PARTICIPANTS

Benjamin Weiss is a storyteller. Born and raised in Zurich, he worked as a filmmaker and publicist in Switzerland before moving to California in 2011, where he is attending Art Center, College of Design. His main focus there is on directing both narrative and documentary films.

His latest short feature Lineman, a story about the people who work on the power lines in the American South, is competing for the Louisiana Film Prize this October.

Benjamin has become involved with Designmatters by making a series of documentaries for the Uncool campaign, raising gun violence awareness within the Los Angeles Unified School District.

More recently, he played an integral part in the conception of a Designmatters campaign called Open Ocean, where students were asked to create a movement to popularize ocean exploration.

Benjamin believes in the importance of stories in order to make sense of life in the 21st Century.