Directing · b. 1942 · Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

James Benning

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) an...

Directed
Eight Bridges 2026 Little Boy 2025 Cuba, an Historical Romance 2024 Breathless 2024 Exquisite Moving Corpse 2022 TEN YEARS LATER 2022 Allensworth 2022 The United States of America 2022 From Bakersfield to Mojave 2021 In Process... 2021 PLACE 2020 Maggie's Farm 2020 On Paradise Road 2020 Dancing in the Street, 11 grados de separación 2020 daylight 2019 Two Moons 2019 SAM 2018 L. Cohen 2018 glory 2018 Telemundo 2018 Birth of a Nation 2018 after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018) 2018 Untitled Fragments 2017 Readers 2017 Measuring Change 2016 Spring Equinox 2016 Ash 01 2016 scorched earth 2016 Fall Equinox 2016 wavelength 2016 thinking of red 2016 Fresh Air 2016 Perimeter 2015 52 Films 2015 Natural History 2014 HF 2014 US 41 2014 signs 2014 Concord Woods 2014 FUCK ME (green) 2014 FUCK ME (orange) 2014 BNSF 2013 The War 2012 Stemple Pass 2012 Nightfall 2012 Easy Rider 2012 Postscript 2012 One Way Boogie Woogie 2012 20 Little Films 2012 Twenty Cigarettes 2011 Small Roads 2011 Two Cabins 2011 Faces 2011 YouTube Trilogy: 4 Songs, History, Asian Girls 2011 After Warhol 2011 Pig Iron 2010 Faces 1973 2010 Among Enemies: Jeonju Digital Project 2010 2010 John Krieg Exiting the Falk Corporation in 1971 2010 Tulare Road 2010 Reforming the Past 2010 Ruhr 2009 RR 2007 Casting a Glance 2007 One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later 2005 74.78 2005 13 Lakes 2004 Ten Skies 2004 Sogobi 2002 Los 2001 El Valley Centro 2000 Utopia 1998 Four Corners 1997 Deseret 1996 Panama: Exploring the Panama Canal 1995 North on Evers 1992 Used Innocence 1989 TABLE TOP 1988 Landscape Suicide 1987 O Panama 1985 American Dreams (Lost and Found) 1984 Pascal's Lemma 1984 Him and Me 1982 Grand Opera: An Historical Romance 1979 11 x 14 1977 One Way Boogie Woogie 1977 Chicago Loop 1976 3 Minutes on the Dangers of Film Recording 1975 The United States of America 1975 9-1-75 1975 8½ x 11 1974 I-94 1974 Michigan Avenue 1974 Time and a Half 1972 Did You Ever Hear That Cricket Sound? 1971
Cinematography
Maggie's Farm 2020 Stemple Pass 2012 Easy Rider 2012 Pig Iron 2010 Ruhr 2009 Casting a Glance 2007 Landscape Suicide 1987 O Panama 1985 11 x 14 1977
Acting
Benning's Dream Self (voice) 2021 She Dies Tomorrow Leatherman 2020 中孚 61. The Inner Truth 2019 Coming to Terms The Father 2013 Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater Self 2013 The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes Owl Eyes 2011 James Benning: Circling the Image Himself 2003
Other Credits
Adulthood Writer 2026 The Wrecker Kings Thanks 2019 Santa Teresa & Other Stories Thanks 2015 All That She Surveys Writer 2012 Lunch Break Editor 2008 Water Spell Thanks 2007 Forevermore: Biography of a Leach Lord Thanks 1989
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