James Benning
- Directing
- December 28, 1942 · Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Biography
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.
Known for
Filmography
- Eight Bridges · Director
- Adulthood · Writer
- Little Boy · Director
- Cuba, an Historical Romance · Director
- Breathless · Director
- Allensworth · Director, Producer
- TEN YEARS LATER · Director
- Exquisite Moving Corpse · Director
- The United States of America · Director, Writer
- Benning's Dream · Self
- In Process... · Director
- From Bakersfield to Mojave · Director
- Dancing in the Street, 11 grados de separación · Director
- On Paradise Road · Director
- PLACE · Director
- She Dies Tomorrow · Leatherman
- Maggie's Farm · Director, Writer
- 中孚 61. The Inner Truth
- daylight · Director
- Two Moons · Director
- The Wrecker Kings · Thanks
- Telemundo · Self, Director
- after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018) · Director
- glory · Director
- Birth of a Nation · Director
- L. Cohen · Self, Director
- SAM · Director
- Readers · Director
- Untitled Fragments · Director
- Ash 01 · Director
- scorched earth · Director
- thinking of red · Director
- Fall Equinox · Director
- wavelength · Director
- Spring Equinox · Director
- Measuring Change · Director
- Fresh Air · Director
- Santa Teresa & Other Stories · Thanks
- Perimeter · Director
- 52 Films · Director
- Concord Woods · Director
- Natural History · Director
- US 41 · Director
- HF · Director
- signs · Director
- Data Entry · Director
- FUCK ME (green) · Director
- FUCK ME (orange) · Director
- Coming to Terms · The Father
- Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater · Self
- BNSF · Director
- The War · Director
- One Way Boogie Woogie · Director
- Easy Rider · Director, Writer
- Stemple Pass · Ted Kaczynski (Voice), Director
- Postscript · Director
- Nightfall · Director
- 20 Little Films · Director
- Maintenance · Self
- All That She Surveys · Writer
- After Warhol · Director
- Faces · Director
- Small Roads · Director
- Two Cabins · Director
- YouTube Trilogy: 4 Songs, History, Asian Girls · Director
- Twenty Cigarettes · Director, Writer
- The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes · Owl Eyes
- Tulare Road · Director
- Pig Iron · Director, Writer
- Reforming the Past · Director
- Faces 1973 · Director
- Among Enemies: Jeonju Digital Project 2010 · Director
- John Krieg Exiting the Falk Corporation in 1971 · Director
- Ruhr · Director, Editing
- Fire & Rain · Director
- Lunch Break · Editing
- RR · Director
- Casting a Glance · Director, Producer
- Water Spell · Thanks
- One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later · Director