Founder and CEO

Benjamin Patton founded the Patton Veterans Project in 2011. Since then, its I Was There Film Workshops have helped more than 1,500 veterans reclaim their voices and reconnect with purpose, with more than 100 workshops held across the U.S. at military bases, VA hospitals, and universities. The son of the late Major General George S. Patton IV and grandson of World War II’s General George S. Patton, Jr., Ben has been connected to the military all his life. Before founding PVP, he worked as a producer and development executive in music, television, and independent film in New York. He holds a BA from Georgetown University and an MA in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University. In 2024, the U.S. Army awarded him the Meritorious Public Service Medal, one of its highest honors for a private citizen. Though he did not wear the uniform, Ben has spent his life serving those who did, not with rank, but with story, giving veterans across the country the tools to share truths that only they can tell.

Lead Instructor, Illinois PVP Inaugural WSFDV Workshop

Erin Sanger is a Colorado native and Brooklyn-based filmmaker whose narrative and documentary work explores character-driven stories of trauma, resilience, and healing. She has worked with the veteran community since 2014 and joined PVP in February 2024, serving on 12 workshops and as Lead Instructor for six of them. Her films have been screened at SXSW, Tribeca, and Aspen Shortsfest and have been
featured on ESPN, ABC, Disney+, PBS, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Topic. Her ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, MACK WRESTLES, became the first short documentary ESPN Films selected for an Academy Award campaign. Sanger is a Wasserman Award winner, Webby Award honoree, Student Academy Award nominee, American Film Showcase Envoy, and Academy Nicholl Fellowship semifinalist. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she is currently directing The Coma Club, a feature documentary about families caring full-time for loved ones with severe traumatic brain injuries.

PVP Leadership Team, Supervising Instructor and Technical Advisor

Jason grew up in the film business, working on national commercial sets by age six. In 2012 he founded Heliorana Filmworks, where he remains lead producer for clients including Nike, Adidas, Portland General Electric, and the City of Portland. His television work includes outdoor adventure programming for the Outdoor Channel, FOX Sports, and Good Morning America, and his documentary feature has screened worldwide, including at Lincoln Center, and won Best Documentary Feature in Canada. In 2025 he earned an MS in Immersive Media Communication from the University of Oregon and plans to pursue a PhD. His specialties range from cinematography, editing, and aerial capture to XR development, experiential design, and trauma-informed interviewing. Raised in an Air Force family, Jason joined PVP in 2015 and now serves on its leadership team, overseeing all instructors.

Senior Instructor

Yonatan Weinstein is a New York-based editor and two-time Israeli Academy Award nominee. His credits include Waiting for Godot, starring Ethan Hawke and John Leguizamo; Valley of Tears (HBO Max), Israel’s largest-budget TV production to date; and Incitement, which won Best Picture at the Israeli Academy Awards and was Israel’s 2020 Oscar submission. He has also worked in development for Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures. A veteran of the Israeli Air Force, Yonatan is an alum of NYU Tisch, where he teaches Editing as an Adjunct Professor.

Senior Instructor

José Venutolo is a Venezuelan filmmaker with 14 years of experience directing, editing, producing, and working as a DIT and actor. His work spans short and feature films, documentaries, TV shows, music videos, and commercials. He is a filmmaking instructor and Youth Programs Director at the New York Film Academy and is fluent in Spanish, English, and Italian.

Senior Instructor

Taylor Gruver is an independent filmmaker whose work spans narrative films, documentaries, commercials, and branded content, with clients including Disney, Hawaiian Airlines, and Chase Sapphire. She has written, directed, and edited award-winning short films and served as Producer, Editor, and First Assistant Director on features and documentaries. A graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Taylor served nearly a decade in the Coast Guard as an Intelligence Officer and Deck Watch Officer. She first came to PVP as a workshop participant before joining the instructor team, where she now serves as a Senior Instructor.

Instructor

David Israeli is an actor and filmmaker based in New York City. He earned a BFA in Film and Television from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2016, focusing on directing and screenwriting. Since then he has helped produce films in Myanmar, worked on documentary projects spanning more than 20 countries, and created work in New York. His short film Lev’s Barbershop, Unisex is set to premiere at the New York Shorts International Film Festival this fall.

Director of Operations and Workshop Coordinator

Rand Henry began his military career in the U.S. Army Reserve before transitioning to active duty, completing 20 years of combined service in the U.S. Army. Stationed in Germany when the Gulf War began, he deployed with the 1st Cavalry Division for seven months in theater. During the ground war he earned the Bronze Star for combat action and two Army Commendation Medals, one with the “V” device for valor, before returning to Germany. He then reclassified his MOS and served 10 more years as a Special Operations comptroller embedded with Special Operations teams, including a military intelligence assignment in Korea with the Army’s only fixed-wing surveillance unit and 18 months as a special instructor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Over the past three years Rand has helped run 25 PVP workshops and has served as the on-site lead for 16 of them. An award-winning photojournalist with a degree in Journalism, he is earning a Master of Nonprofit Leadership and Management from ASU.

Former Participant and Podcast Host

Taylor Chapman is a retired U.S. Army soldier who served as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Technician and a Special Forces Medic (Green Beret). A former PVP workshop participant, he now produces a veteran health and wellness podcast as a resource of the Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.