Eight Bridges

Eight ten-minute shots show bridges across the United States, from the iconic Golden Gate Bridge to the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama. At first glance, little seems to happen: cars, boats and trains pass through the frame; clouds drift by; water flows. Yet through his precise composition of image and sound, Benning gradually reveals more and more layers in each scene. The bridges become points where the American landscape, its history and its present meet. The long takes give us time not only to see them closely but also to experience them. The film continues Benning’s established structural approach, seen in works such as 13 Lakes and 20 Cigarettes, where a fixed number of shots becomes a way to observe the world attentively and draw out what usually goes unnoticed.

James Benning has played a central role in the history of American independent cinema. His rigorously structured yet graceful films offer extended meditations on the American landscape and its social and environmental histories.