“On November 28, 2023 I drove from my home in Pine Flat, California across the Great Western Divide, down to the Upper Kern River. I came to film a tree. The leaves were orange. Within a few minutes stuff I hadn’t planned began to happen. I thought, oh shit. In the past few years a number of forest fires burned through this area. The stuff happening was due to this. I began to film. And then I was attacked from the air. War games. My film was to be a non-narrative the length of Godard’s Breathless, but I ended up with something else. It’s breathless.” - James Benning, Director
James Benning's filmography has a special place in our hearts, and from the very beginning, we have considered the selection of this film as a statement of sorts. BIFF's film programme stands independently for and in the protection of our cinematic heritage. Benning's single shot also stands as such in 2024, alone but unbroken for 86 minutes. This is how we remember Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless until the end of time – and how we want to remember it until the end of time. I recommend this film to our viewers who are prepared to travel a long way for a lasting cinematic experience here in Hungary in 2024. - Dániel Rév, Programmer
Snapshots from Another World: Experimental Cinema
James Benning
Making the first of his avant-garde works in 1972, James Benning shortly thereafter started to produce longer experimental films. Between 1978 and 1985 he realized numerous projection and computer installations. From 1977 to 1980 he taught at the Universities of California and Oklahoma. Since the end of the 1980s, he has lived in Val Verde, near Los Angeles. He teaches at the California Institute of the Arts where, through his works, he continues to greatly influence younger generations of artists. One particularly important aspect of his oeuvre is his engagement with the American landscape. Using durational, fixed-frame shots, Benning’s films often study nature and humankind’s encroachment on the world.
Cinéma du Réel 2024 (Competition)
Allensworth (2022)
The United States of America (2022)
L. Cohen (2018)
Ten Skies (2004)
American Dreams: Lost And Found (1984)
Original title: Breathless
Director: James Benning
Cast: -
Cinematography: James Benning
Screenwriter: -
Producer: -
Editor: -
Music: -
Hungarian Distributor: -
Colour: colour
Run time: 86 perc
