In Suriname, South America, a man enters a residence and emerges wearing a flamboyant mask with a group of others, each wearing unique masks. A single Steadicam shot follows these unearthly and wizened figures as they slowly hobble through the village, until the procession enters into the center of the village where a celebration is taking place. Suddenly the doddering caravan breaks out into a jungle boogie like persons possessed. We know that this trance dance is all staged for the camera but yet it is also clearly happening. We know we have seen a documentary of some kind ... but a document of what? All that becomes clear is that within documentary, reality becomes image and reality becomes choreography. - Chris Stults

biografia

Ben Russell (1976) is an American artist, filmmaker and curator whose work lies at the intersection of ethnography and psychedelia. His films and installations are in direct conversation with the history of the documentary image, providing a time-based inquiry into trance phenomena. Russell was an exhibiting artist at documenta 14 (2017) and his work has been presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art Chicago, the Venice Film Festival and the Berlinale, among others. He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2008), a FIPRESCI International Critics Prize (IFFR 2010, Gijón 2017), premiered his second and third feature films at the Locarno Film Festival (2013, 2017) and won the Encounters Grand Prize at the Berlinale Film Festival (2024). Curatorial projects include Magic Lantern (Providence, USA, 2005-2007), BEN RUSSELL (Chicago, USA, 2009-2011), Hallucinations (Athens, Greece, 2017) and Double Vision (Marseille, France 2024). He is currently based in Marseille, France.

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