Ordinal (SW/NE)

2017, 45 min, video, color



“Ordinal (SW/NE) is an experimental documentary. The film traces the cultural and environmental influences of a soil-dwelling, pathogenic fungus, Coccidioides immitis, and its associated disease, valley fever, in California's Central Valley. Interweaving past, present and mythological time, the film draws upon historical and cultural references, including the plight of migrants during the Depression, the spread of the disease in recent years, contemporary theories of climate change, and the significance of the desert wind in ancient Assyria. In Ruperto and Keagy’s film, natural phenomena remain neutral, fleeing from any kind of judgment and avoiding binary oppositions of positive and negative, destruction and regeneration, life and death.
-–Ruth Estévez, former curator at REDCAT Gallery, Los Angeles


Director: Rini Yun Keagy
Creators: Rini Yun Keagy, Miljohn Ruperto
Editors: Chris Chan Lee, Rini Yun Keagy
Cinematography: Jen Schneider
Additional Cinematography: Daryl Gilmore, Rini Yun Keagy
Sound: Mike Hallenbeck, Chris Chan Lee
Original Music: John & Emma Beams, Daniel Oldham, Scott “Chops” Jung
Featuring: Dr. Antje Lauer, Josiah Ihem, Chelsea Rector, Joe Seely, Gleason Bauer,
Jane Edith Wilson, Kelsey Boncato, Edie Yvonne, Peter Lucas

Screening/Exhibition:

Katherine E. Nash Gallery (group show), Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN, Jan-Feb, 2018
Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles CA, Nov 10, 2017 (with co-creator Miljohn Ruperto in conversation)
Galerija Nova, Zagreb Croatia, Jul 21, 2017
Viking Theater, St Olaf College, Northfield MN, Apr 6, 2017
REDCAT Gallery, Los Angeles CA, Jan-Mar 2017

Selected Press:

X-TRA Contemporary Art Quarterly
LA Review of Books

Ordinal (SW/NE)was produced in part with support from Jerome Foundation Film, Video and Digital Production grant (Minnesota) 2016, Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant 2016-17, Carleton Arts and Technology curricular initiative grant (Carleton College) 2015, and REDCAT Gallery, 2016.