Benjamin
Hedin
Writer
Filmmaker
Grammy & Emmy
Nominee
film
Testimonial
2021 ‧ Fiction
“Journalist and documentary producer Benjamin Hedin has delivered a psychologically gripping debut novel. Under the Spell explores a widow’s grief, her act of discovery (she finds out, when scrolling through her late husband’s emails, that he has long maintained a secret relationship), and her reckless and mesmerizing act of deception. The author deftly conveys—indeed, inhabits—a trio of women’s personae: the grieving Sandra; her husband’s elusive filmmaking colleague, Ryan; and a troubled single mother, Lee, in a manner reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and Robert Altman’s Three Women.”
— Vanity Fair
2015
"A deeply intelligent writer and reporter, Benjamin Hedin repositions the civil rights movement as an ongoing crusade, a moral and political struggle that was seeded in the 1950s and 60s, but continues to develop in complicated, hopeful, and heartbreaking ways. In Search of the Movement is a bold and exploratory book, as much about Hedin's journey—to reconcile an American past with the American present—as anything else. It reads like both a salve and guide for these heady times; I couldn't put it down.”
— Amanda Petrusich, Author, Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78rpm Records
2004
Hailed by Publishers Weekly as "not only the best writing on the ever-changing folk singer, but also some of the best writing about any musician around," Studio A presents Bob Dylan's unique literary legacy in a collection that is quintessentially Dylan: mosaic, offbeat, poetic.
This "astutely chosen and intelligently annotated" collection (Time Out London) gathers over fifty articles, poems, essays, speeches, literary criticisms, and interviews; many previously unpublished.
Studio A is truly "a vital document" for all fans.
— New York Times
2022 ‧ Documentary
Emmy Nominee - Best Documentary
Critic’s Pick - The New York Times
Critics’ Choice Award Nominee
“One of the most important documentaries of recent years.” — loudandclearreviews.com
“An in-depth and seldom-heard account of American history.” — CNN
‘An edifying and blistering plea for indigenous justice.” — Los Angeles Times
2020 ‧ Documentary
Oscar Shortlist
Critic's Pick - The New York Times
“It’s an exemplary historical documentary — unafraid of moral judgment but also attentive to the fine grain of ambiguity that clings to the facts. It doesn’t force the preoccupations of the present onto the past, but rather invites you to think about how what happened then might help explain where we are now.”
— A.O. Scott, The New York Times
2016 ‧ Documentary/Music
Grammy Awards Nominee
Critic's Pick - The New York Times
“This captivating movie, like the blues itself, is at once a recognition of somber truths and a gesture of protest against them.”
— A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Testimonial
James Wood
Peniel Joseph
Lucinda Williams
Salman Rushdie on Studio A
Roddy Doyle, author of Love: A Novel
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, author, Brief Encounters With the Enemy and When Skateboards Will Be Free