Logline: The Berries, by Ben Eckstein

Baron Berrie, a celebrity business man, leads a double life as a secret spy, but it’s his dysfunctional family , obsessed with unearthing each others secrets he can’t handle.

Writer Biography – Ben Eckstein

Ben Eckstein- born and raised in an ultra ortudux neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel, he escaped religion, uber zionism and compulsory military service to work as a gas attendant in Portland Oregon at age 18. After a strict diet of stolen Slim Jim’s and enough money saved from window washing tips, he made his way to San Francisco where he joined an experimental ensemble physical theater group and pursued his BA from SFSU in Theatre which he followed with an MFA in acting from The Academy for Classical Acting and The George Washington University in DC.

He directed contemporary and classical plays around the country and was the creator of So Dark acting ensemble in Los Angeles.

Ben has written several plays including Zero Fucks which he adopted into a feature film he produced and directed in 2020, it won the Best Comedy Feature award at the Indie Gathering Film Festival, in Cleveland, Ohio.

Currently Ben is working on developing two TV pilots, Walker Lake, exploring the lives and actions of environmental terrorists, and The Berries, following a dysfunctional family obsessed with unearthing each others secrets. He is also compiling a book of his short stories and has made a new year’s resolution to stop eating hot peppers due to a severe allergy no matter how much he loves them.

Writer Statement

My father was a double secret agent who worked for the Israeli Mossad as an infiltrator in a right wing terrorist cell, while getting infatuated with the cell’s ideology and switching sides. He ended up plotting and executing Israel’s first political assassination, and spent seven years in jail for the murder, and the rest of his life regretting that he pressed that trigger. The Berries is loosely based on my personal experience within my family, the secrets and dangers that were lurking, and the price we had to pay to bear them.