In a Perfect Fever

In a Perfect Fever riffs on a ubiquitous trick in film and television history, where the switching of a "practical" light -- a light source within the frame -- serves as a moment of conspiracy between filmmakers, characters, and audience, allowing drastic, even impossible changes to the scene while still functioning as a believable, diegetic moment. Unfurling like a dream, the video expands to consider recent psychological studies investigating empathy that find increased stress levels and shorter life spans for the individuals doing the caring.

How do we name the value of this costly connection?

  • Kera MacKenzie
    Director
    Stones for Thunder, In a Perfect Fever, Abductive Object #4
  • Andrew Mausert-Mooney
    Director
    Stones for Thunder, In a Perfect Fever, Cleaners
  • Kera MacKenzie
    Producer
  • Andrew Mausert-Mooney
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 20 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 1, 2015
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • SHORTS 12: Of Ever-Ever Land I speak, Chicago Underground Film Festival
    Chicago, IL
    United States
    May 17, 2015
    Midwest Premiere, Chicago Premiere
    Official Selection, Festival Premiere
  • Half Suffocated, Gallery 400
    Chicago, Illinois
    United States
    October 8, 2014
  • Notes for a Vivisection, P.3+ at Hammond Regional Arts Center
    Hammond, LA
    United States
    January 10, 2015
    Louisiana Premiere
  • Reality is Negotiable, International Film Festival Rotterdam
    Rotterdam
    Netherlands
    January 29, 2016
    International Premiere, Dutch Premiere
    Official Selection
  • After Dinner Before Dancing, Chicago Filmmakers
    Chicago, IL
    United States
    April 2, 2016
  • Year Zero (0), The Transversal Project
    St. Louis, MO
    United States
    August 27, 2016
    Missouri Premiere, St. Louis Premiere
  • Past Lives, UnionDocs
    Brooklyn, NY
    United States
    November 13, 2016
    East Coast Premiere, New York Premiere
  • Competitive Program #6, Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival (ICDOCS)
    Iowa City, IA
    United States
    April 22, 2017
    Iowa Premiere
    Official Selection
  • ORBIT, Haverhill Experimental Film Festival
    Haverhill, MA
    United States
    June 9, 2017
    Massachusetts Premiere
    Official Selection
  • _POSSIBLE FUTURES_, SIMULTAN Festival XII
    Timisoara
    Romania
    June 15, 2017
    Romanian Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Thinging Bodies, Gallery 400
    Chicago, IL
    United States
    October 5, 2017
  • Visions, Opening Night of the Rencontres Internationales Sciences & Cinémas (RISC)
    Marseille
    France
    November 24, 2017
    French Premiere
    Official Selection
  • In the Body’s Tow: short works by Kera MacKenzie and Andrew Mausert-Mooney, Microlights
    Milwaukee, WI
    United States
    September 8, 2018
    Wisconsin Premiere, Milwaukee Premiere
  • In the Body's Tow: short works by Kera MacKenzie and Andrew Mausert-Mooney, Cellular Cinema
    Minneapolis, MN
    United States
    May 19, 2019
    Minnesota Premiere, Minneapolis Premiere
  • In the Body's Tow: short works by Kera MacKenzie and Andrew Mausert-Mooney, la lumière collective
    Montreal
    United States
    June 28, 2019
    Canadian Premiere, Montreal Premiere
Director Biography - Kera MacKenzie, Andrew Mausert-Mooney

Kera MacKenzie is a Chicago-based artist and videomaker interested in communication systems and the relationship between mental and physical environments. Through her videos, installations, live broadcasts and performances she speculates on radical subjectivities, the mechanisms of empathy, catastrophe and suspense, liveness, and control. She has screened and exhibited her work at spaces including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Edinburgh Artists’ Moving Image Festival, Rencontres Internationales Sciences & Cinémas (France), Simultan Festival (Romania), Coastal Currents Arts Festival (UK), UnionDocs (NYC), the MassArt Film Society, the Haverhill Experimental Film Festival, Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival, High Desert Test Sites (New Mexico), the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and Chicago Underground Film Festival. Kera has been an artist in residence at The Luminary (St. Louis), ACRE (Wisconsin), and Culturia (Berlin). She was also a 2015-16 resident at The Propeller Fund production space, and a 2015-16 Fellow as a part of a UIC/UofC/SAIC transdisciplinary consortium where she published the book Field Trip / Field Notes / Field Guide Vol. 1. She received her MFA in Moving Image from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2013. Additionally, Kera is a Founding Co-Director of ACRE TV, and an educator. keramackenzie.com

Andrew Mausert-Mooney is a Chicago-based artist working with 16mm film, video, performance and television. Andrew's work has shown in festivals, galleries and exhibition series around the world including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the American Film Institute, CineVegas, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Gallery 400, Pleasure Dome, The Nightingale, and Other Cinema. He received his MFA from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 2012. Currently, Andrew is a Founding Co-Director of ACRE TV and Co-Founder and Creative Director of Mainstream Media LLC, a live stream production company. vimeo.com/amm

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Director Statement

Kera MacKenzie and Andrew Mausert-Mooney are Chicago-based interdisciplinary artists working primarily in film, video, live broadcast, and installation. Their projects together have explored transmission; seams in the scenery; liveness, simultaneity and typologies of time; and the possibility and politics of making new images. They also founded ACRE TV, an artist-made livestreaming tele-vision network (ACRETV.org).