
James Benning
Known for DirectingBorn 1942-12-28 (age 83)Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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.Read more
Movies & web series
★ 10.0Find where to watch →
Fire & Rain
2009 · Movie
3 Minutes on the Dangers of Film Recording
★ 10.0Find where to watch →
3 Minutes on the Dangers of Film Recording
1975 · Movie
★ 10.0Find where to watch →
8½ x 11
1974 · Movie
Did You Ever Hear That Cricket Sound?
★ 10.0Find where to watch →
Did You Ever Hear That Cricket Sound?
1971 · Movie
★ 9.0Find where to watch →
James Benning: Circling the Image
2003 · Movie
★ 8.0Find where to watch →
Allensworth
2022 · Movie
★ 8.0Find where to watch →
glory
2018 · Movie
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Him and Me
1982 · Movie
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Chicago Loop
1976 · Movie
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9-1-75
1975 · Movie
★ 7.5Find where to watch →
Stemple Pass
2012 · Movie
★ 7.5Find where to watch →
One Way Boogie Woogie
2012 · Movie
★ 7.8Find where to watch →
The United States of America
1975 · Movie
Lunch Break
★ 7.4Find where to watch →
Lunch Break
2008 · Movie
★ 7.4Find where to watch →
Casting a Glance
2007 · Movie
★ 7.5Find where to watch →
North on Evers
1992 · Movie
★ 7.4Find where to watch →
El Valley Centro
2000 · Movie
★ 7.2Find where to watch →
Coming to Terms
2013 · Movie
★ 7.2Find where to watch →
Pig Iron
2010 · Movie
★ 7.5Find where to watch →
Grand Opera: An Historical Romance
1979 · Movie
★ 7.4Find where to watch →
American Dreams (Lost and Found)
1984 · Movie
★ 7.4Find where to watch →
Landscape Suicide
1987 · Movie
★ 7.2Find where to watch →
Ten Skies
2004 · Movie
★ 7.4Find where to watch →
11 x 14
1977 · Movie
★ 7.0Find where to watch →
Two Cabins
2011 · Movie
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RR
2007 · Movie
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Utopia
1998 · Movie
★ 6.8Find where to watch →
Easy Rider
2012 · Movie
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Small Roads
2011 · Movie
★ 6.8Find where to watch →
Sogobi
2002 · Movie
★ 7.0Find where to watch →
O Panama
1985 · Movie
★ 6.8Find where to watch →
13 Lakes
2004 · Movie
★ 6.8Find where to watch →
Los
2001 · Movie
★ 6.6Find where to watch →
Ruhr
2009 · Movie
★ 6.6Find where to watch →
One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later
2005 · Movie
★ 6.5Find where to watch →
Water Spell
2007 · Movie
★ 6.4Find where to watch →
Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater
2013 · Movie
★ 6.2Find where to watch →
Nightfall
2012 · Movie
★ 6.0Find where to watch →
Little Boy
2025 · Movie
★ 6.3Find where to watch →
Four Corners
1997 · Movie
★ 6.0Find where to watch →
Spring Equinox
2016 · Movie
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Fall Equinox
2016 · Movie
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Used Innocence
1989 · Movie
★ 5.7Find where to watch →
Measuring Change
2016 · Movie
★ 6.1Find where to watch →
One Way Boogie Woogie
1977 · Movie
★ 5.7Find where to watch →
YouTube Trilogy: 4 Songs, History, Asian Girls
2011 · Movie
★ 5.5Find where to watch →
The United States of America
2022 · Movie
★ 5.5Find where to watch →
BNSF
2013 · Movie