Claim to fame

I figured it is time to tell you a little bit about myself and how I got into the business of film making. This is by no means an ordinary story, so enjoy!

After dropping out of university for the second time, I decided it was time to follow my dream and try something else:

I was going to be famous!  The whole world would love me unconditionally and I would get lots and lots of girls. People would chant my name in the streets whilst smiling and crying tears of joy, because they'd caught a glimpse of me in real life. "Ben Reisman! Ben Reisman! We love you!! One picture...please!! Oh thank you, you're my hero!"

Ok, maybe I got carried away a bit, but to be honest I came pretty close. Because on the 17th of August in the year 2007 I became the first and - as far as I know - only Dutch Office Chair Racing Champion in the history of man kind! Quite an achievement and of course my defining moment up until today. :)
If you're interested to see how it went watch the video below. (If you're short on time: the good stuff starts around 3:10 - also make sure you watch the intro)

You can imagine how proud my parents must have been....
I was able to experience this unprecedented heroic moment because I was part of a talent program at a dutch broadcasting company called BNN. Here we learnt how to make television for a young audience and one of the formats we came up with was that I had to become Dutch champion in something...in anything really.
To achieve this goal I participated in all different kinds of weird championships. Also worth mentioning is my proud third place in the Dutch Championships Air Guitar where I performed Red Hot Chili Peppers in a packed Paradiso. I've uploaded all the episodes on my youtube-account for those interested.

Paradiso

Me playing air guitar

As you can imagine I really had a blast and besides that I learnt a lot about making television.
But of course as happens to most people I got older and with that much more boring. Besides, I got way too fat for the orange leotard. I decided I wanted to make stuff that really meant something.  The dream of becoming famous was replaced by the dream of becoming a documentary maker...


....and famous :)

Step 1: How to find a Dwarf

So how do you find a European theatre performer who plays a Dwarf in rural China and on top of that agrees to having it all filmed? I guess you could probably try and Google it, but I wouldn't know where you would end up when doing so. Might be interesting to give it a try though :)

But that's not how it went. This Dwarf isn't just any Dwarf. This Dwarf is special, and more importantly: the person who performs the Dwarf, Jeanmarie Bevort, is one of the most inspiring people I've met in my life.

Jeanmarie Bevort

I met him nine years ago when my life wasn't looking as bright as it does now. After high school I had started studying history. A year later I'd quit my study because I couldn't stand the idea of reading books and making group assignments for three years in a row.

Cartoon by David Horsey

Some might argue that I chose the easy way out, but to quit my study wasn't an easy decision. Almost everyone I knew told me it was a stupid idea, or that I at least should start another study. I decided to be stubborn, follow my gut feeling and quit studying anyway. At first they turned out to be right. 

To earn my rent I had to do a job at a call-center. I was sitting in a cubicle for 40 hours a week, earning minimum wage just to be able to make ends meet. It seemed completely pointless to me and to be honest I couldn't have felt more depressed.

But as I often experienced throughout my life, life can be incredibly generous when you follow your gut feeling in stead of other people's fears. Because at this all-time low in my life I "coincidentally" got a call from one of my mates, that his father needed an assistant for his theatre performance. I had never met him but seeing the circumstances it sounded like a great plan.

At the time I had no idea what I was in for but it turned out to be a great adventure, with some great life lessons along the way. Lessons you can't learn at University.