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"This above all: to thine own self be true…"
—William Shakespeare
"You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you."
—Bob Dylan
The J Train crossing the Williamsburg Bridge from the LES to Brooklyn
Mr. Jack is a 2-hour feature-length motion picture that will be shot in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It tells the story of an ancient wisdom set in contemporary New York City. As the ancient Greeks warned of the death and destruction that ensues when one challenges the natural order, Mr. Jack is a portent to those who fail to accept love gracefully.
The iconic Williamsburg Bridge, a pivotal backdrop in the film Mr. Jack
Mr. Jack is the story of an artist and eternal vagabond, Val Shepard, who after a self imposed exile returns to New York City. Upon reaching home, he is confronted by the harsh reality that his girlfriend has married, and his old studio is now occupied by the mysterious and charismatic Jackson King, known as Mr. Jack.
Val Shepard is not destroyed by what happens to him. He is destroyed by what he cannot bring himself to do. Returning to the Lower East Side after years of self-imposed exile, he finds the life he abandoned still visible: his former girlfriend married, his studio occupied by someone bolder and more alive than he ever allowed himself to be. What follows is not a story about rivalry. It is an existential collapse: a man given a second chance who discovers, at the moment it arrives, that he still cannot take it.
The audience for this film is defined by recognition, not demographics. They are adults who have stood at the edge of their own life, understood what was required, and stepped back. That experience does not belong to one age group or one income bracket. It belongs to anyone who has withheld themselves from their own life and is living with what that cost. That is not a niche audience. The films that reach them do not need spectacle. They need truth.
Midtown Manhattan neon bar lights
One of many anonymous party-goers found in Jackson studio