Arma Benoit Is Taking Her Turn
By Matt Levy
Arma Benoit defies labels. Don’t believe me? Well, the only proper way to title her is “Writer, director, producer, comedian, essayist, wife and mother Arma Benoit” and I’m honestly leaving a few titles out for brevity’s sake. Benoit’s doing all of the above and more for a good reason too. She said, “I don’t see anything out there for women of my age about pursuing a creative career later in life. I’m married, have two kids, but now I want to pursue MY dreams. They aren’t new. They’ve just been shelved because I was told to wait my turn. Then they say perhaps I missed my turn. Turns out there’s no turns and I’ve been waiting in a non-existent f*cking line. I see so many inspirational things about young women going for it. What about the forgotten Gen X women? (The cool ones.) My stories speak to that.” Hell yes.
Benoit talks a big game, yes, but she has all the talent to back it up. She is the voice of a forgotten generation and their time is now. It all began in 1979, when Arma was eight. She asked her mother how TV shows and movies were made. Her mom replied, “It’s a job to write and direct them.” Benoit knew that’s what she had to do. She eventually landed at the Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA) in 9th grade for theater and later went on to win several national writing awards while in high school. Benoit described her high school experience as, “A weird movie only it was real.” Unfortunately, when her parents divorced, her mother had to take her out of ASFA before she graduated.
Arma went on to attend a new high school where, adorned with a mohawk, drawings on her face, and combat boots she was dubbed the “Resident weirdo.” She listened to Siouxsie and The Banshees and Minor Threat and spent a lot of time watching Penelope Spheeris documentaries and art house films. As the new kid with the alternative tastes, Benoit was a, “Minor celebrity who had no friends.” However, by the time she graduated, she was shocked to be voted “Most talented.” She was a freak, but she was their freak. Her influence was so widespread, the school newspaper even wrote an article about her called “Arma is Arma.”
While immersed in her new school’s theater department she hoped more than anything to attend NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and start her new life. She got very close. Benoit passed the audition and was accepted into NYU (Arma pointed out, “It’s a two-part process. You could have the grades and SAT score, but fail the audition or vice versa”). However, her parents forbade her to go, because “Acting isn’t a real job.”
Instead, she put herself through film school at Georgia State (with a double minor in journalism and philosophy- as always doing it all. She likes to say she, “Majored in fantasy with a minor in angst.” ) After school, she worked as a camera operator in the 1996 Olympics and then went on to work as a camera operator with The Atlanta Braves (the only female at the time.) She started working on music videos (artists from James Brown to Outkast to T.I. to Lil Jon and really, most of the Atlanta hip-hop artists of the early 2000’s) and commercials before graduating to film and TV.
Arma has since returned to acting in her forties. She had the epiphany, “I can do what I want” and is riding that to the top. It took her a long time to reach this philosophy though, with many pitfalls on the road to success.
She was raised by “Conservative,but educated” parents who don’t take anything for granted. This began when Benoit’s poverty-stricken grandmother had to drop off her dad and his sister at an orphanage when he was four or they would have starved. Her grandmother worked her ass off, came back to collect her children and they worshipped her until she passed away at the ripe, old age of 101. This fear of poverty permeated throughout her life though. As a child, she once found 20 bottles of Ivory shampoo in a closet. When Benoit asked her father about it, he replied, “They were on sale and that way I knew if the bottom fell out, we’d at least have shampoo.” Once, when Benoit’s apartment burned down and she lost everything, her father told her, “Well, that will build character.”
As a result, Arma is a strong and persistent artist with an unshakeable work ethic who values a dollar. It is important to note that Arma was “Very happy growing up and believed everything my parents told me. I was never scared, felt unloved or had to worry about food or shelter.” They might not have been feminists, but they weren’t cruel.
