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
- The United States of America ... (Director)
- Allensworth ... (Director)
- Exquisite Moving Corpse ... (Director)
- TEN YEARS LATER ... (Director)
2021
- In Process... ... (Director)
- Benning's Dream as Self (voice)
- From Bakersfield to Mojave ... (Director)
2020
- She Dies Tomorrow as Leatherman
- Dancing in the Street, 11 grados de separación ... (Director)
- PLACE ... (Director)
- On Paradise Road
- Maggie's Farm ... (Director)
2019
- The Wrecker Kings ... (Thanks)
- daylight ... (Director)
- 中孚 61. The Inner Truth
- Two Moons ... (Director)
2018
- SAM ... (Director)
- Birth of a Nation ... (Director)
- Telemundo as Himself
- glory ... (Director)
- L. Cohen as Himself
- after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018) ... (Director)
2017
- Readers ... (Director)
- Untitled Fragments ... (Director)
2016
- Ash 01 ... (Director)
- Spring Equinox ... (Director)
- Fall Equinox ... (Director)
- Measuring Change ... (Director)
- Fresh Air ... (Director)
- scorched earth ... (Director)
- thinking of red
- wavelength ... (Director)
2015
- Santa Teresa & Other Stories ... (Thanks)
- 52 Films ... (Director)
- Perimeter ... (Director)
2014
- HF ... (Director)
- signs ... (Director)
- Natural History ... (Director)
- FUCK ME (orange) ... (Director)
- Concord Woods ... (Director)
- US 41 ... (Director)
- FUCK ME (green) ... (Director)
2013
- Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater as Self
- BNSF ... (Director)
- Coming to Terms as The Father
2012
- 20 Little Films ... (Director)
- All That She Surveys ... (Writer)
- Easy Rider ... (Director)
- Stemple Pass as Ted Kaczynski (voice)
- Maintenance as Himself
- Nightfall ... (Director)
- The War ... (Director)
- One Way Boogie Woogie ... (Director)
- Postscript ... (Director)
2011
- After Warhol ... (Director)
- The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes as Owl Eyes
- Two Cabins ... (Director)
- Twenty Cigarettes ... (Director)
- Faces ... (Director)
- YouTube Trilogy: 4 Songs, History, Asian Girls ... (Director)
- Small Roads ... (Director)
2010
- Among Enemies: Jeonju Digital Project 2010 ... (Director)
- Pig Iron ... (Director)
- Faces 1973 ... (Director)
- John Krieg Exiting the Falk Corporation in 1971 ... (Director)
- Reforming the Past ... (Director)
- Tulare Road ... (Director)
2009
- Ruhr ... (Director)
- Fire & Rain ... (Director)
2008
- Lunch Break ... (Editor)
2007
- Water Spell ... (Thanks)
- Casting a Glance ... (Director)
- RR ... (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
1996
- Deseret ... (Director)
1995
- 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
- Pascal's Lemma ... (Director)
- American Dreams (Lost and Found) ... (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
- 8½ x 11 ... (Director)
- I-94 ... (Director)
- Michigan Avenue ... (Director)
1972
- Time and a Half ... (Director)
1971
- Did You Ever Hear That Cricket Sound? ... (Director)