James Benning
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Not enough rated films yet to compute a weighted score.
Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
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.
Known for
Credits
20 Little Films (2012)
Director
Grand Opera: An Historical Romance (1979)
Director
YouTube Trilogy: 4 Songs, History, Asian Girls (2011)
Director
Landscape Suicide (1987)
Director
North on Evers (1992)
Director
One Way Boogie Woogie (2012)
Director
El Valley Centro (2000)
Director
Two Skies (—)
Director
The United States of America (2022)
Director
Sogobi (2002)
Director
Did You Ever Hear That Cricket Sound? (1971)
Director
Casting a Glance (2007)
Director
Panama: Exploring the Panama Canal (1995)
Director
Faces (2011)
Director
Eight Bridges (2026)
Director
11 x 14 (1977)
Director
American Dreams (Lost and Found) (1984)
Director
Pig Iron (2010)
Director
Time and a Half (1972)
Director
The United States of America (1975)
Director
O Panama (1985)
Director
RR (2007)
Director
13 Lakes (2004)
Director
Dancing in the Street, 11 grados de separación (2020)
Director
From Bakersfield to Mojave (2021)
Director
Easy Rider (2012)
Director
One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later (2005)
Director
Twenty Cigarettes (2011)
Director
Among Enemies: Jeonju Digital Project 2010 (2010)
Director
Used Innocence (1989)
Director
Deseret (1996)
Director
One Way Boogie Woogie (1977)
Director
Nightfall (2012)
Director
Little Boy (2025)
Director
Los (2001)
Director
Small Roads (2011)
Director
Ten Skies (2004)
Director
52 Films (2015)
Director
Two Moons (2019)
Director
L. Cohen (2018)
Director
John Krieg Exiting the Falk Corporation in 1971 (2010)
Director
Stemple Pass (2012)
Director
Him and Me (1982)
Director
Fresh Air (2016)
Director
Telemundo (2018)
Director
Eden (—)
Director
9-1-75 (1975)
Director
3 Minutes on the Dangers of Film Recording (1975)
Director
Faces 1973 (2010)
Director
On Paradise Road (2020)
Director
Two Cabins (2011)
Director
The War (2012)
Director
Measuring Change (2016)
Director
Birth of a Nation (2018)
Director
daylight (2019)
Director
BNSF (2013)
Director
I-94 (1974)
Director
TABLE TOP (1988)
Director
8½ x 11 (1974)
Director
Michigan Avenue (1974)
Director
Fire & Rain (2009)
Director
FUCK ME (orange) (2014)
Director
Cuba, an Historical Romance (2024)
Director
Postscript (2012)
Director
US 41 (2014)
Director
Pascal's Lemma (1984)
Director
scorched earth (2016)
Director
Tulare Road (2010)
Director
Ruhr (2009)
Director
Perimeter (2015)
Director
after Traylor. Thoreau cabin (2008-2018) (2018)
Director
Allensworth (2022)
Director
Untitled Fragments (2017)
Director
After Warhol (2011)
Director
Fall Equinox (2016)
Director
Readers (2017)
Director
wavelength (2016)
Director
Spring Equinox (2016)
Director
glory (2018)
Director
Chicago Loop (1976)
Director
Data Entry (2014)
Director
Exquisite Moving Corpse (2022)
Director
Reforming the Past (2010)
Director
Utopia (1998)
Director
Breathless (2024)
Director
74.78 (2005)
Director
Concord Woods (2014)
Director
Natural History (2014)
Director
signs (2014)
Director
HF (2014)
Director
Four Corners (1997)
Director
SAM (2018)
Director
Maggie's Farm (2020)
Director
In Process... (2021)
Director
TEN YEARS LATER (2022)
Director
Ash 01 (2016)
Director
thinking of red (2016)
Director
PLACE (2020)
Director
Hwy 1 (—)
Director
FUCK ME (green) (2014)
Director