James Benning (born in 1942 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American filmmaker. He is the son of German immigrants and studied film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1975), where he studied under David Bordwell. He has worked as an independent filmmaker ever since. His films focus on a sense of place and are often built from long, unedited takes. He used to work in Chicago but in recent years has been based on the West Coast. In addition to his film work, he has taught at Northwestern University and joined the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts in 1987. His daughter is experimental filmmaker and musician Sadie Benning.
Filmography
- Did You Ever Hear That Cricket Sound? (1971)
- Time and a Half (1972)
- Ode to Muzak (1972)
- Art Hist. 101 (1972)
- Michigan Avenue (1973)
- Honeyland Road (1973)
- 57 (1973)
- I-94 (1974)
- Gleem (1974)
- 8 1/2 X 11 (1974)
- United States of America, The (1975)
- Saturday Night (1975)
- An Erotic Film (1975)
- 9-1-75 (1975)
- 3 Minutes on the Dangers of Film Recording (1975)
- Chicago Loop (1976)
- A to B (1976)
- One Way Boogie Woogie (1977)
- 11 x 14 (1977)
- Grand Opera (1978)
- Four Oil Wells (1978)
- Oklahoma (1979)
- Double Yodel (1980)
- Last Dance (1981)
- Him and Me (1982)
- American Dreams (1984)
- O Panama (1985)
- Landscape Suicide (1986)
- Used Innocence (1989)
- North on Evers (1992)
- Deseret (1995)
- Four Corners (1997)
- Utopia (1998)
- El Valley Centro ¹ (2000)
- B-52 (2001) (Sound only)
- Sogobi¹ (2001)
- Los¹ (2001)
- 13 Lakes (2004)
- Ten Skies (2004)
- One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later (2005)
¹ Part of the so-called California trilogy
External links
- James Benning at the Internet Movie Database
- James Benning faculty profile at CalArts
- Interview with Sense of Cinema
- James Benning's Art of Landscape:Ontological, Pedagogical, Sacrilegious
- "TORTURED LANDSCAPES"
- American Filmmaker - James Benning-Retrospective at the Austrian Film Museum
- 11 x 14 at the Internet Movie Database
