Over the next few years, Fessenden perfected his own style of guerrilla filmmaking (not unlike that of Gregg Araki). Shooting with a small crew and often without permits. he produced, directed, shot and edited "Experienced Movers" (1985), the story of a mentally unbalanced man who becomes enmeshed in an art heist, adapted from a play by Evan McHale. Fessenden then established Glass Eye Pix through which he worked as a video editor (for such figures as Richard Avedon and William Hickey) and "guerrilla" producer. Between 1985 and 1989, he collaborated with performance artist David Leslie on a number of video projects that were seen at museums and film festivals around the USA. He also completed the docu-drama "Hollow Venus: Diary of a Go-Go Dancer" (1989). loosely based on the experiences of its star Heather Woodbury. As the 90s dawned, the multi-talented filmmaker created his second feature, "No Telling (or The Frankenstein Complex)", a modern-day version of the Prometheus tale which was both a love story and an indictment of animal experimentation. While it was never released in the USA, "No Telling" did make the festival circuit and garnered critical attention. After a turn as an actor in "River of Grass" (1993), a low-budget outlaws-on-the-run melodrama, Fessenden remade his 1981 video project "Habit", which centered on a drunk and his growing relationship with a mysterious woman who he comes to suspect is a vampire. Its screening at the 1996 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival caught the attention of audiences and reviewers and Fessenden was awarded the "Someone to Watch" award by the IFP. A glossier, recut version of the film, which starred the director, was released theatrically in 1997.