Benjamin

Hedin

Writer

Filmmaker

Grammy Nominee

  • Under the Spell

    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

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  • In search of the movement: the struggle for civil rights then and now

    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

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  • Studio A: The Bob Dylan Reader

    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Out London) gathers over fifty articles, poems, essays, speeches, literary criticisms, and interviews; many previously unpublished.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

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film

  • Lakota Nation vs. United States

    2022 ‧ 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

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  • MLF/FBI

    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

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  • Two trains runnin’

    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

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ARTICLES

Remembering Robert Moses

The American Scholar

Testimonial

  • “It's impossible not to fall under the spell of this aptly titled novel. I started it compulsively, cleverly lured into thinking I was reading one kind of novel—dangling the revelation of a sensationally secret adulterous affair, beyond the grave—only to realize that I was reading quite a different book: the slower revelation of a relationship more messy and formless and uncharted than I had previously expected. And as the narrative taught me how to slow down (though it never loosens its grip), so I began to admire its richness and the subtlety of its lean but eloquent prose.”

    James Wood

  • "In Search of the Movement is a true marvel. Benjamin Hedin’s insightful combination of reportage and history of the civil rights movement allows us to see the era with fresh eyes. By tracing the continued legacy of the black freedom struggle from the 1960s to the present, this gem of a book wonderfully illuminates how the movement is living and thriving in our own time."

    Peniel Joseph

  • "This novel about a grieving woman who has suddenly lost her husband in a car wreck is a brilliant story that could also be a song. It’s set in the Northwest but could be set in Arkansas. It’s filled with interesting characters and haunting mystery. From page to page, you follow her as she experiences a dark comedy of strange and unsettling emotions that deaths and funerals have a way of bringing out of the people who are left behind. Like the best writers, Ben knows his way around the written word. And like the best stories, Under The Spell is at once contemporary and timeless."

    Lucinda Williams

  • "The most absorbing, wide-ranging and stimulating body of writing about the mighty Bob that's ever been assembled."

    Salman Rushdie on Studio A

  • "A novel that is both a terrific page-turner and a very moving depiction of grief; it really did have me under its spell."

    Roddy Doyle, author of Love: A Novel

  • "Fusing the personal with the political, the present with the past, Benjamin Hedin has written a sober, touching elegy for our shared history. In Search of the Movement is needed and essential, and it could not have come at a better time."

    Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, author, Brief Encounters With the Enemy and When Skateboards Will Be Free