Ben Patterson is an award winning documentary filmmaker and the founder of the creative agency ONSLOT Films. Ben’s projects are diverse in subject matter and often weave high profile dramatic personal narratives with richly told historic underpinnings into journeys that are at once profoundly personal and entertaining. Ben’s fascination with how popular culture shapes the world for better or worse has brought his storytelling and cameras behind the façades, pulling back the curtain to expose the inner workings of what shapes our world.
In his Showtime film, “Sweet Micky for President,” which The Hollywood Reporter calls, “Fascinating and wildly entertaining,” and Roger Ebert says, “An equal part real-life satire and a document for change,” Ben brings audiences into what Billboard calls, “One of the most unlikely stories ever caught on film.” With Sweet Micky for President, the grammy winning rapper Pras Michel, who founded the hip-hop group the Fugees, convinces an eccentric, cross dressing Haitian pop artist named Sweet Micky to run for the presidency of Haiti against Pras’s former bandmate and Haitian presidential candidate Wyclef Jean. The film, set against the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, “artfully takes us through a roller coaster ride” into the depths of Haiti and the currents of celebrity and political influence rarely exposed.
In his next feature documentary, Netflix’s “Maddman: The Steve Madden Story,” Ben gains access into the life of a man whose personal journey includes severe drug addiction to sobriety, early success to prison, and the making of a billion dollar shoe empire that started from the back of the trunk of his doorman’s car, and an ominous loan from Jordan Belfort, aka “The Wolf of Wall Street.” The story is the honest portrayal of the American dream and the dark side of success in a man who has truly lived it.
Ben is currently in production on a number of high profile film projects. The first, features a bizarre reunion of sorts with rapper Pras Michel from Sweet Micky who is currently serving a 14 year sentence for operating as an agent for the Chinese. In addition Ben has begun work on projects that range from a limited series on the obesity epidemic in the area of new age GLP-1 treatments, a bio pic on the legendary illusionist David Copperfield and a comedic documentary series about rom-com star Andrew Keegan who inadvertently started a cult.
Ben Patterson is a 1997 Graduate of Alliance High School, attended Ohio University and currently splits time between New York City and the Catskill Mountains.