Benja Thompson
Archiving

Art, Film, Performance

Audio-Visual Coordination

Pollen

A practicing queer archivist, Benja Thompson interweaves obscured truths with radical imagination. As a 2024 Dance/USA Archiving Fellow, they vitalized LEIMAY's experimental performance history and presented an hour of footage for the 2025 AMIA Conference. In 2026, they received ArtsConnection's inaugural Ted S. Berger Award For Artistic Excellence to expand this work. Their filmwork has shown in microcinemas and festivals across the country, including Other Cinema, Northwest Film Forum, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Film-Makers' Coop. They are currently developing a practice of embodied cinema, performing at The Tank, Dixon Place, and Performance Mix Festival, as well as producing and curating Pollen, an expanded cinema marathon series. Technical coordinator credits include the Bessie-nominated A Meal by LEIMAY (HERE, 2024), MOMMA! (Exponential Festival, 2026), IMI (SoMad, 2026), and No Tail! (Cannonball Festival, 2026), alongside video supervision for Mercedes (BAM Next Wave, 2024) and Black Lodge (Prototype Festival, 2025). Alongside archiving for New Dance Alliance and LEIMAY, they pay the rent as a projectionist for Anthology Film Archives and BRIC, and will present an evening-length expanded cinema performance as part of Exponential Festival 2027.