COMBINED DESIRES
Dirs. Justin Clifford Rhody & Abigail Smith, 2022-2026.
US. 65 min.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10 – 7:30 PM (Special event with filmmakers)
Spectacle is pleased to welcome No Name Cinema to co-present this special event.
This sixty-five minute program by New Mexico-based, self-taught visiting filmmakers, Justin Clifford Rhody and Abigail Smith, showcases works created both collaboratively and independently over the last five years. This specially curated selection includes cosmic-time period pieces, seizure-inducing deconstructions, meditative abstractions, horror/morality tales, and experimental sonic affinities created using 35mm, 16mm and Super-8mm film, as well as MiniDV tape. Recommended to enthusiasts of unflinching amateurism and the materiality of film, and to viewers who find narrative to be overrated. The artists will be in attendance to offer a brief introduction before the screening, pace uncomfortably outside during the screening, and to satiate the audience’s burning inquiries during an informal Q&A afterward.
The Interior Frontier / Justin Clifford Rhody & Abigail Smith / 2023 / 20 mins / Color and B&W / Sound / 16mm & Super-8mm
Potemkin Piece / Justin Clifford Rhody / 2022 / 1 min 35 sec / Color / Sound / 35mm
thread / Abigail Smith / 2022 / 2 mins / color / sound / 35mm
The Money Curse / Abigail Smith / 2024 / 8 min / B&W / Silent / Super-8mm
in dreams only / Justin Clifford Rhody & Abigail Smith / 2023 / 11 mins / color / sound / 16mm (score by K/S/R & Wind Tide)
(another) Perfect Film / Justin Clifford Rhody / 2026 / 5 min 18 sec / Color / Silent / 16mm
Bruised Fruit & Underfed Flora / Justin Clifford Rhody / 2022 / 6 min 15 sec / b&w / sound / miniDV, Super-8mm & 16mm (score by Jeremy Kennedy)
Black Palms / Justin Clifford Rhody / 2022 / 1 min 24 secs / b&w / sound / 35mm
drip / Justin Clifford Rhody / 2023 / 4 min / Color / Sound / miniDV (score by Zak M)
El Rito / Justin Clifford Rhody / 2021 / 8 mins / B&W / Sound / MiniDV (score by Adam Keith)
Justin Clifford Rhody is a photographer, musician, filmmaker, writer, radio dj, and curator based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Rhody’s films have been widely exhibited internationally at festivals, microcinemas, universities, and underground DIY spaces. Books of his photographic work have been published by Mirro Editions, Bathetic Records, and Hidden Eye. He has been organizing art, film and music events since the turn of the century, has performed on an enormous amount of vinyl records and cassettes, and has toured across the United States countless times. Rhody ran Friends & Relatives Records 2000-2016, and has operated the Physical media label since 2020. He curated the Vernacular Visions photo slideshow series in the Bay Area 2013-2018, and co-founded/operated No Name Cinema in Santa Fe New Mexico 2021-2026. Rhody currently performs and records with K/S/R (experimental free improv), the Nordile-Rhody Duo (speculative jazz), and Discretion (postmodern classical).
Abigail Smith is an experimental filmmaker, musician, collage artist, field recordist, archivist and master librarian based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Smith’s films have been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues such as Harvard University, Saigon Experimental Film Festival, Other Cinema (San Francisco), IndieLisboa (Portugal), Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and the Beijing International Short Film Festival. She was a co-founder and operator of the anti-capitalist warehouse microcinema, No Name Cinema, 2021-2026. A book of Smith’s collage work was published by Mirro Editions and an album of her field recordings was released by Eh? Records. Her most recent art exhibition was a two-person show at the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe. Smith plays percussion in the Discretion ensemble, and flute and drums in K/S/R.