We first see a piece of scenery being built, then a still image of the finished object – as always, the structure comes before the image. On the front, hands busy with their meticulous task are working to music; on the reverse, a historical speech accompanies the presentation of the scale model. Everything is organised chronologically, evoking not only the apocryphal autobiographical work the author has engaged in, but also the political questions that have always galvanised him. As all these pieces of scenery reveal the chambers and antechambers that produce them. By making the production conditions visible, Benning plays on the idea of war as both commerce and hobby. In the two models that encompass this series, we are hardly surprised to recognise another little boy, dumped shortly after the filmmaker’s birth. – Cinéma du Réel
James Benning
USA 2025 | Grand Prix, Cinéma du Réel
74 min | English
James Benning
Born in Milwaukee, USA, in 1942, he studied mathematics and then film in Milwaukee. He taught at the California Institute of the Arts. Since 1979, he has been making documentary-experimental films as a radically independent director, on 16mm until 2007 and digitally since 2009. He also creates installations with cinematic elements in the field of art.
Films (selection)
One Way Boogie Woogie 1977 | 11 × 14 1977 | Landscape Suicide 1986 | Deseret 1995 | Four Corners 1997 | California Trilogy (El Valley Centro, Los, Sogobi) 1999 – 2001 | 13 Lakes 2004 | Ten Skies 2004 | RR 2007 | Ruhr 2009 | Two Cabins 2011 | Maggie’s Farm 2020 | The United States of America 2022 | Allensworth 2023 (18. UX) | Breathless 2024 | little boy 2025
R+P: James Benning | V: Arsenal Institut | Mit Johnan Jahromi, Alessandro Streccioni, Yusef Ferguson, Yuan Gao, Nelson De Los Santos, Calum Walter, Nathan Meier, James Benning