In late May of 2011 I returned to Milwaukee to make a third version. This one was shot with a Sony HD camera. For this second re-make I decided to go back to the original idea, that is, to simply document the architecture in Milwaukee’s industrial valley. I searched for buildings that looked like the ones from 1977. I found 18 of them. A few of them are also in the original 1977 film, and the others look as if they could have been. I then decided to shoot each of these building for five minutes. I felt a longer duration was necessary to study their true presence. During filming a few fortuitous events occurred that reminded me of the constructed minimal narratives of the original film, so I decided to add one constructed narrative (myself as the actor) to this latest film, ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE 2012. (James Benning)

One of the most widely praised American avant-garde films in recent years, James Benning's 1977 feature is a laconic mosaic of single-shot sequences, each offering some sort of image/sound pun or paradox. At once a crypto-narrative with an abstract, peekaboo storyline and a fractured, painterly study of the American midwestern landscape, 11x14 points toward the creation of a new, non-literary but populist cinema. (James Hoberman, who chose 11 x 14 as one of the top ten films of the seventies (Film Comment, January 1980) and later wrote the above text in The Village Voice)

Between July, 2007 and June, 2008, veteran independent film-maker,James Benning built replicas of two iconic American Cabins in a remote part of the High Sierras- Henry David Thoreau’s hut from Walden Pond and the one-room plywood shack in rural Montana from which Theodore John Kaczynski (the ‘Unabomber’) conducted his 16-year bombing campaign via the U.S. mail. The juxtaposition of these two simple structures invokes and implicates deeply conflicted and enduring foundational American myths concerning the scope and meaning of personal liberty, civic responsibility and the rule of law; individual conscience, democracy and civil disobedience; the transcendental value of nature, wilderness and the god-given right to exploit natural resources; American exceptionalism, environmental conservationism and faith in technological progress; the imperative to make oneself (anew), to ’succeed’ and, if necessary, to secede.

The annual festival trailer has been one of the Viennale's special features for quite some time now. It is not a commercial trailer as such, but rather a small, autonomous piece of cinema, standing on its own and for the festival alike. In the case of James Benning's work this short trailer is a true action film. Benning shot the work process in a steelworks in the Ruhr area. On a kind of conveyor belt, a glowing piece of steel flits across the screen and disappears only to reappear again as a blazing, shining material. Finally, artificial rain falls onto the glowing metal, shrouding the whole image in a cloud of steam and making it disappear. Created at the Viennale's invitation, James Benning's short film is both a simple and subtle piece of cinema. I took the steel rolling process that takes about ten minutes, as the filmmaker explains his approach, and condensed it down to one minute by cutting out portions and hiding the ellipses in time with dissolves. Following previous years' Viennale trailer by Jean-Luc Godard, which turned out to be a small miracle of montage art, Benning's work is an equally fascinating cinematic poem about time and motion taking an industrial work process as an example. And it would not be James Benning, had he not chosen the title of an old hippie song by James Taylor as the title for his trailer: Fire and Rain. The festival trailer Fire & Rain was screened from September 24 in more than one hundred selected Austrian cinemas and was shown repeatedly as part of the Viennale program from October 22 to November 4.

Revisiting the exact same sites and flimed in the seminal One Way Boogie Woogie, 27 Years Later is a shot-by-shot restaging of his earlier work. This time, the city of Milwaukee has been transformed and gentrified, but perhaps not for the better. Before, what was once decrepit could at least be seen as fucky charm; now everything has a corporate, soulless facade. Citing San Francisco Bay Guardian's Dennis Harvey, 'these new 'improved' landscapes somehow seem the perfect metaphor for how American life has gotten bigger but not necessarily better in recent decades.' It's an apt commentary for Hong Kong as well. from:

In 1895, the first film audience ever reportedly ran screaming from the theater during the Lumiere brothers’ The Arrival of a Train. The audience thought that an actual oncoming train was hurtling towards them, unfamiliar as they were with the screen and projector that produced the moving image. Although today’s moviegoers may be more comfortable with train footage, James Benning’s RR promises a unique kind of cinematic experience for audiences. Structured around the deceptively simple visual motif of a train crossing a series of static shots, it presents a visually stunning portrait of the role of railroads in American history and culture. “Benning has an incredible formal eye, able to place his 16mm camera in the absolute perfect spot and capture the landscape.” —Daily Plastic

