RaMell

What a wonderful night celebrating Amy Sherald: American Sublime 🎤✨ Last night artist @asherald and filmmaker and writer, @ramellross were in conversation around their respective contributions to the art world, their shared inspiration in film and photography, and their approaches to storytelling about the African American experience. 🎟️Amy Sherald: American Sublime opens at the High on May 15! Get your tickets today by visiting high.org The conversation was moderated by Angelica Arbelaez Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

'In the gradual amazement after birth we develop our consciousness, to pilot our bodies from a whisper in our head.' @ramellross ⁠ ⁠ This mysterious and spellbinding book from filmmaker RaMell Ross explores the magical realism of Hale County, Alabama, the setting of his Academy Award-nominated documentary 'Hale County This Morning, This Evening' (2018) 🎬️⁠ ⁠ Read more about the project via link in bio 🔗⁠ ⁠ 📸 'Spell, Time, Practice, American, Body', RaMell Ross

given the way the USA is salivating & eating its people, seems apt to share a performance piece from june 2025. i lived 24 hours in a 30x30’ room with an 8/9’ alligator while spreading Hale County, red, Alabama dirt on the floor… considering alligators’ historical tie to peeps of color in the American South, a little over ten years ago i starting thinking about what it must have felt like in the past (the embodiment, the real-world sense of the feels) to try to make a home amid conspicuous pending violence, violence that is one of our nation's instincts, perhaps its most fundamental modus operandi... a violence that is almost reptilian. thinking of the system at large as an apex predator. the type of attention, one must maintain to survive i titled the piece: America(n) Jumps the Gator (yes, this is the same alligator from Nickel Boys. yes, we consulted the appropriate animal rights channels. yes, this was inspired by Joseph Beuys coyote piece. yes, it was terrifying (though the most terrifying part may be that i got used to being in there and it became banal). and yes, i am wearing an alligator vest the piece was documented by security cameras, by documentarian Kasimu Harris @visionsandverbs (in the MoMA collection now!!), and camera glasses. shout out to my guy/studio manager Bobby Davis @camelcheetah (who wears, literally, all the hats) artist Alex Westfall @westfallalex who did me a huge favor and produced a wild couple weeks of image making, Karen Milliken and her partner Dave @millikensmovieanimals (Milliken Farms (they do amazing work in film (they even handled all the Sinners animals))), Josh at the Fish Pot @fishpotstudios , sir Chip @el_chipacabra for the color temperature and joy, Batou Chandler for the good fight, and the secular gods for their patience with me 1. keeping the system alive 2. studying the system (at Milliken Farms) 3. image by Kasimu 4. image from a security camera 5. 2025 NYFF poster i designed

A kaleidoscopic and humanistic view of the Black community in Alabama. Hale County This Morning, This Evening is now streaming on DocPlay. Allows the viewer an emotive impression of the Historic South - trumpeting the beauty of life and consequences of the social construction of race, while simultaneously a testament to dreaming - despite the odds. How does one express the reality of individuals whose public image, lives, and humanity originate in exploitation? Photographer and filmmaker RaMell Ross employs the integrity of nonfiction filmmaking and the currency of stereotypical imagery to fill in the gaps between individual black male icons. Hale County This Morning, This Evening is a lyrical innovation to the form of portraiture that boldly ruptures racist aesthetic frameworks that have historically constricted the expression of African American men on film.

unsolicitedly, nice to get back to the art practice. i've been taught recently by some new images, projects and performance works. there is so much to learn through making (time). late summer brought this moment, this (clearing my throat) not-sentient-perspective-moment, but a moment from a particular point of view none-the-less. and it's none-r-the-less, epic-banal... written, directed, cinematography, edit, sound design: me so many brains and talents, sacrificially, involved in the larger literal experiment this comes from: producer: Alex Westfall @westfallalex co-producer: me associate producer, assistant director & tech: Bobby Davis @camelcheetah Cast (there are more cast for other moments) Cayden Thipado - older brother Cooper Barnes - younger brother Sylvia Robinson - Healer Production Team Chip Carey - gaffer @el_chipacabra Brandon Holland - gaffer @brandon.content Batou Chandler - locations manager Jamey Osborne - sound recordist Monique Champagne - production designer & set decorator @flambeauxs (Norah Mendis (we miss you!) @noralux ) Jonathan Cappel - art department Jason Derek North - art department Tony Ziegler - art department Billy Ray McKenna - costume designer @billyraymckenna Ignacia Soto-Aguilar - hair & make-up artist @ignaciamsa Reggie Evans - production assistant @reggiebaybthevariety Quintin Harris - production assistant big big thanks too the secret people involved who know who they are

