James Benning
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- December 28, 1942 (age 83)
- Birthplace
- 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
Photos
Filmography
Two Skies
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Hwy 1
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Eden
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Eight Bridges
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Little Boy
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Cuba, an Historical Romance
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Breathless
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Exquisite Moving Corpse
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TEN YEARS LATER
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Allensworth
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The United States of America
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From Bakersfield to Mojave
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In Process...
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PLACE
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Maggie's Farm
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On Paradise Road
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Dancing in the Street, 11 grados de separación
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daylight
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Two Moons
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SAM
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L. Cohen
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glory
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Telemundo
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Birth of a Nation
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after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018)
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Untitled Fragments
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Readers
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Measuring Change
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Spring Equinox
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scorched earth
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Ash 01
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Fall Equinox
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wavelength
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thinking of red
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Fresh Air
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Perimeter
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52 Films
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Natural History
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US 41
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signs
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HF
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Concord Woods
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FUCK ME (green)
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FUCK ME (orange)
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Data Entry
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BNSF
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The War
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Stemple Pass
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Nightfall
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Easy Rider
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Postscript
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One Way Boogie Woogie
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20 Little Films
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Twenty Cigarettes
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Small Roads
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Two Cabins
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Faces
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YouTube Trilogy: 4 Songs, History, Asian Girls
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After Warhol
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Pig Iron
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Faces 1973
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Among Enemies: Jeonju Digital Project 2010
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John Krieg Exiting the Falk Corporation in 1971
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Tulare Road
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Reforming the Past
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Ruhr
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Fire & Rain
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RR
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Casting a Glance
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One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later
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74.78
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13 Lakes
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Ten Skies
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Sogobi
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Los
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El Valley Centro
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Utopia
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Four Corners
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Deseret
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Panama: Exploring the Panama Canal
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North on Evers
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Used Innocence
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TABLE TOP
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Landscape Suicide
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O Panama
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American Dreams (Lost and Found)
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Pascal's Lemma
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Him and Me
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Grand Opera: An Historical Romance
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11 x 14
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One Way Boogie Woogie
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Chicago Loop
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3 Minutes on the Dangers of Film Recording
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The United States of America
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9-1-75
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8½ x 11
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I-94
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Michigan Avenue
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Time and a Half
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Did You Ever Hear That Cricket Sound?
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