Her father, Dwight Franklin, was employed as a costume designer and her mother, Mary C. McCall Jr., worked as a screenwriter and novelist.

She was also a film reviewer for a radio station in Marin County[2] and wrote a column titled "Good Movies" in the Co-Evolution Quarterly beginning in the winter of 1978.

[11] Her coverage, essays and interviews appeared in publications including Variety, Premiere, Film Comment and The New York Times.

[14] Benson was the writer for, and host of, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' birthday centennial tribute of Mary Pickford in 1993.

[15] She also wrote the narration for HBO's The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Film[16] and the liner notes for the DVD release of Horton Foote's Tomorrow.