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James Benning

James Benning has been one of the outstanding exponents of the structural film since the mid-1970s. His artistic position has been strongly influenced by mathematics and by the creativity of mathematical thinking. Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman selected Benning's 11 X 14 as one of the top ten films of the 1970s, stating that it "points toward the creation of a new, nonliterary but populist cinema."

In his previous work AMERICAN DREAMS, Benning places his collection of Hank Aaron memorabilia alongside the disturbed writings of Arthur Bremer, the man who shot George Wallace. LANDSCAPE SUICIDE investigates two famous murders by looking to the landscapes in which they occurred. Upon moving to California in the 1990s, the relationship between landscape and people became his central theme--beginning with EL VALLEY CENTRO, a look at the agricultural heartland of California, followed by LOS, examining the mostly manmade landscape of the city of Los Angeles.

The final film in his "California Trilogy" is SOGOBI, a passionate and beautiful look at California's wilderness. Benning currently teaches filmmaking at the California Institute for the Arts.

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"James Benning." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/james-benning.

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Summary

Filmmaker James Benning has been an exponent of structural film since the mid-1970s; his artistic approach has been influenced by mathematics. Village Voice critic J. Hoberman selected Benning's 11 X 14 as one of the top ten films of the 1970s; his works include AMERICAN DREAMS (juxtaposing Hank Aaron memorabilia and Arthur Bremer's writings) and LANDSCAPE SUICIDE (investigating two murders through their landscapes). After moving to California in the 1990s he made a California Trilogy—EL VALLEY CENTRO, LOS, and SOGOBI—and he currently teaches filmmaking at the California Institute for the Arts.

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Last modified 17 June 2011

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