Justin Clifford-Rhody

Two friends resolve to enjoy an old horror movie as a consequence of character similarities. As the film makes headway, art begins to imitate life.

During the pandemic lockdown, the director sent half-second long strips of Eisenstein’s film to various collaborators to alter their segments at will. Once returned, the strips were combined to make this “collaborative deconstruction/destruction” of the film’s trailer, whose images and soundtrack are intentionally jumbled.

A straddling of the dynamics that link and distort sound and image. Beginning with a soundtrack that Rhody composed from recordings by long-time collaborator, Jeremy Kennedy, the structure and visual anatomy of the film was then constructed around its sonic form. The interplay, independence and connection between the two components intuitively create an indefinite non-linear narrative, resulting in Bruised Fruit & Underfed Flora. Shot on 16mm, Super-8mm and miniDV tape and transferred to 4K digital.