THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (2021)

10899 Wilshire Boulevard,Los Angeles CA 90024

06 March, 2022

Description

UCLA Film & Television Archive presents free screenings at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum. Please review our COVID-19 protocols and admission policies. ---------- In person: filmmaker James Benning, Steve Anker. U.S. Premiere! THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA2021 Both elegiac and lovingly rendered, critical and celebratory, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is Benning’s paean to the ideals and hard truths of the American cultural landscape. Emerging from the era of COVID-19 and its social restrictions, Benning’s USA (an updating of the 1975 film with the same title co-made with Bette Gordon) portrays the country’s 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, as sites that exist in the imagination as well as through representational sounds and images. But while THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is meditative and reflective in ways that are characteristic of Benning’s earlier work, this is a landscape that is haunted by its past, evidence of which can be seen, heard and felt throughout the film. —Steve Anker Digital, color, sound, 97 min. Director: James Benning. Dedicated to preserving moving image history.