Dustin Guy Defa is an American independent filmmaker and actor. He is best known for directing the feature films '' Bad Fever'' and ''

Person to Person ''Person to Person'' is a popular television program in the United States that originally ran from 1953 to 1961, with two episodes of an attempted revival airing in 2012. Edward R. Murrow hosted the original series from its inception in 1953 unti ...

'' and writing the screenplay for ''

The Mountain The Mountain (french: La Montagne) was a political group during the French Revolution. Its members, called the Montagnards (), sat on the highest benches in the National Convention. They were the most radical group and opposed the Girondins. Th ...

''.

Early life

Dustin Guy Defa was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1978.

Career

Defa wrote and directed his first feature film '' Bad Fever'' in 2011. It starred

Kentucker Audley Andrew Michael Nenninger (born November 13, 1981), known professionally as Kentucker Audley, is an American filmmaker and actor. He appeared on the 2007 ''Filmmaker Magazine'' list of 25 New Faces of Independent Film. He founded the independent f ...

and

Eleonore Hendricks Eleonore Hendricks (born 1983) is an American actress, photographer and casting director based out of New York City. She has appeared in films such as ''A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints'' and '' Go Get Some Rosemary'', as well as films by the ...

and focused on the story of a socially inept wannabe stand-up comic who becomes infatuated with a drifter he meets outside of a gas station. The film premiered at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

to positive reviews, commending the film's paired down naturalism and the direction of the actors. ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

Richard Brody Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999. Education Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He first ...

praised the film, saying "Defa exerts delicate control over his incendiary material and evokes emotional terrors with a sympathetic directness; his raw-toned drama is quietly hectic and brutally poignant." Defa then made two short films, ''Person to Person'' and ''Family Nightmare'' which both premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

In 2015, the

Film Society of Lincoln Center Film at Lincoln Center, previously known as the Film Society of Lincoln Center until 2019,Aridi, Sara (April 28, 2019).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved April 29, 2019. is a film society based in New York City, United States. Fo ...

programmed a retrospective of his short work. Defa wrote a screenplay for a feature-length version of ''Person to Person''. The film follows a series of characters living in New York City as they navigate a myriad of complex human relationships. He cast actors including

Abbi Jacobson Abbi Jacobson is an American comedian, writer, actress, illustrator and producer. She co-created and co-starred in the Comedy Central series ''Broad City'' (2014–2019) with Ilana Glazer, based on the web series of the same name. Her ...

Michael Cera Michael Austin Cera (; ; born June 7, 1988) is a Canadian actor and musician. He started his career as a child actor, voicing the character of Brother Bear on the children's television show ''The Berenstain Bears (2003 TV series), The Berenstain ...

Tavi Gevinson Tavi Gevinson (born April 21, 1996) is an American actress, writer, and magazine editor. She came to public attention at the age of 12 due to her fashion blog Style Rookie. By the age of 15, she had shifted her focus to pop culture and feminist d ...

Philip Baker Hall Philip Baker Hall (September 10, 1931 – June 12, 2022) was an American character actor. Hall is known for his collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson, including '' Hard Eight'' (1996), ''Boogie Nights'' (1997) and ''Magnolia'' (1999). He als ...

and director Josh Safdie to fill in the

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

. The film premiered in the NEXT Section at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and later had a full theatrical run. In 2018, Defa co-wrote the subversive 1950's period film ''The Mountain'' with director

Rick Alverson Patrick James Alverson Jr. (born June 25, 1971) is an American film director, screenwriter and musician, living in Richmond, Virginia. His films have been characterized by their confrontational nature and departure from traditional 3 act structu ...

and Colm O'Leary. In 2023, he directed a film ''

The Adults The Adults is a "collaborative name" used for two different recording projects led by New Zealand musician and Shihad frontman Jon Toogood. The first iteration of the Adults was a New Zealand rock supergroup that released a self-titled album in ...

'', which was screened in Encounter at the

73rd Berlin International Film Festival The 73rd annual Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale (), took place from 16 to 26 February 2023. It was the first completely in-person Berlinale since the 70th in 2020. The festival has added a new award for best te ...

, for its world premiere on 18 February 2023.

Acting

Defa acted in the feature films ''

Computer Chess Computer chess includes both hardware (dedicated computers) and software capable of playing chess. Computer chess provides opportunities for players to practice even in the absence of human opponents, and also provides opportunities for analysi ...

'', ''

Summer of Blood ''Summer of Blood'' is a 2014 horror comedy vampire film written, edited, and directed by Onur Tukel. The film stars Tukel, Anna Margaret Hollyman, Dakota Goldhor, Jason Selvig, and Dustin Guy Defa. Plot During an evening date, Eric Sparrow (Onur ...

'', ''

Swim Little Fish Swim ''Swim Little Fish Swim'' is a 2013 French-American indie comedy-drama written, produced and co-directed by Lola Bessis and Ruben Amar. This film was shot in New York on a shoe-string budget. Once finished, it hit the festival circuit (Rotterdam ...

'', and the TV show '' Easy''. He did the voiceover for the short film ''Family Tree.'' Starting in 2015, Defa began to portray the character of Aziz on ''The Show About the Show''.

Filmography

* 2011 - ''Family Nightmare''; short film * 2012 - '' Bad Fever'' * 2013 - ''The Sixth Year''; segment director * 2013 - ''Declaration of War''; short film * 2013 - ''Lydia Hoffman Lydia Hofman''; short film * 2014 - ''Person to Person''; short film * 2015 - ''Review''; short film * 2015 - ''God Is an Artist''; short film * 2016 - ''Dramatic Relationships''; short film * 2017 - ''

'' * 2021 - ''Editing''; short film * 2023 - ''

'' (director)

References

External links

* 1978 births Filmmakers from Utah Living people {{US-film-director-1970s-stub