James Benning

Known for: Directing
Born: December 28, 1942, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Movies: 116

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.

Best-Known Movies

5.1

She Dies Tomorrow

2020

7.0

2007

7.4

Landscape Suicide

1987

5.6

Deseret

1996

7.2

Ten Skies

2004

6.4

13 Lakes

2004

6.8

Small Roads

2011

6.1

One Way Boogie Woogie

1977

6.6

Ruhr

2009

7.4

American Dreams (Lost and Found)

1984

Filmography

2021	Benning's Dream	Self (voice)
2020	On Paradise Road
2020	She Dies Tomorrow	Leatherman
2019	中孚 61. The Inner Truth
2018	Telemundo	Himself
2018	L. Cohen	Himself
2016	thinking of red
2013	Coming to Terms	The Father
2013	Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater	Self
2012	Stemple Pass	Ted Kaczynski (voice)
2012	Maintenance	Himself
2011	The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes	Owl Eyes
2003	James Benning: Circling the Image	Himself
1997	Four Corners	Narrator
1989	Forevermore: Biography of a Leach Lord
1989	Used Innocence	(voice)
1975	The United States of America

Directing, Writing & Producing

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

Data from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.