James Benning Movies

Text by Theodore J. Kaczynski, made of scans of a document from an FBI Laboratory, about the danger of experiments with accelerated particles.

It centers on Allensworth, the first self-administered African-American municipality in California, showcasing the buildings of the now-abandoned...

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

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

The owner of a failing inn and his roadkill collector friend devise a Bigfoot hoax to draw in tourists, but a Miccosukee Hunter is set to make sure...

In three virtuosic sequences created entirely in-camera, Benning alternates contrary camera movements in a trio of Chicago locations with increasing...

Filmed on November 21 and 22, 2018 in Valencia, California. A gibbous and full moon rising.

A filmed homage to Sam Shepard, in a single fixed frame where the treetops sway under a moving cloud cover. Orchestrated by the camera in this forest...

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...

James Benning returns to the location of his 2012 film Nightfall, this time at daybreak.

[...] And then there’s the largest and fastest growing archive of all time, the Internet, and in particular YouTube. I started here playfully...

James Benning’s PLACE is a multi-part work that deepens the artist’s longstanding engagement with marginalized artists and creators. Over...

The American filmmaker James Benning has been one of the outstanding exponents of the structural film since the mid-1970s. Bennings artistic position...

A short film about masculinity

Short by James Benning.

Three-channel HD video (color/sound), 18 minutes

In James Benning’s film Concord Woods (2014), we watch a replica of Henry David Thoreau’s famous cabin at Walden Pond. The cabin is first...

Stills from a trip in Cuba.

At Northwestern University, where he teaches at the time, Benning gives a short interview to some student filmmakers. He then uses this material to...

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