Ben Russell

American-born and Marseille-based Ben Russell (b. 1976) is widely regarded as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary experimental documentary cinema. Working primarily on 16mm film, his practice blends ethnography, psychedelia and music. His work has been presented at major institutions and festivals including the Venice Film Festival, the Berlinale, Locarno, MoMA, Tate Modern and documenta. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008.

OMVF will present four films by Russell. A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (2013, co-directed with Ben Rivers) is a hypnotic black metal film that follows ambient musician Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe from the forests of Hyrynsalmi, Finland, to a metal club in Oslo. Finland figures prominently also in The Invisible Mountain (2021), which receives its Finnish premiere at the festival. Part road movie, part concert film, the psychedelic hybrid unfolds as a hauntological journey through the ruins of Eastern Europe, featuring Tuomo Tuovinen and Helsinki-based stoner rock trio Olimpia Splendid — comprising Heta Bilaletdin, Jonna Karanka and Katri Sipiläinen. The short film Against Time (2022) was comprised of the same footage.

Black and White Trypps Number Three (2007), filmed at a concert by noise band Lightning Bolt, is part of Russell's seven-part Trypps series that brought him to prominence, and will be screened as part of the festival's Babylon Revisited programme.