Scotia People from Halifax, Nova Scotia Canadian people of Scottish descent Living people Directors of Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners