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Lillian E. Benson, A.C.E.
Los Angeles
Editor
Resume: 
Tags: Docs about September 11  cinema verite  Character-driven Documentaries  
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Title/Occupation:  Editor 
Services Provided:  Film/Video Editing 
Gender: Female

Biography: 

Lillian E. Benson, A.C.E.

Lillian E. Benson’s professional body of work as a television, video and feature film editor spans almost thirty years. In 1990 the native New Yorker was nominated for an Emmy for her work on the acclaimed Civil Rights series “Eyes On the Prize II”.
She contributed to films that have garnered five Emmy nominations, four Peabody Awards, two DuPont Awards and numerous other honors. Recent films she edited include Frontline’s “God In America” (Fall 2010 broadcast), and Wounded Knee, the closing episode of “We Shall Remain”, a series on Native American history produced by WGBH. Wounded Knee tells the story of the 1972 takeover of the Pine Ridge Reservation. In 2009 she completed work on Bring Your A Game, directed by Mario Van Peebles.

Additional documentary editing credits include: Beyond the Steps-Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (WNET), Craft In America (KCET), Smothered- the Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (Bravo), A Century of Living, Death by Hanging and Out at Work (all for HBO), Motown 40th, a Retrospective (ABC), Celebrate! Christmas with Maya Angelou (Hallmark Channel), Troop 1500-Girl Scouts Behinds Bars (POV) and The Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry (WGBH).

In 2000 Lillian started Lightwave Pictures, an independent production and editorial service located in Santa Monica. Benson made her directorial debut with their first production, All Our Sons-Fallen Heroes of 9/11, a half-hour documentary about the firefighters of color who died at the World Trade Center. The film was broadcast nationally on PBS in 2003 and 2004, and was shown at the international film festival FESPACO, Burkina Faso, West Africa, as well as several festivals in the U.S.

Lillian Benson is the first African-American female member of American Cinema Editors, and is a member of their Board of Directors.
She also serves on the Editing Peer Group committee for the Television Academy.