LAFF: James Benning "13 Lakes" Q&A Pt. 5 - Oct. 7, 2007

October 7 2007
James Benning.
Q&A for "13 Lakes" - Part 5

Moderator: Adam Hyman
Location: The Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian Theatre

13 Lakes (2004, 16mm, color, sound, 135 minutes)
Static shots of 13 large American lakes, each shot lasting the same amount of time, each shot a stunning portrait unto itself, but all together amounting to a profound meditation on America and its landscape. The lakes featured: Lake Michigan, Great Salt Lake, Hiamna Lake, Lake Okeechobee, Lake Pontchartrain, Red Lake, Lake Champlain, Salton Sea, Lake Powell, Lake Winnebego, Flathead Lake, Goose Lake and Moosehead Lake.

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In the late 1990s, Filmforum hosted the first full retrospective of the work of James Benning. Hes produced eight more films since then. After screening the California Trilogy, we screened "13 Lakes" and "Ten Skies." Benning was present at Filmforum for the screening for "13 Lakes."

Born in Milwaukee in 1942, James Benning studied mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a legacy discernible in the meticulously structured nature of his films including his highly acclaimed early works, 81/2 X 11 (1974), 11X14 (1976) and One Way Boogie Woogie (1977) which combined structuralist investigations of off-screen space, sound-image relationships and cinematic time with a sensitivity to composition, color, light and landscape, regional and popular culture and a distinctive, sometimes idiosyncratic interest in narrative. During the 80's Benning lived in New York producing work that dealt elliptically with history, memory and death: American Dreams (1984) juxtaposes baseball giant, Hank Aaron memorabilia against the disturbed writings of Arthur Bremer, the man who shot George Wallace. Combining reenactments of court testimony and location shooting, Landscape Suicide (1986) examines the circumstances surrounding two notorious but ostensibly unrelated murders in Wisconsin. In 1991 just before moving to Val Verde where he lives and Cal Arts where he teaches, Benning made North on Evers (1991), which chronicles in diaristic form a cross-country motorcycle trip. In the years immediately prior to The California Trilogy he has made a number of highly acclaimed films focusing on the landscape, history and ecology of the American west including Deseret (1995), an account of the history of Utah based on 100 years of New York Times reports, Four Corners (1997), and Utopia, a film that uses an appropriated soundtrack to complement and comment upon his visual chronicling of a journey from Death Valley, California to Mexicali, Mexico. Since then he has completed his California Trilogy and the films 13 Lakes (2004), Ten Skies (2005), and 27 Years Later (2005), the last being a companion piece to One Way Boogie Woogie. He also has new films on Robert Smithsons Spiral Jetty (casting a glance) and on trains (RR).

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