Let Each One Go Where He May
Ben Russell, US/SR, 2009, 16mm, 135’

“Let each one go where they may.” Zo citeerde Lantifaya “Let each one go where they may”, Lantifaya Masiakiiki quotes the gods in 1973, criticizing the position of Surinamese slaves under Dutch command. Ben Russell’s first feature film follows two Saramaccan brothers who re-enact the path which their ancestors took, while freeing themselves from their oppressors. Parting from Paramaribo, they cross Surinamese land and water before they turn back home, after participating in a still existing archaic ritual in a traditional Maroon village. Russell captures the journey in 13 takes of 10 minutes each, all of them shot with a 16mm steadycam. An idiosyncratic ethnographic document, merging a colonial past and the contemporary remainders.