Born: 1973, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
M.F.A from Bard College
Lives in Chicago
1. the begining of benning
Sadie first started making videos when she was 15 after her father (avant-garde filmaker James Benning) gave her a Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy camera for Christmas. These videos were mostly filmed in her room. she would cut school and film videos that dealt with her teen angst and her sexual identity as a lesbian...
2. her early videos
the work from when Sadie was still a teenager has to do with the feeelings of isolation she experiences due to the fact that she is a lesbian and had found no place within the social system of high school. Not limited to sexual identity, Benning explores the world around her with cynical and young eyes pointing out what most people ignore. The videos are diary entries and mark the transitions of adolensecne...
3. later on...
Sadie Benning got famous in the art world. She got her work shown in group shows (like the Whitney Biennial) and got a R Grant. She shows her videos all around and you can catch them at varias film festivals. She's amde a music video for the Bostom based band Come and made a 56 minute film called Flat is Beautiful. Most recently she has worked with jahanna Fateman and kathleen Hanna in a band called Le Tigre...
4. Le tigre
Sadie made one album with Le Tigre only to quit the band in order to tour with and work on her videos more. But, if you haven't already, check out Le Tigre. Sadie even has o whole song o herself, "Dude, yr so Crazy!" of course she's on all the songs, but you can really hear her on this one.
5. what's next ...
I don't know what she's p to this minute but keep looking around and she'll do more stuff. In the meentime, you can check out clips of her videos at www.videodatabank.com, you can order her videos (if you're super rich) from women make movies or from the Video data Bank, or you can go to the Mr.lady website and order "The Judy Spots" for $22. The other way to see her work is to look for queer, women, or avant-garde film festivals.