Thursday, Mar 5, 2009
A Whitman College student’s film will screen at two of the nation’s most prestigious film festivals — American Film Institute Dallas, which will feature films created by such names as producers Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney, director Gillermo Arriage and actor Charlize Theron; and the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the nation’s oldest independent film festival, which launched the careers of such directors as Ken Burns and Michael Moore.
Among some of the nation’s finest independent films and the many films financed by major studios and produced by professional crews, Ben Kegan’s short documentary film, “Team Taliban” has been selected by both festivals.
“(The film) is visually arresting, timely… And it’s an extremely, consistently well-told story,” said Kegan’s professor, Robert Sickels, associate professor of rhetoric and film studies.
Kegan’s film was accomplished on a “wing and a prayer,” with grant funding Sickels found.
“His talent matches his drive, and he’s got a lot of drive,” Sickels said. Kegan, a senior rhetoric and film studies major, filmed at locations throughout the east coast and mid-west last summer.
“Team Taliban” focuses on Adeel Alam, a Muslim-American wrestler on the “B” circuit who plays the role of terrorist. Alam, someone Kegan met when his film project was initially focusing on a different wrestler, is a devout Muslim who is conflicted between his faith and his love of wrestling — between the image his terrorist character projects to the crowd and the image Alam wants the world to have.
Sickels said Ann Arbor is an Academy qualifying festival, which means if Kegan’s film wins an award it automatically qualifies to be in the running for an Oscar.
He said that typically only about 5 percent of films submitted to a film festival are accepted. Even so, this isn’t the first time Kegan has received a film festival invitation. He and Class of 2008 alumna Kim Wetter — who is now a writer for Buddytv.com, the second largest television website — created a television pilot that was selected and shown at the 2008 Independent Television Festival in Los Angeles.
Kegan, from the Chicago area, said he decided to attend Whitman because it offered the opportunity for him to work on his craft, but also because it was so much more than a film school. He could take other courses that would influence the films he made. And that has already happened. He gives the example of a class taken, Critical Race Theory, which influenced the making of Team Taliban.
Sickels said he’s sure Kegan will be a major well-known film maker some day and that he expects these festivals to be just the beginning for this film.
The 2009 film festival season is just starting. “There will be many more invitations,” Sickels said.
Team Taliban will be playing at the Ann Arbor Film Festival’s opening night screening at 8 p.m. March 24, and at 7 p.m. March 29 and 10 p.m. March 30 at the American Film Institute Dallas film festival. Here are the links to the two festivals’ sites:
— Virginia Grantier
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