Lasser on his Directing Debut, Long Live Benjamin

Wieden+Kennedy creative director Jimm Lasser always knew his cousin Allen Hirsch had his quirks, but when Hirsch’s pet capuchin monkey Benjamin died he saw the quirks in a whole new light, and realised it was his duty to relate Hirsch and Benjamin’s unique story.

An acclaimed portrait artist, Hirsch had painted the likes of Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and Pavarotti, but rarely dabbled in other media, least of all sculpture. So when Lasser turned up to comfort his cousin after hearing of Benjamin’s death, he was surprised to find the monkey’s body in a freezer while Hirsch was fashioning a clay replica of it. “I work in advertising but I’d never really thought about being a director,” says Lasser. “But seeing that scene compelled me to document it. I’d known a little bit about Allen’s life with Benjamin and that there was a bigger story there, so I thought it was a fantastic way to dive into what had happened because you had a grieving Allen, a sculpture and a body. It had to be done.”

Lasser admits it sounds surreal, but in actuality, it was far from it, particularly the way Hirsch was mourning the monkey as if he’d lost a child. So project Long Live Benjamin began – a tribute to the life and friendship between artist and monkey. Equipped with a rented camera, Lasser entered the world of directing pretty much blindly. With just a few parting tips from the camera shop staff, he recorded interviews with Hirsch and his wife Belkis over an intense two-day period, drawing on his Adland experience to structure the narrative. Concerning himself mainly with capturing the sincerity of the moment, rather than craft, Lasser slowly unpacked Benjamin’s story. The result is a personal look into the Hirsch family dynamic, an “unaesthetic” approach to exploring how the monkey arrived at the household (Hirsch smuggled him back to New York after finding him dying in Venezuela), how monkey and man co-existed and how Benjamin was laid to rest.

Due to Hirsch’s reluctance to bury Benjamin, the project ended up taking five years to complete and involved Lasser partnering with Rock Paper Scissors editor Biff Butler. Using some of Hirsch’s home footage to tease out the story, the pair gradually began to form a narrative and the film was eventually converted into a six-part documentary series that premiered on The New York Times’ Op-Docs forum. “Like my relationship with Allen, we collaborated to put this story together,” says Lasser of Butler’s co-director credit. “Biff’s influence was good because he wasn’t related to Allen; it was good to have someone to help formulate the story.”

Lasser realises he’s unlikely to gain the same access to a subject as he did on Long Live Benjamin. “Projects will have to stay personal or very special,” he says. “I saw the film as a way to connect with my cousin and collaborate. And in the process, I learnt to document and tell stories. I’m interested in the process – it’s so much more interesting to collaborate with your subjects.”

But he does have a future project in mind. He grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, one of the first towns in the US to experience a school shooting. In 1988, a mentally disturbed woman shot six children, killing one, and took a family hostage before killing herself. The story was barely reported, then buried soon afterwards. He finds this strange and is looking for ways to collaborate to explore this story and its connection to the town further.

“I saw the film as a way to connect with my cousin and collaborate. And in the process, I learnt to document and tell stories.”

Lasser is in no rush to take it on, fully aware of his capabilities – with a full-time job, a young child and a knack for delving deep into his subjects, he knows it’s got to be something he can invest his time in. But he has ideas… watch this space.