Let Each One Go Where He May (2009), Ben Russell, 19 Sept 2010 at Cinema Borealis, Chicago
Let Each One Go Where He May
Presented by the MCA in association with The Nightingale
Sunday, September 19, 8 pm, Cinema Borealis (1550 N. Milwaukee Ave.), $10 suggested donation, Ben Russell in person
Synopsis: Set in Surinam, Russell’s latest investigation of ethnography and representation is simultaneously beautiful, political, and formally complicated. Shot on 16mm Steadicam in thirteen long takes, the film follows two Saramaccan brothers as they trace the path their ancestors took to escape Dutch enslavement 300 years earlier. The film revisits the ecstatic qualities seen in Russell’s short TRYPPS films (which focus on varying notions of psychedelia and trance); the constant forward motion of LET EACH ONE is meditative and leisurely (the other, quieter pole of psychedelic experience). The brothers travel on foot, by bus, and by boat–the camera at once an observer of and a participant in the arduous journey. The film is also a telling document of Surinam’s shifting landscape, as the brothers pass through a crowded city, lush jungles, a gold mine, and rural villages. It provides a startling and nearly tangible experience of a world seldom seen on avant-garde screens, a long otherworldly walk with plenty of room to consider the notion of “other.” — Christy LeMaster
Visit Ben Russell’s website: http://dimeshow.com