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