James Benning
Born: 1942-12-28 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Known For: Directing
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.
Filmography
2026
- Adulthood ... (Writer)
- Eight Bridges ... (Director)
2025
- Little Boy ... (Director)
2024
- Breathless ... (Director)
- Cuba, an Historical Romance ... (Director)
2022
- Allensworth ... (Director)
- The United States of America ... (Director)
- Exquisite Moving Corpse ... (Director)
- TEN YEARS LATER ... (Director)
2021
- Benning's Dream as Self (voice)
- From Bakersfield to Mojave ... (Director)
- In Process... ... (Director)
2020
- She Dies Tomorrow as Leatherman
- Maggie's Farm ... (Director)
- On Paradise Road
- Dancing in the Street, 11 grados de separación ... (Director)
- PLACE ... (Director)
2019
- Two Moons ... (Director)
- The Wrecker Kings ... (Thanks)
- 中孚 61. The Inner Truth
- daylight ... (Director)
2018
- Birth of a Nation ... (Director)
- Telemundo as Himself
- after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018) ... (Director)
- L. Cohen as Himself
- glory ... (Director)
- SAM ... (Director)
2017
- Readers ... (Director)
- Untitled Fragments ... (Director)
2016
- Ash 01 ... (Director)
- Measuring Change ... (Director)
- wavelength ... (Director)
- Fall Equinox ... (Director)
- scorched earth ... (Director)
- Fresh Air ... (Director)
- thinking of red
- Spring Equinox ... (Director)
2015
- Santa Teresa & Other Stories ... (Thanks)
- 52 Films ... (Director)
- Perimeter ... (Director)
2014
- Natural History ... (Director)
- FUCK ME (orange) ... (Director)
- FUCK ME (green) ... (Director)
- US 41 ... (Director)
- HF ... (Director)
- signs ... (Director)
- Concord Woods ... (Director)
2013
- Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater as Self
- BNSF ... (Director)
- Coming to Terms as The Father
2012
- 20 Little Films ... (Director)
- Stemple Pass as Ted Kaczynski (voice)
- Postscript ... (Director)
- Easy Rider ... (Director)
- All That She Surveys ... (Writer)
- Nightfall ... (Director)
- The War ... (Director)
- Maintenance as Himself
- One Way Boogie Woogie ... (Director)
2011
- YouTube Trilogy: 4 Songs, History, Asian Girls ... (Director)
- Faces ... (Director)
- The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes as Owl Eyes
- Twenty Cigarettes ... (Director)
- Small Roads ... (Director)
- Two Cabins ... (Director)
- After Warhol ... (Director)
2010
- Pig Iron ... (Director)
- Among Enemies: Jeonju Digital Project 2010 ... (Director)
- Tulare Road ... (Director)
- John Krieg Exiting the Falk Corporation in 1971 ... (Director)
- Faces 1973 ... (Director)
- Reforming the Past ... (Director)
2009
- Ruhr ... (Director)
- Fire & Rain ... (Director)
2008
- Lunch Break ... (Editor)
2007
- Water Spell ... (Thanks)
- RR ... (Director)
- Casting a Glance ... (Director)
2005
- One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later ... (Director)
- 74.78 ... (Director)
2003
- James Benning: Circling the Image as Himself
2002
- Sogobi ... (Director)
2001
- Los ... (Director)
2000
- El Valley Centro ... (Director)
1998
- Utopia ... (Director)
1997
- Four Corners as Narrator
1995
- Deseret ... (Director)
- Panama: Exploring the Panama Canal ... (Director)
1992
- North on Evers ... (Director)
1989
1988
- TABLE TOP ... (Director)
1987
- Landscape Suicide ... (Director)
1985
- O Panama ... (Director of Photography)
1984
- American Dreams (Lost and Found) ... (Director)
- Pascal's Lemma ... (Director)
1982
- Him and Me ... (Director)
1979
- Grand Opera: An Historical Romance ... (Director)
1977
- 11 x 14 ... (Director)
- One Way Boogie Woogie ... (Director)
1976
- Chicago Loop ... (Director)
1975
- The United States of America
- 3 Minutes on the Dangers of Film Recording ... (Director)
- 9-1-75 ... (Director)
1974
- Michigan Avenue ... (Director)
- I-94 ... (Director)
- 8½ x 11 ... (Director)
1972
- Time and a Half ... (Director)
1971
- Did You Ever Hear That Cricket Sound? ... (Director)