James Benning - natural history / Ruhr

Since the late 1970s, James Benning's films have been a regular fixture at festivals in Germany and Austria, while frequent television broadcasts have helped expose his work to an even larger audience here than perhaps at home. This 2-disc set presents the products of this intercontinental relationship: Ruhr, Benning's first foray into digital filmmaking, is a modern-day "city symphony" dedicated to Germany's industrial Ruhr district. His latest work, natural history, is an audiovisual portrait commissioned by Vienna's Natural History Museum. Reinhard Wulf's feature-length documentary James Benning: Circling the Image, produced for German television, rounds off the set.

The Films

Ruhr - Germany 2009 - Directed, written, photographed, and edited by: James Benning - Produced by: schaf oder scharf film, ZDF/3sat - Premiere: November 2, 2009 (Duisburger Filmwoche)

Fire & Rain - Austria 2009 - Directed, written, photographed, edited and produced by: James Benning - Premiere: October 26, 2009 (Viennale)

natural history - Austria 2014 - Directed, written, photographed, edited and produced by: James Benning - Premiere: September 26, 2014 (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien)

James Benning: Circling the Image - Germany 2003 - Directed and written by: Reinhard Wulf - Photographed by: Jürgen Behrens - Edited by: Susanne Schweinheim - Premiere: October 22, 2003 (Viennale)

DVD features (2-disc DVD)

DVD 1

• Ruhr 2009, 122'
• Fire & Rain 2009, 1'
• 28 page bilingual booklet

DVD 2

• natural history 2014, 77'
• James Benning: Circling the Image 2003, 84'

Edited by: Österreichisches Filmmuseum Vienna
DVD authoring: Tobias Dressel
DVD supervision: Oliver Hanley