Dustin Guy Defa

At the American Computer Chess Convention, enthusiasts gather to pit their programs against other computer chess programs and human players in a tournament for a grand prize of $7500.

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.

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

Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.

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.

Caveh is commissioned by Fandor to film awkward celebrity encounters at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. This is a documentary about his time at the festival filming those encounters.

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.

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.

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

In this piece of docufiction, each day of 2024 is represented by one minute of footage. Two transgender artists in a long-distance relationship film 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Tuna and long time friend, Alex, are on their quest to go to Richard's wedding in Central Park. The duo meet up with their motley assortment of old friends only to revive old jealousies and debates on politics, religion, and the meaning of success, as the whole party runs the risk of going off the rails in a downpour of rain and emotions.

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

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

Eric returns home for a short visit and finds himself caught between reuniting with his sisters and chasing a victory with his old poker group. As the trip extends, Eric finds it increasingly difficult to avoid confrontations and revelations as his carefully constructed façade of his adulthood gives way to old childhood conflicts.

Eric returns home for a short visit and finds himself caught between reuniting with his sisters and chasing a victory with his old poker group. As the trip extends, Eric finds it increasingly difficult to avoid confrontations and revelations as his carefully constructed façade of his adulthood gives way to old childhood conflicts.

Scenes from the working life of a male director: Defa sophisticatedly lampoons masculinity in filmmaking with this sly, surprising meta-movie. (Courtesy of Film Society of Lincoln Center.)

Scenes from the working life of a male director: Defa sophisticatedly lampoons masculinity in filmmaking with this sly, surprising meta-movie. (Courtesy of Film Society of Lincoln Center.)

1950s America. Since his mother‘s confinement to an institution, Andy has lived in the shadow of his stoic father. A family acquaintance, Dr. Wallace Fiennes, employs the introverted young man as a photographer to document an asylum tour advocating for his increasingly controversial lobotomy procedure.

Follows a variety of New York characters as they navigate personal relationships and unexpected problems over the course of one day.

Follows a variety of New York characters as they navigate personal relationships and unexpected problems over the course of one day.

Waking up the morning after hosting a party, a man discovers a stranger passed out on his floor. He spends the rest of the day trying to convince her to leave.

Waking up the morning after hosting a party, a man discovers a stranger passed out on his floor. He spends the rest of the day trying to convince her to leave.

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.

A woman is confronted by a stranger, who believes she’s been edited out of their story.

A woman is confronted by a stranger, who believes she’s been edited out of their story.

A young woman invites a vagabond to stay the night at her house but her feelings of insecurity threaten to overshadow the visit.

A young woman invites a vagabond to stay the night at her house but her feelings of insecurity threaten to overshadow the visit.

A young woman invites a vagabond to stay the night at her house but her feelings of insecurity threaten to overshadow the visit.

Dan Sallitt in conversation with Jaime N. Christley about Red River

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

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

A young woman recounts a story to a group of friends who listen with rapt attention, but the tale sounds very familiar… Another masterful and clever work by one of the world’s premier shorts filmmakers.

A young woman recounts a story to a group of friends who listen with rapt attention, but the tale sounds very familiar… Another masterful and clever work by one of the world’s premier shorts filmmakers.

A dizzy trip through the mid-1990s with a dysfunctional American family. Reliving a distracted child's birthday party, an emotionless wedding, a Halloween in a garage and a Christmas marked with alcohol, drugs and perversion, the film is a crumpled letter from a filmmaker to his family: a shattered kaleidoscope of the destructive patterns that have trapped and wounded its members.

A dizzy trip through the mid-1990s with a dysfunctional American family. Reliving a distracted child's birthday party, an emotionless wedding, a Halloween in a garage and a Christmas marked with alcohol, drugs and perversion, the film is a crumpled letter from a filmmaker to his family: a shattered kaleidoscope of the destructive patterns that have trapped and wounded its members.

In the wake of Shepard Fairey’s arrest for vandalism, Dustin Guy Defa explores graffiti and street art in contemporary Detroit. What is vandalism? And how will the city define itself going forward?

George W Bush declares war on terror to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001.