1. Hollister Ranch Rd (Pacific Ocean) 2008 Nissan Frontier pickup, white 2. Hot Springs Rd 1993 Ford F150 pickup, white, w/trailer, hauling two 1994 Suzuki Samurai jeeps, red, black 3. California Hwy 155 2008 Dodge Ram 3500 pickup, gray, w/horse trailer 4. East Myer Rd 1987 Freightliner COE semi truck, green, w/double flatbed trailers 5. California Hwy 43 (SFBN train) 1996 Dodge Neon, white 1997 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, red 1991 Pontiac Sunbird, light blue 6. Lancaster Rd woman walking 2001 BMW M Series, black 7. Tulare County Rd 208 no vehicles 8. California Hwy 190 2002 Ford F250 pickup, light gray 9. Trona Rd 2008 Toyota Solara, cream 2002 Toyota Corolla, black 2008 Ford F250 pickup, silver 1995 Winnebago camper, white 10. Mountain View St (Searles Valley Minerals, Inc) man walking no vehicles 11. California Hwy 178 no vehicles 12. Badwater Rd 2004 Chevrolet Tahoe, black 2001 Toyota Sequoia, green 13. Arizona Hwy 85 2003 Ford F350 pickup, black 2009 Lincoln MKX, black 2008 Ford F150 (Border Patrol) pickup, white 2009 Ford F150 (Border Patrol) pickup, white 14. White Sands Rte 10 2008 Toyota Tundra pickup, black 15. Texas Ranch Rd 1 1992 Ford F150 pickup, white 16. Missouri Hwy 19 no vehicles 17. Mississippi Old US 80 1994 GMC 1500 pickup, green 2004 Ford Expedition, red, w/boat and trailer 18. Arkansas US 165 2005 Chevrolet Express, tan 2004 GMC Sierra pickup, white 2002 Nissan Altima, salmon 2000 Cadillac Deville, black 2009 Cadillac DTS, pink 2006 Chevrolet Malibu, white 2003 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, white 19. Louisiana Hwy 596 no vehicles 20. Illinois Hwy 107 2005 Ford Fusion, blue 1998 Dodge Neon, black 2004 Chrysler Town & Country, red 21. Illinois County Hwy 3 no vehicles 22. Wisconsin County Trunk GGG 2005 Yamaha RD350, red 23. Wisconsin County Hwy K (Mack Lake) 2005 Ford Taurus, white 24. Minnesota US 12 2005 Chevrolet Colorado pickup, green, w/boat and trailer 2006 Peterbilt semi milk tanker, blue 25. South Dakota Hwy 1806 (Missouri River) no vehicles 26. Nebraska Hwy 2 2006 Chevrolet Equinox, black 27. Hayden Fork Rd 2000 Ford Ranger pickup, red, w/canoe 2007 Honda Civic, blue 28. Wyoming US Hwy 89 (Grand Tetons) 2000 Peterbilt Semi flatbed, red 1988 Ford F350 flatbed, blue, w/trailer hauling logs 2002 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, white 29. Utah Hwy 150 1982 Chevrolet C10 pickup, gray 1995 Peterbilt Semi, white, w/double liquid tankers 1998 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, maroon 1998 Ford F250 pickup, tan, w/trailer 30. Hanksville Rd 2008 Ford F150 (Utah State Police) pickup, tan 31. Utah Hwy 24 no vehicles 32. Utah Hwy 12 no vehicles 33. Boulder/Escalante Rd 2008 Mazda 6, white 2009 Ford Mustang convertible, red 2010 Chrysler PT Cruiser, black 2000 Volvo dump truck Tri-Axle, white w/trailer hauling backhoe 34. Kolob Reservoir Rd no vehicles 35. Morning Star Mine Rd 2008 Mercedes C Class, black 36. North Amboy Rd no vehicles 37. Sierra Hwy 1995 Ford F350 flatbed truck, white 2004 Freightliner semi, white 38. Great Western Divide Hwy 2002 Harley-Davidson Road King, blue 39. Parker Pass Rd 1982 GMC 1500 pickup, yellow 40. Mogal Rd 2002 Kenworth semi fuel-tanker, white & yellow 41. Walker Pass Rd 1996 Isuzu garbage truck, white 42. Graces Rd (North Kern State Prison) no vehicles 43. Old Stage Rd 2007 Peterbilt semi w/double gravel hoppers, white 44. California Mt 50 2006 Ford 500, blue 45. Forest Rte 23S03 no vehicles 46. Rocking K 1997 International snowplow, white 47. Generals Hwy (Giant Sequoia National Forest) 2006 Dodge Stratus, silver

Benning continues his examination of Americana in this film through the stories of two murderers. Ed Gein was a Wisconsin farmer and multiple murderer who taxidermied his victims in the 1950s. Bernadette Protti was a California teenager who stabbed a friend to death over an insult in 1984.

James Benning's worrying and also reassuring vision of the Ruhr Valley, shot in six fascinating takes of a tunnel, a forest, a factory, a mosque, graffiti and a chimney.

Ten Skies Directed by James Benning. US 2004, 16mm, color, 109 min. Filmed around Val Verde, California, this series of skyscapes gracefully visualizes human civilization's interaction with, and impact on, the landscape. The skies and cloud formations chosen by Benning are affected by pollution from an industrial factory, jet trails, and smoke from an accidental wildfire, all clearly legible upon the firmament. And yet, despite these ominous environmental undercurrents, Benning conceived Ten Skies as an anti-war film, describing his work to be "about the antithesis of war, [about] the kind of beauty we're destroying." This intention is affirmed in the reflective serenity of his images; the varying tones, textures and colors of the atmosphere, and the shifting transformations of billowing clouds that produce astonishing perceptual revelations about scale, ephemerality, and the cinematic frame.

A portrait of an art institution as a cinematic landscape: in a succession of static shots, James Benning explores the buildings and terrain of the California Institute of the Arts, where he teaches. A series of views of nature filmed in the surrounding park and woods transitions into images of floors, seating areas and other details of a public building not meant for show. In both parts, an uncanny feeling dominates: the geometries of nature, the dark green and brown tones, the rushing of the highway in the background on the one hand and the humming of halogen lamps, the sound of steps in an otherwise seemingly empty school on the other – it all seems to be hiding a secret. The camera’s gaze is almost always restricted; it rarely penetrates very far into the image. It discovers shabby corners, observing scenarios more reminiscent of a mystery novel than the campus of an art institution. More so than in the majority of James Benning’s longer works of recent years, a narrative lies concealed within the images; every shot creates an urge to move forward, a tension, almost as if the landscapes and interiors were the scenes of a crime.