Never able to quite fit any traditional mold, even her love story isn’t exactly your typical “meet cute.” Benoit, a wickedly funny writer in her own right, wrote a sharp and juicy ten-page essay called 1000 Roads to Here that chronicles how she met her husband. I’ll try my best to capture Benoit’s voice and summarize (the story is in bold):
Arma was at a party in Columbia, SC one night in 1988 and decided to call her friend in Atlanta to see if she had weed, because Arma was out and the town was dry. She ended up moving to Atlanta and sleeping on her friend’s floor for a few months until she got her own place. Eventually, they lost touch.
Fast forward to summer 2006. Arma’s at the legendary Georgia watering hole The Star Bar for a benefit to raise money for a friend who had lost his legs in an accident. They even sold t-shirts that said “Got Legs?” Her friend from 18 years before was there and made small talk with Arma. A lot had changed and Arma didn’t recognize her, so she made polite conversation without knowing it was her friend from so many years before.
It wasn’t until the next day that she realized who it had been, & Arma was desperate to track her friend down. Since it was 2006, Benoit created a Myspace account to find her. For privacy purposes, she changed her profile picture to a photo of an amazing block structure her young son had made.
Somehow, this block structure drew the attention of a French writer who was interested in becoming her Myspace friend. This mysterious writer lived in Paris, wrote poetry, short stories, made music and Benoit accepted the friend request.
Well, as it turns out, he is Arma’s true love. He became her husband, father of her youngest son, and best friend she’s ever had. They’ve been together for 12 years and she is currently writing a film about how they met and their crazy life. All because in 1988, she ran out of weed.
The story is truly an amazing read and if you’re interested reach out to Benoit for the whole piece. It’s worth it.
These days, Benoit is fully bringing the voice of the cool Gen X’er who had to grow up to the world. You can see this in her work like the short film Amaia that she wrote and directed. Arma described the short as the most satisfying project she’s ever worked on, and when it won awards, she was thrilled and shocked. Amaia is an elegiac, experimental film about a young poet that Benoit says is, “Kind of a poem in film form or a film in poem form.” The film, anchored by a twinkly, beautiful score by composer Ashilee Roberts features gorgeous, crisp natural imagery complete with a stunning time lapse sequence, superb sound design and understated acting by poet Amaia Clements who speaks volumes just with her expressions. The film is not available online yet as Benoit continues to shop it around the festival market but keep your eyes peeled for this one in the future. While short, clocking in just under four minutes, it’s a powerful film highlighting the beauty of Atlanta in a poetic way that you won’t forget anytime soon.
When not behind the camera, Benoit does stand up and recently performed in an all-female show at The Punchline on International Women’s Day. In her set, she dazzled the crowd with tales about living in Georgia with a very sex-positive French husband and raising her kids in a flatulence-friendly household. Onstage, Benoit demonstrated an ease showing off her natural abilities; storytelling and being funny come to her easily and this just may be her calling. She certainly has enough stories for multiple specials.
Up next for Benoit, she’s writing a show called “I’m Not Drunk, I’m Amazing.” It will be mostly stand-up, but she clarified, “It’s not only that.” In addition, she was set to film her next short Why I Hate Golf right before COVID-19 hit. Further down the line, Benoit sees herself making films, producing a show, performing and writing for a living. She has been fortunate to make a really good living helping other people with their projects. She is now more than ready, and long overdue, to make that kind of money with her own material.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s time for this Writer, director, producer, comedian, essayist, wife and mother to shine.
You can find Arma’s production company, Amaia’s website, Amaia’s Instagram and Arma’s Twitter by clicking these links!
Finally! One more Benoit tidbit that I couldn’t fit into this story but love too much to omit:
Arma’s stories speak to the Beta artist. She’s currently working on an essay titled “Death of the Beta Artist.” As she put it: “When I was coming up there were “real” artists and “pop” artists. Nobody expected Bukowski to be good on a talk show. (Can you imagine? What a disaster!) Emily Dickinson would not have survived a press tour. So why does everyone: actors, singers, writers, comedians, even painters-why is everyone supposed to be camera ready, well-spoken, personable-the life of the party and a hit about the town. What happened to the weirdo, awkward people whose only redeeming quality is that they are amazing artists? My art is for them/about them.”
