एडवांस सर्च

Celebrated for his minimal, monumental landscape studies, James Benning turns to the intimacy of the portrait in his latest film, TWENTY CIGARETTES. Referencing Warhol's screen tests, 1930s Hollywood glamour, and the disappearing cigarette break, the film captures 20 of Benning's friends (including filmmaker Sharon Lockhart, cultural theorist Dick Hebdige, and book editor Janet Jenkins) satiating their smoke cravings. Each shot's length is determined by the time it takes each subject to smoke a cigarette, and over the course of the film a dynamic range of personalities emerges out of an array of physical characteristics, distinctive settings, and personal relationships to the camera. (Amy Beste and Jessica Bardsley)

Lines from the diary of Theodore Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, during his stay in a cabin outside the city of Lincoln in Montana. The film is shot from the same angle trough the four seasons and featuring a voiceover from James Benning.

A crisscrosses through the USA, carving it up into a series of static shots of just under two minutes, one for each state, presented alphabetically, from Heron Bay, Alabama to Kelly, Wyoming.

A view of an Oregon farm field, observing a solar eclipse and incorporating a Leonard Cohen song.

Shots of 13 great lakes in the USA, with each shot containing half water and half sky or land.

An exploration of the building and grounds of the California Institute of Art. Each image creates a tension, a constant urge to move on the next one, as if landscape and space could be the scenes of a crime.

Several years ago, filmmaker James Benning built first one, then another small cabin on property he owns in California. Modeled on the redoubts constructed by Henry David Thoreau and Ted Kaczynski (aka the Unabomber), Benning's cabins are the subjects of the film and a similarly titled companion book edited by Julie Ault

47 roads across the United States.

Two people watch a film being broadcast on Telemundo, a Spanish-language television station. The sound of the film along with commercials can be heard. They occasionally talk to each other, but never about the film.

A "remake" of John Cassavetes's Faces (1968) is an unexpected venture into the world of found footage filmmaking. As Benning explains, he's reconstructed Cassavetes's Faces in such a way that it's comprised entirely of shots of single faces, each actor and actress is on screen as long as he or she is in the original and each scene is exactly as long as it is in the original. This reconstruction, he notes, remains steadfastly true to its title.

A sunset filmed through a forest until the fall of the night.

A static shot of a desert train track.

Filmed at Benning's home in Val Verde during the first month of the pandemic, the film is a portrait of that time.