HOTSPOT

A city couple and their teenage son move upstate to finalize their Airbnb rental, obliviously stirring up tensions with their next-door neighbor, a notorious arsonist.


Wilson, a restless, Manhattan-raised, 16-year-old, is stuck in Woodstock with his weathered, transplant father, Mick, and Mick’s younger, model girlfriend, Veronica. A former city dweller turned wannabe property flipper, Mick is convinced he can turn a prefab shack into a lucrative Airbnb. Wilson, however, just wants to go home—to his friends and his mother.

Across the property line sits Virgil, an old man with deep roots in Woodstock—not just as a generational landowner but as a notorious, drunken arsonist with little patience for newcomers. When Wilson accidentally provokes him, tensions between the two households spiral into a quiet war of petty acts and veiled threats. But as Wilson and Virgil begin to find common ground in their shared contempt for Mick, their small acts of rebellion escalate.
After parting ways, Mick and Veronica return to the motel to wash up while Wilson and Virgil catch each other in the act—both attempting to burn down the modern BnB. In the end, they join forces to put an end to Mick’s half-baked business venture, only to confront the unavoidable reality of change and inevitable rural gentrification.


CREDITS

  • Director:  Hudson Price

  • Producer: Ethan Choi

  • Writer: Hudson Price

  • Associate Producer: Gili-Jo Froman, Sebastian Kim

  • Editor: Hudson Price

For more information, contact hdp9298@nyu.edu or 845-399-6747

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