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) 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.
Personal Details
Also Known As
Movies (50)
Little Boy
Director (Directing)
2025
Cuba, an Historical Romance
Director (Directing)
2024
Breathless
Director (Directing)
2024
Allensworth
Director (Directing)
2022
TEN YEARS LATER
Director (Directing)
2022
Exquisite Moving Corpse
Director (Directing)
2022
The United States of America
Director (Directing)
2022
Benning's Dream
as Self (voice)
2021
In Process...
Director (Directing)
2021
From Bakersfield to Mojave
Director (Directing)
2021
Dancing in the Street, 11 grados de separación
Director (Directing)
2020
On Paradise Road
2020
PLACE
Director (Directing)
2020
She Dies Tomorrow
as Leatherman
2020
Maggie's Farm
Director (Directing)
2020
中孚 61. The Inner Truth
2019
daylight
Director (Directing)
2019
Two Moons
Director (Directing)
2019
The Wrecker Kings
Thanks (Crew)
2019
Telemundo
as Himself
2018
after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018)
Director (Directing)
2018
glory
Director (Directing)
2018
Birth of a Nation
Director (Directing)
2018
L. Cohen
as Himself
2018
SAM
Director (Directing)
2018
Readers
Director (Directing)
2017
Untitled Fragments
Director (Directing)
2017
scorched earth
Director (Directing)
2016
Ash 01
Director (Directing)
2016
thinking of red
2016
Fall Equinox
Director (Directing)
2016
wavelength
Director (Directing)
2016
Spring Equinox
Director (Directing)
2016
Measuring Change
Director (Directing)
2016
Fresh Air
Director (Directing)
2016
Santa Teresa & Other Stories
Thanks (Crew)
2015
Perimeter
Director (Directing)
2015
52 Films
Director (Directing)
2015
Concord Woods
Director (Directing)
2014
Natural History
Director (Directing)
2014
US 41
Director (Directing)
2014
signs
Director (Directing)
2014
HF
Director (Directing)
2014
FUCK ME (green)
Director (Directing)
2014
FUCK ME (orange)
Director (Directing)
2014
Coming to Terms
as The Father
2013
Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater
as Self
2013
BNSF
Director (Directing)
2013
The War
Director (Directing)
2012
One Way Boogie Woogie
Director (Directing)
2012