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Eleonore Hendricks as Irene and Kentucker Audley as Eddie in BAD FEVER, a film by Dustin Guy Defa. Picture courtesy Factory 25. All rights reserved.

Bad Fever (2010/2012)

Opened: 02/03/2012 Limited

Trailer: Click for trailer

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Genre: Drama

Rated: Unrated

Synopsis

Alternatingly quiet and delirious, always desperate, Bad Fever is a witness to one man's broken American Dream and his eternal longing to find someone, anyone, who understands or even pretends to understand.

Eddie (Kentucker Audley) bumbles his way through an agonizing courtship with Irene (Eleonore Hendricks), a manipulating drifter who videotapes their fleeting moments together. To express his true feelings for her, he painstakingly orchestrates his debut stand-up performance at the local comedy club.

Here is a portrait of two lonely trains passing each other by on the emotional railroad tracks of a forgotten city.

Director's Statement

I've spent a lot of time alone and a good number of years unable to communicate with people. I've always loved people but I had deep doubts about myself as a person and as a filmmaker (still do) and those doubts have been paralyzing. In the past I've attempted to write about characters who you can root for, or that you know are going to be okay at the end of the film. At some point I realized that I wanted to write about someone who was trapped, who couldn't free himself of his perpetual loneliness. Through the writing, and then through the filmmaking, I wanted to say to him, Well, I guess you might be lonely for the test of your life, I guess that's just how it is, I'm sorry, but I like you and I'm glad you exist.

Eddie is unable to love people because he doesn't have any sort of clarity about himself. All he has are faint ideas about who he is, or who he hopes to become, and those ideas aren't even his own. He's picked them up over the years from television and movies and observing other people, especially men, and how other men treat women. He wants Irene to like him, and he wants to like Irene, but it's a bridge too long to cross, a wall built up too high. I think Irene is interested in Eddie, maybe she'd even be open to a real relationship with him, but because of his inability to express his feelings she's resorted back to the patterns she's caught in, instead of approaching him in a brand new way. She has a choice and unfortunately she decides to just treat him like everyone else.

For me, making this film has been a reawakening to people and to the sheer joy of filmmaking. It's been about finally getting around to dealing with the parts of me that are Eddie and the parts that are Irene, and getting to know those parts of myself a little more. To me, the title Bad Fever means the desperation to express oneself. It's an attempt to just say, I'm okay right now.

Biographies

Dustin Guy Defa (Writer/Director/Producer)

Dustin Guy Defa has been making movies since he was eleven. The recipient of the Rooftop Films Filmmakers' Fund Grant, he is currently in post-production on a short documentary about his family. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Kentucker Audley (Eddie)

Kentucker is a filmmaker living in Memphis, TN. His latest film Open Five was called one of 2010's best films by The New Yorker and praised by Variety, The Wall Street Journal and Hammer To Nail, among others. He was named one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2007 by Filmmaker Magazine. His first feature Team Picture was released by Benten Films to critical acclaim. His second feature is the as-yet-unreleased avant-garde road trip Holy Land and his fourth feature Open Five 2 is in pre-production.

Eleonore Hendricks (Irene)

Eleonore was born in New York City. After cultivating strength and sensitivity from the Quaker Friends school in NYC and the all women's Smith College, she began a simultaneous pursuit in film and photography. She has acted in and collaborated on films including A Guide to Recognizing Your Stains, Bad Biology, The Pleasure of Being Robbed and Daddy Longlegs.

Allison Baar (Yoko)

Allison studied acting at the YMCA after-school program in Orange County, California, during which she distinguished herself as capable of delivering a variety of material in a hoop skirt and southern accent. Acting, Production Design, Wardrobe and Video Art comprise her filmic interests and experience. This is her feature film debut.

Annette Wright (Mama)

Annette has lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, since 1986. She as a degree in Theater Education from Brigham Young University and taught high school for four years.