James Benning
Directing · Born Dec 28, 1942 · Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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
Directed
Eight Bridges
2026
Little Boy
20256.0
Breathless
2024
Allensworth
20228.0
TEN YEARS LATER
2022
Exquisite Moving Corpse
2022
The United States of America
20225.5
In Process...
2021
From Bakersfield to Mojave
2021
On Paradise Road
2020
PLACE
2020
Maggie's Farm
2020
daylight
2019
Two Moons
20195.0
Telemundo
20183.5
after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018)
2018
glory
20188.0
L. Cohen
20185.2
Readers
20174.5
Fall Equinox
20166.0
Spring Equinox
20166.0
Measuring Change
20165.7
Perimeter
2015
52 Films
20155.0
Natural History
20145.4
signs
2014
Data Entry
2014
BNSF
20135.5
The War
20122.3
One Way Boogie Woogie
20127.5
Easy Rider
20126.8
Stemple Pass
20127.9
Postscript
20124.0
Nightfall
20126.2
20 Little Films
20126.0
After Warhol
20115.0
Faces
2011
Small Roads
20116.8
Two Cabins
20117.0
YouTube Trilogy: 4 Songs, History, Asian Girls
20115.7
Twenty Cigarettes
20113.0
Tulare Road
2010
Pig Iron
20107.3
Among Enemies: Jeonju Digital Project 2010
2010
John Krieg Exiting the Falk Corporation in 1971
2010
Ruhr
20096.6
Fire & Rain
200910.0
RR
20077.0
Casting a Glance
20077.4
One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later
20056.6
74.78
2005
Ten Skies
20047.2
13 Lakes
20046.4
Sogobi
20026.8
Los
20016.6
El Valley Centro
20007.4
Utopia
19987.0
Four Corners
19976.2
Deseret
19965.6
Panama: Exploring the Panama Canal
1995
North on Evers
19927.5
Used Innocence
19896.0
TABLE TOP
1988
Landscape Suicide
19877.4
O Panama
19856.0
American Dreams (Lost and Found)
19847.4
Him and Me
19828.0
Grand Opera: An Historical Romance
19797.5
11 x 14
19777.4
One Way Boogie Woogie
19776.1
Chicago Loop
19768.0
9-1-75
19758.0
The United States of America
19757.8
Michigan Avenue
19745.6
8½ x 11
197410.0
I-94
19745.3
Time and a Half
1972
