DVDs

Price: 29,90 Euro

For 40 years, James Benning has been a singular, defiant voice in the American independent film scene. This 2-disc set - the first in a planned series devoted to the filmmaker’s oeuvre - features two of Benning’s seminal works from the mid-1980s for the first time ever on DVD: American Dreams (lost and found) is the filmmaker’s personal take on the history of the USA from 1954 to 1976, told through a complex and thought provoking amalgamation of image, text and sound. In Landscape Suicide, he effortlessly strides the boundaries of narrative and documentary forms as he recounts two infamous murder cases that took place almost 30 years apart. Both films are presented in newly restored versions.

 

"The performances of both actors, Rhonda Bell and Elian Sacker, are extraordinary achievements, and the chilling, evocative landscapes have their own stories to tell, the fusion of the two creates gaps that not even the film’s confusing title can fill, but the space opened up is at once powerful and provocative." (Cinema Scope)
 
"These are films designed to prompt contemplation, provoke debate and, as a result, to return to again and again." (The Digital Fix)

  

DVD 1:
American Dreams (lost and found); USA 1984

A film by James Benning; Original format: 16mm, color, 53 min

SD down-conversion from the digital restoration intermediate (3K)
sourced from the original 16mm reversal positive

   
DVD 2:
Landscape Suicide; USA 1986

A film by James Benning, Original format: 16mm, color, 92 min

HD transfer from a new 16mm preservation positive struck from the original 16mm A/B camera negative rolls

 

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