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
- Cuba, an Historical Romance ... (Director)
- Breathless ... (Director)
2022
- Exquisite Moving Corpse ... (Director)
- The United States of America ... (Director)
- Allensworth ... (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
- Two Moons ... (Director)
- daylight ... (Director)
- 中孚 61. The Inner Truth
- The Wrecker Kings ... (Thanks)
2018
- Telemundo as Himself
- Birth of a Nation ... (Director)
- L. Cohen as Himself
- glory ... (Director)
- after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018) ... (Director)
- SAM ... (Director)
2017
- Untitled Fragments ... (Director)
- Readers ... (Director)
2016
- Measuring Change ... (Director)
- Fall Equinox ... (Director)
- Spring Equinox ... (Director)
- wavelength ... (Director)
- Ash 01 ... (Director)
- thinking of red
- scorched earth ... (Director)
- Fresh Air ... (Director)
2015
- Santa Teresa & Other Stories ... (Thanks)
- Perimeter ... (Director)
- 52 Films ... (Director)
2014
- US 41 ... (Director)
- FUCK ME (orange) ... (Director)
- Natural History ... (Director)
- HF ... (Director)
- signs ... (Director)
- FUCK ME (green) ... (Director)
- Data Entry ... (Director)
- Concord Woods ... (Director)
2013
- Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater as Self
- Coming to Terms as The Father
- BNSF ... (Director)
2012
- 20 Little Films ... (Director)
- All That She Surveys ... (Writer)
- Easy Rider ... (Director)
- Nightfall ... (Director)
- One Way Boogie Woogie ... (Director)
- Postscript ... (Director)
- The War ... (Director)
- Stemple Pass as Ted Kaczynski (voice)
- Maintenance as Himself
2011
- The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes as Owl Eyes
- YouTube Trilogy: 4 Songs, History, Asian Girls ... (Director)
- Twenty Cigarettes ... (Director)
- Faces ... (Director)
- Two Cabins ... (Director)
- Small Roads ... (Director)
- After Warhol ... (Director)
2010
- Pig Iron ... (Director)
- Tulare Road ... (Director)
- Among Enemies: Jeonju Digital Project 2010 ... (Director)
- John Krieg Exiting the Falk Corporation in 1971 ... (Director)
- Reforming the Past ... (Director)
- Faces 1973 ... (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
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
- 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
- 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)