James Benning (film director)

James Benning (born 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 2003 Reinhard Wulf made a 90 minute documentary (James Benning: Circling the Image) about Benning and his films. In 2007 the Austrian Film Museum published a book of texts (James Benning) on his work.

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 where he teaches filmmaking and experimental sound.

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)
* "Sogobi"¹ (2001)
* "Los"¹ (2001)
* "13 Lakes" (2004)
* "Ten Skies" (2004)
* "One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later" (2005)
* "Casting a Glance" (2007)
* "RR" (2007)

¹ Part of the so-called California trilogy

External links

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* [http://www.calarts.edu/faculty_bios/filmvideo/faculty/jamesbenning/jamesbenning James Benning faculty profile at CalArts]
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/04/33/james_benning.html Interview with "Sense of Cinema"]
* [http://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/benningfull.html Interview] with journalist Neil Young (2002)
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/05/36/james_benning.html James Benning's Art of Landscape:Ontological, Pedagogical, Sacrilegious]
* [http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/archives/online_features/tortured_landscapes.php "TORTURED LANDSCAPES"]
* [http://www.filmmuseum.at/jart/projects/fm/main.jart?rel=en&content-id=1191876447876 American Filmmaker] - James Benning-Retrospective at the [http://www.filmmuseum.at/ Austrian Film Museum]
*