3, 2, 1... a TV director counts down, paltry images become actors, and bodies find sync.

Press

"Another standout of the festival, Kera Mackenzie and Andrew Mausert-Mooney's Stones for Thunder, closes program one with a disjointed yet startlingly original montage that brings together shots of (among other things) nature, a television control room, fireworks, and gymnasts. Mackenzie and Mausert-Mooney convey nothing less than the disorientation of modern life in times of great change, a feeling that spans the personal and political selections of this year's Onion City." — Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader

“Stones for Thunder riffs on the increasing inseparability of public and private space through an emphasis on the televisual and technological mediation of the world. It’s disjointedness is disconcerting and jarring; one is increasingly uncertain how to reconcile the fragmentation. Points of connection are lost, within the film and, by extension, within the world we inhabit.” — Patrick Friel, CINE-FILE

“Kera MacKenzie and Andrew Mausert-Mooney’s Stones for Thunder, which I’ve now seen several times, continues to confound me in the most sublime way. One feels it must be watched several times more for its manifestation to reveal itself, but then wonders if that even matters—as a work of moving image art, its ambition is astounding.” — Kathleen Sachs, CINE-FILE

"In lieu of a sentence and in homage to the style and aesthetic of Stones for Thunder, we’ve assembled a list of disjointed and fragmented reactions:
Broadcast or performative space
Isolated theatrical cameos
Flesh colored microphones
Flashing buttons
Consideration of Public and Private
televisual and technological mediation of the world
Disjointment, disconcert, and lost of connection
Peeping through the Keyhole Portrait
The Drape of the costume
The fold of the drapes
Shoes on the ground
Ready for the rally
Physical feedback
Tech Freaks, Acting Nerds, the Set is Alright
Make and get ready. Frame for Standby
We’re going out. I remember the first part. Camera, Keys, Wallet
Bus Fare...Check."
— 2019 Onion City Experimental Film & Video Festival Jury Statement (Michelle Puetz, Snow Yunxue Fu, & Daniel Luedtke)

Video Stills

Credits

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

Voices: Caesar Glebocki and Melina Ausikaitis

Featuring (in order of appearance): Dorothy Humphrey, Caitlin Joy Shantz, Susan Barse, Maria Pecchioli, Chisom Chima, Mike Szlamowicz, Sean Foltin, Kris Seale, Erik Elvgren, Tania Pedroza, Salvador Salazar, Andres Aurelio, Journee Cuffie

Music: Winter Haven by Golden Birthday (Ryan Sullivan)

Soundtrack: Chris Dammann

Sound Mix: Ralph Loza

Title Design: Sean MacKenzie

Cities and States of Production: Chicago, IL; St. Louis, MO; Beaufort, SC; Austin, TX; Charlottesville, VA; Istanbul, Turkey

Support Provided By: The Luminary Residency Program and an Individual Artist Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, as well as a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts

Screening History

2023
Kera MacKenzie & Andrew Mausert-Mooney: Stones for Thunder, online screening, VISIONS CINÉMA

2022
5X5 Video Screening, Xanadu, Berlin, Germany

2021
Liquid Crystal, Mimesis Documentary Festival, Boulder CO

2020
Film Block 5: V_RT_C_L V_RT_G_V, The Film and Video Poetry Symposium, Los Angeles CA

Competitive Program #7, That One Film Festival, Muncie IN
(WINNER: Jurors' Award)

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

Corporeal Considerations, NOFLASH Video Show, New Brunswick NJ

Competitive Program Seven: I’m Still On My Way, Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival (ICDOCS), Iowa City IA

The Tension Here, Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival at Chicago Filmmakers, Chicago IL
(WINNER: City of Big Shoulders Award)

2018
Virginia Film Festival, Vinegar Hill Theatre, Charlottesville VA

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

Imagining Minutes, Another Experiment by Women Film Festival at Anthology Film Archives, New York NY

Sleepover with Channels: A Quarterly Film Series, The Nightingale, Chicago IL

Shorts 5: Revealed Manifestation, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago IL