Jesse Wakeman
Writing
Known For

Tormented by a past life, garbage man Clean attempts a life of quiet redemption. But when his good intentions mark him a target of a local crime boss, Clean is forced to reconcile with the violence of his past.
Clean

A failed filmmaker turned single dad tries to make a living while retaining his sense of self, in James N. Kienitz Wilkins’ experimental 3D-rendered home renovation comedy, which doubles as an acidic treatise on working conditions for the contemporary creative.
The Misconceived

Returning home to working class Warwick, Rhode Island, Peter Latang encounters childhood friend Donald Treebeck for what starts as a simple favor and turns into a long van ride into two friends past.
Donald Cried

Frank Heath's "The Hollow Coin" explores roles of authority in public space and the intersection of personal and historical narratives. The video combines documentary footage of New York City's rapidly disappearing network of payphones with audio of a covertly recorded telephone exchange between an actor and an unknowing bystander. In the surreptitiously captured conversation an attempted "information leak" is infused with an absurd story and a historical anecdote. The work's title refers to a Soviet spy who was apprehended in 1953 after mistakenly paying his newspaper delivery boy with a hollow coin that contained a microfilm of an encrypted message. Throughout the video a parallel sequence of events reveals that images from the video itself have been stored on an SD card concealed within a hollow coin and inserted into the payphone from which the call was made.
The Hollow Coin

Hal (Robert Davi), a former radio mogul who has fallen on hard times, enlists the aid of a beleaguered businessman (Paul Wilson) to battle a thuggish superintendent (Chuck Zito) and the forces of gentrification in the South Bronx.
Mott Haven

Jeffery Robinson's talk on the history of U.S. anti-Black racism, with archival footage and interviews.
Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America

When an egocentric, self-professed writer, director, artist and playboy is cut off by his parents, he concocts a plan to run an ad for a hot female roommate and charge her 80% of the rent. But when he falls for one of the applicants, he tries to turn his life around.
BRUCE!!!

A soulful coming of age story set in 1975 New York City about a young man who is forced to work under a former marine, leading them both through one summer they will never forget. Sometimes the unlikeliest of mentors become our greatest teachers.
The Expediter

A brutal story of seek and destroy. Two assassins, shrouded in the darkness of the city that never sleeps, have one night to complete their mission. The objective, to eliminate one another... [Overview Courtesy of Coney Island Film Festival]
The Villains Code

Vicky, an aspiring dancer from Madrid, is working as an au pair for a New York City family. When rumors surface about a violent unhoused man roaming Prospect Park, she must confront these escalating threats while searching for the missing family dog. As she delves deeper into her search, Vicky’s journey becomes an exploration of belonging and resilience in a foreign land.
The Woman Who Could Read the Minds of Dogs

An ex-con gets into the wrong cab, and will have to survive a wild ride involving kidnapped Sikhs, Jewish cops, the Black mafia, and two of the dumbest criminals in Brooklyn.
Gowanus 83

Pondering recent trips through the Suez Canal and to Onkalo, Finland (soon to be the world’s most secure nuclear waste site) a man consults an estate lawyer to discuss an eccentric plan for his mortal remains.
Last Will and Testament

War Pigeon invokes the use of trained pigeons as aerial photographers during World War II. In this phone call to the customer service department of a bank, the speaker describes an unnerving encounter with a suspicious bird, which has led him to question his trust in the bank’s very existence.