James Benning
Over the past thirty-five years James Benning (b. 1942) has played a central role in the history of American independent cinema by offering his rigorously structured yet wonderfully graceful films as extended meditations on the American landscape and its social and environmental histories. Benning’s life and work have been shaped by his passionate wanderlust—born in Milwaukee, he lived for intervals in Colorado, the Missouri Ozarks, Illinois and Oklahoma before settling in Val Verde, California in 1987, with car and motorcycle journeys around the country generating such films as I-94 (1975) and Four Corners (1997). His career has been equally restless, ranging from his early experimentation with an avant-garde aesthetic to his embrace, during the 1980s and 90s, of explicitly autobiographical elements and increased human content. With his “California Trilogy” (2000-2001) Benning entered a new phase, refining his formalist style and political concerns while distilling his abiding interest in place and exacting organizational structures.
James Benning: Circling the Image
(Himself)
Coming to Terms
(The Father)
California Trilogy
Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater
(Himself)
The United States of America
thinking of red
Used Innocence
((voice))
The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes
(Owl Eyes)
Maintenance
(Himself)
L. Cohen
(Himself)
Telemundo
(Himself)
Benning's Dream
(Self (voice))
中孚 61. The Inner Truth
She Dies Tomorrow
(Leatherman)
On Paradise Road
Time and a Half
(Director)
daylight
(Director)
13 Lakes
(Director)
Ruhr
(Director)
PLACE
(Director)
O Panama
(Sound)
O Panama
(Director of Photography)
O Panama
(Editor)
Deseret
(Director)
Twenty Cigarettes
(Director)
Landscape Suicide
(Director)
Sogobi
(Director)
The War
(Director)
10 Skies
(Director)
Grand Opera: An Historical Romance
(Director)
RR
(Director)
Him and Me
(Director)
Four Corners
(Director)
Los
(Director)
El Valley Centro
(Director)
Casting a Glance
(Editor)
Casting a Glance
(Cinematography)
Casting a Glance
(Director)
Casting a Glance
(Writer)
Casting a Glance
(Producer)
Small Roads
(Director)
Utopia
(Director)
Used Innocence
(Director)
11 x 14
(Director)
American Dreams (Lost and Found)
(Director)
Exquisite Moving Corpse
(Director)
8½ x 11
(Director)
Stemple Pass
(Director)
One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later
(Director)
North on Evers
(Director)
BNSF
(Director)
One Way Boogie Woogie
(Director)
Two Cabins
(Director)
Nightfall
(Director)
Easy Rider
(Director)
Postscript
(Director)
Faces
(Director)
Did You Ever Hear That Cricket Sound?
(Director)
Cuba, an Historical Romance
(Director)
3 Minutes on the Dangers of Film Recording
(Director)
YouTube Trilogy
(Director)
After Warhol
(Director)
Chicago Loop
(Director)
TEN YEARS LATER
(Director)
One Way Boogie Woogie
(Director)
Pig Iron
(Cinematography)
Pig Iron
(Producer)
Pig Iron
(Writer)
Pig Iron
(Director)
Pascal's Lemma
(Director)
Natural History
(Director)
Allensworth
(Director)
Lunch Break
(Editor)
US 41
(Director)
signs
(Director)
HF
(Director)
Santa Teresa & Other Stories
(Thanks)
SAM
(Director)
Stemple Pass
(Producer)
Stemple Pass
(Editor)
Stemple Pass
(Director of Photography)
The United States of America
(Director)
Faces 1973
(Director)
The United States of America
(Director)
I-94
(Director)
Michigan Avenue
(Director)
74.78
(Director)
Fire & Rain
(Director)
Measuring Change
(Director)
Among Enemies: Jeonju Digital Project 2010
(Director)
Spring Equinox
(Director)
Breathless
(Director)
20 Little Films
(Director)
John Krieg Exiting the Falk Corporation in 1971
(Director)
scorched earth
(Director)
Ash 01
(Director)
Fall Equinox
(Director)
wavelength
(Director)
thinking of red
(Director)
Untitled Fragments
(Director)
Allensworth
(Producer)
Water Spell
(Thanks)
Landscape Suicide
(Writer)
Readers
(Director)
Used Innocence
(Writer)
L. Cohen
(Director)
Grand Opera: An Historical Romance
(Writer)
O Panama
(Director)
Perimeter
(Director)
Tulare Road
(Director)
The Wrecker Kings
(Thanks)
10 Skies
(Producer)
glory
(Director)
Ruhr
(Editor)
Fresh Air
(Director)
Panama: Exploring the Panama Canal
(Director)
One Way Boogie Woogie
(Writer)
52 Films
(Director)
Concord Woods
(Director)
Ruhr
(Director of Photography)
Ruhr
(Writer)
Ruhr
(Sound Editor)
Telemundo
(Director)
Telemundo
(Producer)
9-1-75
(Director)
Easy Rider
(Writer)
Easy Rider
(Editor)
Easy Rider
(Director of Photography)
Easy Rider
(Producer)
Two Moons
(Director)
All That She Surveys
(Writer)
Birth of a Nation
(Director)
Reforming the Past
(Director)
Twenty Cigarettes
(Writer)
Maggie's Farm
(Director)
FUCK ME (green)
(Director)
FUCK ME (orange)
(Director)
Landscape Suicide
(Director of Photography)
Landscape Suicide
(Producer)
Landscape Suicide
(Editor)
Maggie's Farm
(Editor)
Maggie's Farm
(Writer)
Maggie's Farm
(Cinematography)
On Paradise Road
(Director)
11 x 14
(Writer)
11 x 14
(Producer)
11 x 14
(Editor)
Dancing in the Street, 11 grados de separación
(Director)
From Bakersfield to Mojave
(Director)
after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018)
(Director)