Michael Benson


Film-maker, journalist and photographer. Lived in ex-Yugoslavia during the early 80's and in the Republic of Slovenia during that country's transition to statehood. His work with the NSK art movement, which resulted in the critically acclaimed feature-length documentary *Predictions of Fire*, is one result of a long-term interest in the problematic territory where art and politics meet. In the 80's Benson was the first American journalist to document the Soviet underground rock counter-culture; his reports and photographs were published in Rolling Stone magazine, The Nation, the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times, Interview, and a broad spectrum of European and world media outlets. Benson, who attended the New York University Graduate Film School, has made numerous short films. He also wrote a one-hour documentary for MTV titled *Tell Chaikovsky The News*, on Russian rock. *Predictions of Fire*, which screened at the 1996 Sundance, Berlin, and Sydney Film Festivals, amog many others, was his first feature-length project as director. The film will receive theatrical release across the US this summer and fall, including at New York's FIlm Forum cinema.

For more information on *Predictions of Fire*, check the Kinetikon Pictures website.