James Benning
Known For
Directing
Born
1942-12-28 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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.
Most Known For
Telemundo
as Himself
She Dies Tomorrow
as Leatherman
The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes
as Owl Eyes
Benning's Dream
as Self (voice)
Coming to Terms
as The Father
Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater
as Self
Used Innocence
as (voice)
Stemple Pass
as Ted Kaczynski (voice)
L. Cohen
as Himself
中孚 61. The Inner Truth
James Benning: Circling the Image
as Himself
Maintenance
as Himself
The United States of America
On Paradise Road
Four Corners
as Narrator
thinking of red
