James Benning
Directing
🎂 1942-12-28
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.
Cast credits(15)
Directing (95)
Director
2007
Director
1987
Director
1992
Director
2004
Director
1997
Director
1985
Director
1989
Director
2012
Director
1999
Director
2011
Director
2011
Director
1977
Director
2011
Director
2002
Director
2009
Director
2011
Director
2018
Director
2022
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2025
Director
1974
Director
1996
Director
2012
Director
2021
Director
2014
Director
2011
Director
1982
Director
1975
Director
2019
Director
2013
Director
2010
Director
2011
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2014
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2015
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2019
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2016
Director
2016
Director
2012
Director
2012
Director
2001
Director
2012
Director
2020
Director
1975
Director
1971
Director
2010
Director
1979
Director
1974
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2022
Director
2024
Director
1974
Director
2016
Director
1995
Director
2010
Director
1977
Director
2017
Director
1998
Director
2018
Director
2016
Director
2010
Director
1972
Director
2020
Director
2020
Director
2015
Director
2016
Director
2007
Director
1984
Director
2018
Director
2005
Director
2014
Director
2014
Director
1984
Director
1975
Director
2014
Director
2016
Director
2014
Director
1988
Director
2018
Director
1976
Director
2004
Director
2016
Director
2010
Director
2022
Director
2012
Director
2020
Director
2005
Director
2016
Director
2017
Director
2010
Director
2018
Director
2021
Director
2024
Director
2012
Director
2022
Director
2009
Director
2014
Director
2018
