Award-winning
filmmaker
Ben Ketai.
P hoto by Da n iel Lipp itt
Teens
LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer
A
fter working for years on
documentaries and short
films, Ben Ketai technical-
ly wouldn't be able to
watch his first feature film if he
weren't the director.
The 16-year-old Andover High
School junior had his film
Transgression slapped with an R rating
by the school's administration.
Andover will be hosting the first pub-
lic screening of Ketai's 70-minute film
on Thursday, May 13, but students
under age 17 will not be admitted
without a parent. Ketai and his
friends also are not allowed to adver-
tise the film in school or charge for it
because of the rating.
"We're finding ways around the
administration," said Ketai, including
having the cast of the film wear T-
shirts carrying the film's name and
release date.
On May 1, Ketai received a Best of
Show award at Detroit Area Film and
Television's Michigan Student Film
and Video Festival held at the Detroit
Institute of Arts. He was honored for
his seven-minute short film My Lai,
about the massacre that took place
during the Vietnam war. In Ketai's
film a reporter talks to Sgt. Paul
Meadlo, one of the key witnesses to
the incident.
"I had learned about it in
American History [class]," he said. "I
read a section on Meadlo and the
guilt that he felt about it."
Transgression, a project that took
seven months to make, from the writ-
ing to the editing, is a huge departure
from Ketai's previous work.
"I made a bunch of shorts, some
music videos and a public service
announcement, but I only did that
5/7
1999
Andover student Ben Ketai
is taking his love of making
movies to the next level.
for class," he said. "Through English
classes, I got more interested in char-
acter development."
In his younger days, Ketai focused
more on action films than on the psy-
chological thrillers that interest him
now.
"The first film I did, I didn't know
how to edit," he said. "It was three
hours of people beating (each other
up).
Ketai put this movie together with
a cast of 14 friends, and was more
serious in its production.
"I only wanted friends who are in
school plays or forensics to be in the
movie," he said. "This film was a
huge step for me."
The four months of filming took
place in basements at his and friends'
houses and in the warehouse district
of downtown Detroit. Filming during
the December break meant a schedule
of 11 or 12 hours of shooting most
days, although only four or five days
of shooting per person, depending on
the role.
Ketai said he first began looking at c-\
movies through a director's eyes at age
5 when his parents, Bob Ketai and
Bonnie Fishman, bought him a copy
of Batman.
"Tim Burton had a huge impact
on me," he said of the film's director.
"My parents thought kids would like
the superheroes, but I liked the dark-
ness in the film."
Ketai also admires directors
Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) for
his writing skills and Robert
Rodriguez (Desperado) because he
made his film El Mariachi for $7,000
when he was just 18 years old.
"He can do it all," said Fishman of
her son. "He visually sees the whole
product. He would shoot a scene in
four different directions because he
knew what he wanted to have."
Donna Learmont, a video teacher
at Bloomfield Hills Lahser High
School, said Ketai's ability to do it all
in film is a rare talent.
"He can conceptualize an idea and
visualize how it will look and he's a
terrific editor," she said. "Even with
all his potential, he has a work ethic
where he just sirs down and pecks
away at everything. "
Ketai has more than just his inter-
est in filmmaking to occupy him.
He's on the Andover track team, in
the National Honor Society and he
went to Florida to work With Habitat
for Humanity.
Making Transgression may have
proved too addicting, he admits.
"My grades slipped some, I got
run down and sick a lot," said Ketai.
"I did get excited to get up and finish
school so I could work on it more. I
put myself up to this."
Ketai isn't looking to make any-
thing huge — yet.
"I'd definitely like this for a career
because it's too expensive to be a
hobby," he said. Ketai has his sights
set on film school at the University of
Southern California or New York
University, which are among the
nation's preeminent schools. "I'm just
looking for an in." fl
Transgression will have its pre-
mier showing at 8 p.m.
Thursday, May 13, at Andover
High School on Long Lake
Road, west of Telegraph,
Bloomfield Hills. Admission is
free. Students under 17 years old
must attend with a parent due to
the film's R rating.