Bio
Kera MacKenzie is an artist, educator, and activist working in film, video, live broadcast, and installation. She has screened and exhibited her work worldwide, including at festivals (The International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Montreal International Documentary Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival), museums (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography, The Block Museum of Art), film centers (Anthology Film Archives, UnionDocs, Light Work, Echo Park Film Center, Gene Siskel Film Center), and artist-run spaces (La lumière collective, the Nightingale, Threewalls).
In 2018 and 2024, she was named as one of Newcity Magazine’s Film 50, which recognizes “50 individuals or collaborators that have helped shape Chicago’s film scene”. Kera’s film Make a Distinction, a hybrid non-fiction feature length 16mm film, won the Best of the Festival (Jury Award) at both the 2021 Onion City Experimental Film + Video Festival and the 2021 Chicago Underground Film Festival. Her work has been written about in publications including Art Forum, Art in America, Bomb Magazine, Bad at Sports, and The Chicago Reader. Kera is also a Founding Co-Director of ACRE TV, an artist-made live-streaming television network that was active from 2014 to 2021 and showcased broadcast and video works by hundreds of artists.