James Benning
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.
Acting
Movie
She Dies Tomorrow
as Leatherman
2020
Movie
The United States of America
1975
Movie
Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater
as Self
2013
Movie
L. Cohen
as Himself
2018
Movie
Stemple Pass
as Ted Kaczynski (voice)
2012
Movie
Used Innocence
as (voice)
1989
Movie
Four Corners
as Narrator
1997
Movie
Coming to Terms
as The Father
2013
Movie
Forevermore: Biography of a Leach Lord
1989
Movie
Telemundo
as Himself
2018
Movie
James Benning: Circling the Image
as Himself
2003
Movie
Maintenance
as Himself
2012
Movie
thinking of red
2016
Movie
The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes
as Owl Eyes
2011
Movie
Benning's Dream
as Self (voice)
2021
Movie
中孚 61. The Inner Truth
2019
Movie
On Paradise Road
2020
Crew
Movie
RR
Director
2007
Movie
Landscape Suicide
Director
1987
Movie
Deseret
Director
1996
Movie
Ten Skies
Director
2004
Movie
Small Roads
Director
2011
Movie
One Way Boogie Woogie
Director
1977
Movie
13 Lakes
Director
2004
Movie
Ruhr
Director
2009
Movie
American Dreams (Lost and Found)
Director
1984
Movie
El Valley Centro
Director
2000
Movie
One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later
Director
2005
Movie
BNSF
Director
2013