Good Luck, Ben Russell

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Co-presented by the National Gallery and Knot Project Space

A visceral non-fiction portrait of hope and sacrifice in a time of global economic turmoil, Good Luck was filmed at a state-owned, large-scale underground mine in the war-torn state of Serbia, and an illegal mining collective in the tropical heat of Suriname. Formed between dark and light, cold and heat, North and South, Good Luck immerses its viewer in the precarious natural and social environments of two distinct labor groups so as to better understand the bonds that men share. Here is the human foundation of capital, revealed.

Ben Russell

Ben Russell (b.1976, USA) is an 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 and evoking the research of Jean Rouch, Maya Deren and Michael Snow, among others. Russell received a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2009 and 2017 FIPRESCI International Critics Prize and has presented his work at documenta 14, MOMA NYC, Tate Modern, and the Centre Pompidou. 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.