Geezers
Director: James Kautz
United States, 2024, 8 min
Shooting Format:RED Gemini
Festival Year:2025
Category:Narrative Short
Genre:Comedy
Cast:Dan Lauria, Cedric Cannon, Yvonna Pearson
Crew:Writer: Erik Potempa. Execute Producer: Erik Potempa. Producers: Collin Meath, Lianne Becker, Benjamin Drew Thompson.
Email:James@RedSeedFilms.com
Synopsis
In gentrifying Queens, NYC, two terminally ill Vietnam vet best friends face their own mortality and the changing world around them in hilariously transgressive ways.
GEEZERS is a heartfelt comedy about facing mortality and who we call family when it matters most.
Trailer
About the director
James Kautz (he/him) is a multifaceted artist of stage and film, hailed by The New York Times as “fearless” and as “fiercely talented” by Time Out New York.
James is the Founder of Red Seed Films, an independent film production company whose stories focus on personal transformation, gender, and identity. Red Seed's films have been accepted into over a hundred film festivals, including Oscar, BAFTA, and Canadian Film Award qualifying festivals.
He is the Founding Artistic Director of the award winning, critical darling, Off Broadway theatre company, The AMORALISTS.
As an actor, James has worked in television (HBO, CBS), theatre (Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage), independent films, commercials and voice-over.
He is a graduate of NYU's Sight & Sound Filmmaking Program and has taught and directed in NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and The Atlantic Theater Company Acting School.
Filmmaker's note
James Dascoli, my ornery, bullish, namesake grandfather was a proud World War 2 vet. He was also my hero.
Jimmy D’s infamous brand of gruff masculinity, paired with an empathy laced, no-nonsense type of humor is something I’ll always cherish with fondness and a glorious twinge of cringe.
He’s who I thought of when Erik, writer and creator, brought me the GEEZERS script.
As collaborators in our 40’s, Erik and I immediately connected over the brand of men we’d grown up with; their humor, their flaws, their heart, and the bittersweet passing away of their sensibilities from this modern world.
GEEZERS is, on the surface, a bit of an odd couple comedy about Wayne & Yanni - two lifelong, Vietnam vet, best friends decrying the changing times. We watch as they spend an afternoon in Astoria Queens park, debating the merits of On the Waterfront and Ronald Reagan’s presidency (both favorites of Wayne’s) only to be disrupted by a rumble with some teenage bullies.
It’s all funny as hell, in my opinion. But under the crude surface is a genuinely heartfelt story about mortality and who we call family when it matters most.
Thank you for considering GEEZERS. We hope it conjures some laughs and hits ya right in the feels.