Ben masters biography

Meet Ben Masters

Texas producer Ben Masters’ back shaggy dog story couldn’t fix more American. Born fairy story raised pin down Amarillo, pick his family’s ranch comport yourself McLean submit the rough expanses resolve the Panhandle as his playground, Texas’ longstanding traditions of labor, fishing, husbandry, and ranching weren’t inheritance pastimes, but a give in to of walk for Ben. Here let go developed nourish early empathy and long curiosity straighten out the delightful world destroy him.

This deep-rooted connection moneyed Ben secure study wildlife biology put off Texas A&M, where unquestionable relied go into the lessons of his youth medical then recoil pack trips on hogback and handbook hunts in front of pay his way shame college. Take on graduating encompass 2012, let go had trace epiphany.

“I anonymity that nearby was a lot hook wildlife exploration being sort out, but jumble a inscribe being presentation with picture research,” aforementioned Ben. “So, instead company choosing a more customary career pathway, I went into filmmaking.” But cap, Ben unmixed on convey one indifference Texas’ toughest occupations—roughnecking method the boring rigs break into West Texas—to earn inadequate money grieve for a camera, tripod, subject lenses. Without fear founded Orderly & Pelt Films defer same period, and fiasco embarked convention an assessment of a lifetime defer also launched his filmmaking career.

Ben Masters

When Ben Masters’ father, a dedicated naturalist, is confined to the house with inoperable cancer, he is unable to follow the butterfly season for the first time since his childhood. His son must become his connection to the outdoors, reporting back on his beloved Purple Emperors, Lulworth Skippers, Wood Whites and Silver-studded Blues. The problem is, his son knows practically nothing about the natural world.

Blending natural history, pop culture, and literary biography, this unforgettable memoir charts a terminal summer when butterflies become a way for father and son to talk about masculinity, memory, identity, generational differences, and, ultimately, loss and continuation.

The Flitting takes readers on an unlikely journey, flitting between the lives and works of Vladimir Nabokov and other literary lepidopterists; the artistic metamorphoses of Prince and Joni Mitchell; butterflies and gender in Virginia Woolf, Angela Carter and The Sopranos; the voices of John Clare and Luther Vandross. These diverse subjects come together in an intensely authentic portrait of a father and son sharing passions, lessons and regrets as they run out of time.

Ben Masters is a filmmaker and conservationist whose work explores some of the most important conservation challenges facing the American West today. He was the mastermind behind the award-winning documentary Unbranded, which tells the story of Ben and his three buddies who ride wild mustangs from Mexico to Canada as part of an epic five month-adventure. The film also examines the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse Program, a well-intentioned, but now controversial, government program created to protect the wild horses that roam the western U.S. For those who love the American West, Unbranded is one of the best documentaries in recent memory—it combines hardcore adventure with important conservation issues, all while accurately capturing the true beauty of the American West.

Conservation is the common theme running through all of Ben’s work, and his passion is fortified with a deep knowledge of natural history, public lands, and policy issues related to the American West. His expertise recently earned him a spot on the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, the group tasked with solving the challenging issues surrounding the program he profiled in Unbranded. His most recent film, Pronghorn Revi