little boy

Like many of James Benning’s films, LITTLE BOY offers up a system and invites us to work out its rules. This is a system of many moving parts. There are the model kits, each painted by a different pair of hands and preceded by a date; the dates advance chronologically from the middle of the last century and forward into this one. A different pop song plays as each set of hands paints. Songs of celebration, protest, longing, escape: Martha and the Vendellas, Ricky Nelson, Pete Seeger, Cat Power. When the finished model appears in the next shot, it’s hard to imagine how the pieces formed a whole, the gas holder, the silos, factory buildings, a train carriage— always industrial, never domestic. A different speech plays in voiceover to accompany the motionless models, each historical, yet still so prescient. The voices belong to politicians and activists, reactionary and progressive, left and right, although that distinction hardly seems to matter: Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Wallace, César Chavez, Hillary Clinton. Pop, politics and industry side by side, each with their own competing ideologies, inviting us to work out their rules. It’s hard to imagine how the pieces form a whole. America is a system of many moving parts. (James Lattimer)

In the presence of James Benning.

James Benning (selection): ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE (1977), 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 SKIES (2004), CASTING A GLANCE (2007), RR (2007), FIRE & RAIN (2009, V’09-TRAILER), ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE (2012), EASY RIDER (2012), NATURAL HISTORY (2014), MEASURING CHANGE (2016), FALL EQUINOX (2016), READERS (2017), L. COHEN (2018), MAGGIE’S FARM (2020), ON PARADISE ROAD (2020), THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (2022), ALLENSWORTH (2023), BREATHLESS (2024)