James Benning Movies

an excerpt of a conversation between James and I during the Fall of 2019 - Santa Clarita, CA

Lengthy static shots of various backroads, smaller interstates, quieter roads, and lonely highways.

One-hour-documentation of James Benning's participation in the Moving Billboard project.

A narrative film concerning an investigation of two women in time and space, to the point where the investigation becomes the narrative.

Benning continues his examination of Americana in this film through the stories of two murderers. Ed Gein was a Wisconsin farmer and multiple...

Celebrated for his minimal, monumental landscape studies, James Benning turns to the intimacy of the portrait in his latest film, TWENTY CIGARETTES....

"Him And Me" has Benning's hallmarks: pristine cinematography, a quasi-autobiographical stance, and a minimalist structure that juxtaposes concrete...

Filmed in Sierra Nevada, just like Benning's Spring Equinox, but this time during a different season. Consists of static shots of the actual...

Intercourse between two people who never appear on the screen at the same time. An exploration of sex and male/female identities.

James Benning's "Four Corners" uses a specific geographical location to pose larger questions about the United States. Here, the geographic and...

The portrait of an art institution: James Benning explores the building and grounds of the California Institute of Art. Each image creates a tension,...

A document of one of the most famous 66 miles of railroad track in the world including the Tehachapi Loop.

glory is a film about the present, about America and its history of abuse.

Filmed in Sierra Nevada, California over one day. Static and still shots of the actual landscape and environments in the area.

Six soldiers wandering in search of enemies in the forest where they can't see an inch ahead. While gathering on the island to prepare Shakespeare's...

Four landscape shots containing a replica of Ted Kaczynski’s cabin, one shot per season. On the soundtrack, Benning reads extracts from...

The Surrealist, "Exquisite Corpse" was a French Café parlor game. "Exquisite Moving Corpse" is more of an artist chain letter. 60 artists...

A crisscross through the USA, carving it up into a series of static shots of just under two minutes, one for each state, presented alphabetically,...

Named after the Shoshonean word for "Earth", this is the third and final part of Benning's "California Trilogy" and his approach to the Californian...

In this short black and white study Benning uses dissolves, shifting camera angles and cross-fades to experiment with narrative structure.