Ben Kolak
2021Scrappers
Ben Kolak, Courtney Prokopas
Set within Chicago’s labyrinth of alleyways, Scrappers is a cinema verite portrait of Otis and Oscar, two scrap metal scavengers searching for a living with brains, brawn and battered pickup trucks. The film shows how globalization, the 2008 financial crisis, crackdowns on undocumented immigrants and widespread scrap metal theft effect these men and their families.
Scrappers
Stateville Calling
Ben Kolak
Stateville Calling is a documentary exploring parole reform and the struggle of aging inmates in Illinois. Bill Ryan, 84-years-old and with a southern drawl from his Kentucky upbringing, has spent the last several decades befriending and advocating on behalf of a group of men and women incarcerated for life, helping to abolish the death penalty in Illinois, publishing a newspaper written by prisoners, and ceaselessly negotiating with victim's advocates, legislators and lobbyists from both sides of the aisle. The hour-long film illustrates the forces that created our system, and surveys the competing arguments and data points at play to equip viewers to decide for themselves what should be done about criminal justice in Illinois.
Stateville Calling
