Platform for experimental and anthropological film,
sound, and landscape cinema.
sound, and landscape cinema.
Film
11 x 14
james benning
1977, usa, 16mm transferred to digital, 82 min, no dialogue
Benning’s first feature-length film presents miniature elliptical storylines, in which various characters meet and part ways in urban landscapes and apartments, embark alone on elevated train rides, and travel together through rural America. Devised as a series of precisely composed single-shot sequences, these brief narratives are interspersed with still images of billboards and gas stations and punctuations of black leader. 11 x 14 is both an inquiry into American life and landscape, and a reconfiguration of the fundamentals of cinematic form, a defining characteristic of Benning’s later body of work.