Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater

"Both filmmakers embody historical and contemporary notions of America, its follies and its splendors. Beyond surface differences, Benning and Linklater are similar in that their films demonstrate formal and thematic preoccupations with duration, the reconstruction of time and memory, mathematical structures, cinematic traditions, and the representation of history past and present...," claims director Gabe Klinger. The protagonists of his fascinating documentary meet in Austin and share stories. Fragments of documentaries by the director of Stemple Pass are edited with shots of Austin, the location of the earliest films by the director of Before Midnight, erasing the lines between their separate worlds, while the two cult directors fertilize each other with ideas and foment the question about universality of the cinematic experience.