Dustin Guy Defa

I Wish I Were a Camera

Each day of 2024 is represented by one minute of footage. Two transgender filmmakers in a long-distance relationship document their personal lives for an entire year as a form of therapy. The project forces the couple to examine who they are as individuals, lovers, and artists in a world that threatens their existence.

Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes

Joel Potrykus calls fellow indie filmmakers during the pandemic crisis to check in and see how they're holding up.

Dustin Guy Defa

Interview with Dustin Guy Defa. Recorded in New York City, March 2017.

The Show About the Show

Independent Filmmaker Caveh Zahedi is trying to make a television show. He persuades BRIC TV, a Brooklyn non-profit Arts organization, to finance a television show whose premise is that every episode will be about the making of the previous episode. In the process of creating the show, everything can-and does-go wrong. The cast, a who's who of Brooklyn's independent filmmaking community, includes Alex Karpovsky, Eleonore Hendricks, Dustin Defa, and Onur Tukel.

Hermia & Helena

Camila, a young Argentine theater director, travels from Buenos Aires to New York to attend an artistic residency to develop a Spanish translation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Upon her arrival, she begins to receive a series of mysterious postcards which set her down a winding path through her past and towards her future.

Uncle Kent 2

In a desperate search to create a follow-up to Joe Swanberg's 2011 film Uncle Kent, Kent Osborne travels to a comic book convention in San Diego where he loses his mind and confronts the end of the world.

Heart of a Dog

Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.

Entertainment

Set in the Mojave Desert, the film follows a broken-down comedian playing clubs across the Southwest, working his way to Los Angeles to meet his estranged daughter.

Wild Canaries

When their elderly neighbor suddenly drops dead, a young Brooklyn couple investigates signs of foul play.

Summer of Blood

Lousy lover and egocentric Eric Sparrow is dumped by his girlfriend after rejecting her marital proposal. After a few failed dates his luck turns when a chance encounter with a vampire turns him into a sex god.

Swim Little Fish Swim

Between surrealism, unusual characters, art and magic tricks, "Swim Little Fish Swim" is a dreamlike journey from childhood to adulthood.

The Sixth Year

The Sixth Year is an art world drama series in five episodes, which re-interprets the format of the TV series. Set in the New York art world, it stages the backstage and theatricalizes the social interactions and power games, the aspirations, passions, and everyday realities of the field. The screenplay is based on interviews with artists, curators, gallerists, collectors, and art advisors, whose opinions, anecdotes, and gossip it abstracts and extrapolates into a fictional narrative.

Red Flag

Writer/director/star Alex Karpovsky, a familiar face to indie filmgoers, reveals his sterling comic chops in this close-to-the-bone comedy. Teasing the line between fiction and reality, he plays an indie filmmaker named Alex Karpovsky who, dumped by a longtime girlfriend fed up with his refusal to marry, takes to the road with a reluctant old pal for a misbegotten mini tour screening his movie on college campuses and independent cinemas.

Open Five 2

A relationship drama set amid a winter van trip from New York to New Orleans. A loose continuation of the 2010 film.

Richard's Wedding

RICHARD'S WEDDING is an ensemble comedy that explores how the most enduring friendships require a mixture of envy, love and ridiculous egomania disguised as self-contempt. Alex and Tuna are on their way to Richard and Phoebe's wedding, to be reunited with a group of old friends. As they make their trek from Brooklyn to Central Park, they're joined by an ever-increasing number of friends with their own set of misgivings, self-righteousness, and violently annoying iPhone Apps.

The Zone

A mysterious visitor spends the night at an apartment belonging to a young engaged couple and their friend. Over the course of the night and the following day he sleeps with all three roommates and then disappears, leading to conversations about God, life and filmmaking.

Bad Fever

A humorless loner attempts to win the admiration of a drifter with his debut performance at the local comedy club.