Santiago James

My name is James Benton and I was born and bred in the state of Georgia. I moved with my family from Savannah to Atlanta when I was four years old and I have lived in the Atlanta metropolitan area ever since. Originally, I was pursuing a career in the medical world because I both of my parents are physicians. But after attending Emory University and not foreseeing a reasonable path, I transferred to the Savannah College of Art and Design after watching a bunch of documentaries on my break from school. I originally wanted to focus on documentary style filmmaking, but I transitioned to the narrative form after learning about storytellers such as Spike Lee, Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, et cetera. My whole family looked at me sideways when I decided to go this route because no one else in my family is in the film or entertainment industry except for a cousin who is a moderately successful photographer. I want to leave a legacy behind as a great storyteller and filmmaker and become philanthropic in my later years and give back to those who gave to me.