Readers

Unlike smoking a cigarette, reading a book isn’t among those things that are generally regarded as a part of social communication. In the ideal case, reading can rather become an oblivious act, and this is precisely where the great American documentary filmmaker James Benning struck gold in his most recent film. READERS observes four people, three women of different ages and a man, while they are reading. Every take lasts 27 minutes, filmed as a medium shot and in central perspective. Except for an insert at the end of each episode, featuring the title of the book and a quotation from it, there is no further information.
In READERS, Benning, who is known for his landscape films, continues his studies of human expressions (TWENTY CIGARETTES, FACES, both 2011). At the same time, however, READERS once again reveals the director’s preoccupation with time and its duration. How does perception shift in their field of tension?

In the presence of James Benning.