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?

Press

"Kera Mackenzie and Andrew Mausert-Mooney's IN A PERFECT FEVER (2014, Video Projection), a work-in-progress that uses extra-filmic light sources in a conspiratorial strategy with the audience. Mackenzie, who has a degree in art therapy, and Mausert-Mooney describe the video as taking inspiration from contemporary experimental psychological studies "that find increased stress levels and shorter life spans" among those who deeply feel for other people." — Kian Bergstrom, CINE-FILE

"Empathy is generally a positive emotion though we shouldn’t underestimate the consequences of the stress it can cause. A stimulating essay."
— International Film Festival Rotterdam

Video Stills

Credits

Image/Sound/Edit: Kera MacKenzie & Andrew Mausert-Mooney

Voices: Sebastian Aguirre & Teresa Silva

Performers: Janine Biunno, Jesse Malmed, James Cordas, Kate Bowen, Seth Sher, Alex Narinskiy, & Lauren Walsh

Live-To-Tape Crew: Tony Balko, Blair Bogin, Kate Bowen, CJ Brazelton, Jesse Malmed, Jordan Martins, & Marisa Williamson

Live-To-Tape Soundtrack: Samuel Hertz

Sound Mix: Paul Dickinson, Kera MacKenzie, & Andrew Mausert-Mooney

Screening History

2019
In the Body's Tow: short works by Kera MacKenzie & Andrew Mausert-Mooney, La lumière collective, Montréal QC

In the Body's Tow: short works by Kera MacKenzie & Andrew Mausert-Mooney, Cellular Cinema at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater, Minneapolis MN

Program 3: Intercommunication, Spectral Film Festival, Stevens Point WI

2018
In the Body's Tow: short works by Kera MacKenzie & Andrew Mausert-Mooney, Microlights, Milwaukee WI

PLANTS & ANIMALS: ​On Monsters, Cyborgs and Other Hybrid Creatures, In/habit roving art series at The Learning Machine, Chicago IL

2017
Visions, Opening Night of the Rencontres Internationales Sciences & Cinémas (RISC), Marseille, France

Thinging Bodies, Gallery 400, Chicago IL

_POSSIBLE FUTURES_, SIMULTAN Festival XII, Timisoara, Romania

ORBIT, Haverhill Experimental Film Festival, Haverhill MA

Competitive Program #6, Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival (ICDOCS), Iowa City IA

2016
Past Lives, UnionDocs, Brooklyn NY

Year Zero (0), The Transversal Project, Forest Park, St. Louis MO

After Dinner Before Dancing, Chicago Filmmakers, Chicago IL

Reality is Negotiable, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

2015
Video! Video! Zine 1, Online and Giron Books, Chicago IL

Shorts 12: Of Ever-Ever Land I speak, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago IL

P.3+ at Hammond Regional Arts Center, Hammond LA

Half Suffocated, Gallery 400, Chicago IL

Production Stills