Sun In Your Head #4

For the next SUN IN YOUR HEAD installment at Dissonant Works, a special Fourth of July program will feature two films by acclaimed filmmaker James Benning: The United States of America (1975), co-directed with Bette Gordon, and American Dreams: Lost and Found (1984).

The United States of America is a unique structural road movie documenting a journey from New York City to Los Angeles through a sequence of stationary shots filmed from the back of Benning's car. The images are accompanied by a tapestry of radio broadcasts, popular music, and news reports as the United States approaches its bicentennial celebration.

American Dreams: Lost and Found is an experimental chronological slideshow pairing Hank Aaron memorabilia with excerpts from Arthur Bremer's diary. The two narratives gradually converge through Aaron's pursuit of Babe Ruth's home run record and Bremer's attempted assassination of George Wallace. Both figures are connected to Benning's hometown of Milwaukee,…