Director

Writer and Director Mick Lexington

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Director's Statement

When actor Ray Turturro watched back the scene I shot where he and Ashlie Burgun play Val and Jenna, he said he felt uncomfortable — like he was eavesdropping.

Val and Jenna try to say what they mean. They fail. They interrupt each other. They say the wrong thing. In the end, Jenna asks Val why he never just told her — and he has no answer.

This is what I am making. Not drama. Not performance. The thing underneath — the moment where two people are so close to the truth they can feel it, and still can't reach it.

Mr. Jack is a film about what it costs to withhold. Val Shepherd comes back to New York to reclaim a life he abandoned, and finds that the world didn't wait for him. Jackson King shows him everything he was afraid to become. Jenna shows him everything he was afraid to want. The film doesn't let either of them off the hook — and it doesn't let the audience off the hook either.

— Mick Lexington, Writer/Director

Bio

Mick Lexington is a New York-based filmmaker and novelist whose work is driven by a single obsession: the hidden engine beneath human behavior — not what people do, but why.

Mr. Jack is adapted from his own novel, a story he has lived with for years and always intended to bring to screen. As both writer and director, he brings complete authorial command of the material and a directorial approach built on radical authenticity and deep actor trust.

His short film work has earned 27 awards and screened at over 60 festivals worldwide, including a Best Director award from the Grand New York Film Awards. He serves on the judging panel for the Global Undergraduate Awards in Music, Film, and Theatre Studies, Dublin, Ireland.

His collaborators consistently describe him as one of the best directors they have worked with. When actor Ray Turturro watched back a scene from Mr. Jack in the edit, he said he felt uncomfortable — like he was eavesdropping on something private.

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