Allensworth

There is a strange and beautiful quality to historic buildings. Frozen in time on the one hand, they still convey so much about those that used to live in them on the other. James Benning dedicates several of the twelve shots that make up his latest film to such preserved buildings in Allensworth, a town founded in 1908 as the first municipality in California to be self-governed by African Americans. He films former libraries, the First Baptist Church and the school. Each of the static shots last around five minutes and stands for a month of the year. As there are only slight changes to the weather, a feeling of stasis emerges. Once again, Benning confronts us with the diferent layers of duration distinctive to cinema, as we become able to grasp time moving forwards and backwards within the same shot. When he frames a gravestone, we understand that these buildings function like wooden epitaphs to the struggles of African American identity in the USA. His decision to include songs like “Blackbird” by Nina Simone or “In the Pines” sung by Huddie Ledbetter as well as a shot of a student reading poems by Lucille Clifton makes clear that this is not a film about historic buildings but rather places to live and to grow as a people. (Patrick Holzapfel)

In the presence of James Benning.

James Benning: ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE (1977), O PANAMA (1985, K), LANDSCAPE SUICIDE (1986), UTOPIA (1998), EL VALLEY CENTRO (1999), LOS (2000), SOGOBI (2002), 13 LAKES (2004), ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE/ 27 YEARS LATER (2005), TEN SKYS (2004), CASTING A GLANCE (2007), RR (2007), FIRE & RAIN (2009, V’09-TRAILER), TWENTY CIGARETTES (2011), ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE (2012), EASY RIDER (2012), NATURAL HISTORY (2014), SPRING EQUINOX (2016), MEASURING CHANGE (2016), FALL EQUINOX (2016), READERS (2017), L. COHEN (2018), MAGGIE’S FARM (2020), ON PARADISE ROAD (2020), FROM BAKERSFIELD TO MOJAVE (2021), THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (2022)