The Film Society of Lincoln Center in NYC will feature a one-week run, from October 14 to 20, of short films by filmmaker Dustin Guy Defa under the theme Local Color: The Short Films of Dustin Guy Defa.
“Good short films don’t get the attention that they deserve, which is all the more grievous as there are some terrific short films being made—and Defa is making many of them,” wrote Richard Brody (The New Yorker) in admiration of the director’s Person to Person, an official selection of last year’s New Directors/New Films and part of Local Color. “Put ’em together and it’s almost a feature release, which is what these richly thoughtful yet ultra-low-budget films merit.”
In addition to Person to Person, Local Color: The Short Films of Dustin Guy Defa also includes Family Nightmare (2011), Declaration of War (2013), Lydia Hoffman Lydia Hoffman (2013), and Review (2015), an official selection of the 53rd New York Film Festival.
LOCAL COLOR: THE SHORT FILMS OF DUSTIN GUY DEFA
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
Declaration of War
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2013, digital projection, 7m
Defa takes the piss out of Bush-era foreign policy as our then-President’s declaration of the War on Terror is met by an unrelenting standing ovation.
Family Nightmare
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2011, HDCAM, 10m
Defa delves into his family’s home-movie archive for this by turns bleak and funny but always moving Bosch-esque group portrait, an act of personal exorcism on VHS.
Lydia Hoffman Lydia Hoffman
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2013, HDCAM, 15m
After being dumped by her fed-up boyfriend (Josh Safdie), a young woman (Hannah Gross), allows an alluring stranger (Dakota Goldhor) to crash at her place, unwittingly opening a Pandora’s Box of insecurities and paranoia.
Person to Person
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2014, HDCAM, 18m
The morning after hosting a party, record-store clerk Benny (Bene Coopersmith) finds a stranger (Deragh Campbell) passed out on his floor; upon waking, she refuses to leave. A New Directors/New Films 2014 selection.
Review
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2015, digital projection, 4m
A young woman recounts a story to a group of friends who listen on with rapt attention, but the tale sounds very familiar… An NYFF53 selection.