In RaMell Ross’s (@ramellross ) “Hale’s Angels” (2022), a stretch of Hale County, Alabama’s distinctive red soil is marked by circular and sweeping impressions, described by one writer as “. . . whorls in the soil, winglike shapes left behind on the snowless red earth, the dirt angels of Hale’s Angels.” - Ross created these imprints in a process he documented on video, which will be shown at Paris Photo alongside the photograph. The video offers processual insight into the work’s making, and as an unembellished record of sound and gesture, the footage serves as an evidentiary companion to the photograph. - RaMell Ross is featured this week during our 2025 presentation at @parisphotofair . Learn more about our fair program at the link in bio. #RaMellRoss #ParisPhoto #PerformanceArt #Photography #PaceGallery

nickel boys on jeopardy?!?! cray cray

Dr. Bedour Alagraa and Dr. Rikki Byrd are reimagining how art, theory, and community intersect at UT Austin. Leveraging the interdisciplinary research areas and collaborative spirit within the African & African Diaspora Studies (AADS) department, their yearlong series "Rethinking Aesthetics" explores how creative practices shape our understanding of aesthetics and culture. "Rethinking Aesthetics" programming opens Oct. 9–10 with a two-day residency featuring Oscar-nominated filmmaker RaMell Ross, known for his groundbreaking approach to visual storytelling. Named after Sylvia Wynter's essay “Rethinking Aesthetics: Notes Towards A Deciphering Practice,” the series reframes Black cultural production. Read more about the inspiration for "Rethinking Aesthetics" at the link in bio. This program is supported by @warfield_ut @utexasrtf @austinfilm @aads_ut . . . . Story: Maya Roberson 📷: Rebekah Flake

In his debut feature, two-time Oscar®️ nominee RaMell Ross (NICKEL BOYS) traces the lives of two young Black men over five pivotal years, offering an intimate and poetic glimpse into rural Alabama. Reflecting on race, identity, and the fabric of the American South, this lyrical documentary "poses a quietly radical challenge to assumptions about race, class, and the aesthetics of filmmaking” (The New York Times). Ross joins us in-person Friday, October 10, for a post-film Q&A as AFS and the University of Texas' @warfield_ut present a special screening of 2018's HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING. For tickets and times, visit the link in our bio.

This fall, award-winning photographer and Oscar-nominated director RaMell Ross (@ramellross ) will be in residence with the African and African Diaspora Studies Department (AADS) for two days of programming on campus and with off-campus partner Austin Film Society. The programming kicks off October 9th with a screening of Ross’ Oscar-nominated film, 𝙉𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙡 𝘽𝙤𝙮𝙨 (2024), an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title. Following the screening, Ross will be in conversation with UT-Austin faculty, moderated by Roger Reeves. The event is free, and RSVP is required. Ross’ residency will continue October 10th, where he will join Dr. Bedour Alagraa (AADS) for a free afternoon seminar on the UT campus discussing the nexus of film, political theory, and aesthetics. That evening, events will move off campus to Austin Film Society Cinema for a screening of Ross’ film 𝙃𝙖𝙡𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 (2018), followed by a conversation with Ross and AFS staff. There are a limited number of free tickets available for UT students and faculty. You can also purchase tickets at austinfilm.org. Visit the link in the @aads_ut bio for full program details and to RSVP. Ross’ Residency is the first event in the 𝙍𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘼𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙨 series, a yearlong initiative organized by Drs. Bedour Alagraa (@bedouralagraa ) and Rikki Byrd (@rikkibyrd ) in the African and African Diaspora Studies Department, based on the insights offered by Sylvia Wynter in her seminal essay, “Rethinking Aesthetics: Notes Towards A Deciphering Practice." This program is sponsored by the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies (@warfield_ut ), the African and African Diaspora Studies Department (@aads_ut ), the Department of Radio-Television-Film (@utexasrft ), and the Austin Film Society (@austinfilm ). AADS is a department within the College of Liberal Arts (@liberalartsut ) at The University of Texas at Austin.

Director @ramellross in conversation with @amistadcenter Deputy Museum Director @rodneyna Thursday September 11. #free-admission Visit @thewadsworth website to register and for more info.

We're thrilled to reveal the #NYFF63 poster, designed by artist, writer, and filmmaker RaMell Ross, director of the #NYFF62 Opening Night selection NICKEL BOYS! NYFF posters are a yearly artistic signature of the film festival, and Ross joins a stellar lineup of renowned artists who have contributed their work to the festival, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, Saul Bass, John Waters, Cindy Sherman, Pedro Almodóvar, Kara Walker, Nan Goldin, Jim Jarmusch, and David Byrne. Ross says of his design: “After compartmentalizing the shock of being asked to join the intimidating list of artists who took on this honor, I looked for guidance, of course, from my world line, the always giving epic-banal, and the unfulfillable desire for images of their own volition, images of their own free will. And so, the poster consolidates two ontological image perspectives, one from point of view and another from a security camera, both from my 24-hour performance piece, ‘America(n) Jumps the Gator.’ As the New York Film Festival acts in many ways as an expression of our times, the language of the poster sprouts from the idea of photograph and film as an almost spiritual, meta mode of knowledge production, not unlike a spell, prayer, medicine or poison, or piece of legislation, though, as ineffable as the sensation of deja vu.” The limited-edition posters are now available for purchase via @Posteritati , with a limited number signed by the artist. Additionally, a limited number of posters will be available for purchase during the festival at Film at Lincoln Center’s merchandise store located in Alice Tully Hall. FLC Members receive a 10% discount on the poster. Purchase yours today at posteritati.com/nyff63