Light Work’s Urban Video Project (UVP) will present a special indoor screening of Ben Russell’s latest feature-length film, “Good Luck,” in the Everson Museum of Art’s Hosmer Auditorium on Thursday, April 19.
Ben Russell, “Good Luck (Portraits),” 2017
Due to the 140-minute duration of the piece, the reception will precede the film at 5 p.m. The screening, opening with an introduction by the filmmaker, will start promptly at 5:30 p.m. Russell will join us in person to introduce the film and for a brief a Q&A following the screening. The event is free and open to the public.
This event is held in conjunction with the exhibition of the related new commissioned work “Good Luck (Portraits)” at UVP’s outdoor architectural projection venue on the Everson Museum Plaza. The exhibition will be projected onto the northern facade of the Everson Museum of Art at 401 Harrison St. through May 26, Thursday-Saturday, dusk-11 p.m.
ACCESSIBILITY
The screening will take place in a wheelchair-accessible auditorium. The film is subtitled for all spoken dialogue. CART services for the intro and Q&A portions are available upon advance request; call: 315-443-1369 or email: info@urbanvideoproject.com
“Good Luck” takes the audience on a mind-bending journey deep into the unforgiving copper mines of Serbia and emerging thousands of miles away among an illegal band of gold miners in the Suriname jungle.
GOOD LUCK (PORTRAITS)
Derived from a four-channel installation first presented in Kassel, Germany, in 2017 at the international art biennial, documenta 14, this single-channel looping projection presents a series of intimate black-and-white S16mm portraits of miners, as recorded between a state-owned large-scale underground copper mine in the war-torn state of Serbia and an illegal gold mining collective in the tropical heat of Suriname. Made in the style of Andy Warhol’s “Screen Tests” and filmed on site (both under-and-aboveground), these hand-processed portraits are accompanied by a visceral soundscape drawn from the chaotic working environment of the men pictured. In “Good Luck (Portraits),” the film’s subjects briefly pause in the infinite labor of mineral extraction to give us a subjective vision of their inner selves—a vision controlled by their own hand. Here is the human foundation of capital, revealed.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Russell (b.1976, USA) is an artist and filmmaker 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 and evoking the research of Jean Rouch, Maya Deren and Michael Snow, among others. Russell received a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship, a FIPRESCI International Critics Prize (IFFR 2009) for his first feature film “Let Each One Go Where He May.” His second feature film, “A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness” (co-directed with Ben Rivers), premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2013. Curatorial projects include “Magic Lantern” (Providence, USA, 2005-2007), “BEN RUSSELL” (Chicago, USA, 2009-2011), and “Hallucinations” (Athens, Greece, 2017). He currently resides in Los Angeles. In the summer of 2017 he was an exhibiting artist in documenta 14.
About Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private, international research university with distinctive academics, diversely unique offerings and an undeniable spirit. Located in the geographic heart of New York State, with a global footprint, and nearly 150 years of history, Syracuse University offers a quintessential college experience. The scope of Syracuse University is a testament to its strengths: a pioneering history dating back to 1870; a choice of more than 200 majors and 100 minors offered through 13 schools and colleges; nearly 15,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students; more than a quarter of a million alumni in 160 countries; and a student population from all 50 U.S. states and 123 countries. For more information, please visit www.syracuse.edu.
