Benjamin Howard on Life-Writing, Exorcising Demons, and Crafting Narratives in Riley

Writer-director Benjamin Howard draws heavily on his own story for his first feature film Riley (2023). In it, the eponymous character (Jake Holley), a high-school athlete, is coming to terms with his sexuality. The film explores his interactions with diverse characters including his girlfriend (Riley Quinn Scott), his best friend (Colin McCalla), a fellow student (Connor Storrie) who is more openly gay, and an older man (J.B. Waterman) with whom he plans to have a sexual encounter. In this interview, Howard and I go over the making of the film. We begin by attending to his earlier short "Rendezvous" (2021), a thoughtful meditation on issues of sexual consent. This proof-of-concept short explores some of the thematic concerns in Riley and it shares most of the same cast. We go on to explore Howard's process for his feature, which exists in its own universe. Howard describes how he has made his personal story more universal, and how his plot crystalizes as he revisits his own experiences through writing, directing, and editing the film. This interview advances scholarship by emphasizing the process of filmmaking and it concludes by offering insight into the promotion of film in the current climate.