The acclaimed experimental filmmaker James Benning has completed 14 feature-length films, including 13 Lakes (2004), RR (2007), and Casting a Glance (2007), which have been shown in venues around the world. He has received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The Austrian Film Museum presented a retrospective of Benning's films in 2007, and his installations have been staged at the Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Argos Centre for Art and Media in Brussels.

The UCLA Department of Art's visiting lecture series is made possible through the generous support of the William D. Feldman Family Endowed Art Lecture Fund.