A Favor for Jerry follows Khan (Khan Baykal, Always Shine, Not Interested) as he crosses NYC filling in for a pot-dealing friend on election day. Shot in real time on November 8 2016, the film freely mixes documentary and narrative elements. As events unfold, the actors directly incorporate the moment into their performances and what begins as backdrop increasingly takes center stage.
Director’s Statement
We shot the film nonstop from 11:30am to 1:30am on election day. Our peripatetic journey around the city was more grueling than anticipated, both mentally and physically. For a while shooting was a distraction from the increasingly worrisome election results, which the actors all contended with in their own ways, but by the end we’d all fallen into despair. Where fiction ends and documentary begins in the film isn’t even entirely clear to me but hopefully that makes it a distinct recording of this gruesomely historic moment.