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)
- Exquisite Moving Corpse ... (Director)
- The United States of America ... (Director)
- TEN YEARS LATER ... (Director)
2021
- From Bakersfield to Mojave ... (Director)
- Benning's Dream as Self (voice)
- 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
- 中孚 61. The Inner Truth
- The Wrecker Kings ... (Thanks)
- daylight ... (Director)
- Two Moons ... (Director)
2018
- Birth of a Nation ... (Director)
- Telemundo as Himself
- glory ... (Director)
- SAM ... (Director)
- L. Cohen as Himself
- after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018) ... (Director)
2017
- Untitled Fragments ... (Director)
- Readers ... (Director)
2016
- Measuring Change ... (Director)
- scorched earth ... (Director)
- Spring Equinox ... (Director)
- Ash 01 ... (Director)
- wavelength ... (Director)
- thinking of red
- Fall Equinox ... (Director)
- Fresh Air ... (Director)
2015
- Santa Teresa & Other Stories ... (Thanks)
- 52 Films ... (Director)
- Perimeter ... (Director)
2014
- Natural History ... (Director)
- US 41 ... (Director)
- Concord Woods ... (Director)
- FUCK ME (green) ... (Director)
- FUCK ME (orange) ... (Director)
- HF ... (Director)
- signs ... (Director)
2013
- Coming to Terms as The Father
- Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater as Self
- BNSF ... (Director)
2012
- 20 Little Films ... (Director)
- Easy Rider ... (Director)
- All That She Surveys ... (Writer)
- Nightfall ... (Director)
- Stemple Pass as Ted Kaczynski (voice)
- Postscript ... (Director)
- Maintenance as Himself
- The War ... (Director)
- One Way Boogie Woogie ... (Director)
2011
- YouTube Trilogy: 4 Songs, History, Asian Girls ... (Director)
- Faces ... (Director)
- Small Roads ... (Director)
- Two Cabins ... (Director)
- The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes as Owl Eyes
- Twenty Cigarettes ... (Director)
- After Warhol ... (Director)
2010
- Tulare Road ... (Director)
- Among Enemies: Jeonju Digital Project 2010 ... (Director)
- Pig Iron ... (Director)
- John Krieg Exiting the Falk Corporation in 1971 ... (Director)
- Reforming the Past ... (Director)
- Faces 1973 ... (Director)
2009
- Fire & Rain ... (Director)
- Ruhr ... (Director)
2008
- Lunch Break ... (Editor)
2007
- Water Spell ... (Thanks)
- RR ... (Director)
- Casting a Glance ... (Director)
2005
- 74.78 ... (Director)
- One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later ... (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
- Panama: Exploring the Panama Canal ... (Director)
- Deseret ... (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
- 9-1-75 ... (Director)
- 3 Minutes on the Dangers of Film Recording ... (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)