James Benning Movies

A stunning study of real-time light changing from day to night which was filmed in a forest high up in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains

In summer 2011, James Benning returned to his hometown of Milwaukee to make a third version of his seminal 1977 film 'One Way Boogie Woogie'. In 1977...

One half filmed in 1977, one half filmed 27 years later. Director combined the structural analysis of image and sound with fragments of a narrative...

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

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

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

After having shared a common experience in Cuba, twelve filmmakers say goodbye to return to their countries and make a pact: to make a collective...

A conceptual bicentennial film dealing with spatial and temporal relationships between two travelers, their car, and the geographic, political, and...

O Panama features a man confined to his apartment on a winter day as he suffers through an illness. Built on the polarity between hot and cold, the...

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,...

This three-channel video installation by James Benning shows three scenes from David Wark Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915). The...

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

Exploring the Panama Canal is a fascinating journey through the land of mystery and adventure and the Canal that divides it. Through rare archival...

One day, father makes a shocking decision in a family gathering. The family disagrees with it and against him in the very beginning. However, they...

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

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

Los Angeles is depicted in 35 stationary shots, each 2½ minutes long, in this non-narrative film, part 2 of Benning's "California Trilogy".

A filmic paean to artist Robert Smithson's legendary "earthwork" sculpture, the Spiral Jetty. Created in 1970, the Jetty is a 1,500-foot long...

Seven entirely static shots make up James Benning's quiet reflection on existence in the Ruhr Valley.

Twenty-four hours in the life of a factory worker.