Person
James Benning
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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 wonderful…
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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
Movies and shows, newest first
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2026
Eight Bridges
Movie Director
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2026
Adulthood
Movie Writer
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2025
Little Boy
Movie Director
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2024
Cuba, an Historical Romance
Movie Director
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2024
Breathless
Movie Director
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2022
Allensworth
Movie Director
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2022
TEN YEARS LATER
Movie Director
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2022
Exquisite Moving Corpse
Movie Director
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2022
The United States of America
Movie Director
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2021
Benning's Dream
Movie Self (voice)
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2021
In Process...
Movie Director
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2021
From Bakersfield to Mojave
Movie Director
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2020
Dancing in the Street, 11 grados de separación
Movie Director
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2020
On Paradise Road
Movie
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2020
PLACE
Movie Director
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2020
She Dies Tomorrow
Movie Leatherman
More credits
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2020
Maggie's Farm
Movie Director
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2019
中孚 61. The Inner Truth
Movie
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2019
daylight
Movie Director
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2019
Two Moons
Movie Director
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2019
The Wrecker Kings
Movie Thanks
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2018
Telemundo
Movie Himself
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2018
after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018)
Movie Director
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2018
glory
Movie Director
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2018
Birth of a Nation
Movie Director
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2018
L. Cohen
Movie Himself
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2018
SAM
Movie Director
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2017
Readers
Movie Director
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2017
Untitled Fragments
Movie Director
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2016
Ash 01
Movie Director
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2016
scorched earth
Movie Director
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2016
Fall Equinox
Movie Director
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2016
wavelength
Movie Director
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2016
thinking of red
Movie
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2016
Spring Equinox
Movie Director
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2016
Measuring Change
Movie Director
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2016
Fresh Air
Movie Director
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2015
Santa Teresa & Other Stories
Movie Thanks
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2015
Perimeter
Movie Director
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2015
52 Films
Movie Director
