Citizen Weiner

The Edward S. Finkelstein Harrisburg Jewish Film Festival 

Season Finale Mini Fest

USA, 2024/Comedy-Documentary, 80 minutes/English/Story by Joe Gallagher and Zack Weiner/Directed by Daniel Robbins

Emerging from the COVID-19 quarantine, actors and filmmaking collaborators Zack Weiner and Joe Gallagher navigate the lull in the film industry by making a film about running for city council. 

But instead of simply playing a candidate, Weiner dives head first into the role by actually running for city council in his Upper West Side New York district. Assembling an eccentric team of his young, ambitious, and creative friends—and aided by the unsolicited suggestions from his opinionated Jewish mother whom he still lives with—Weiner documents his humble journey through election season. Fiction and reality blend as the motley team ventures through public rallies, debates, and inventive community events, and even faces a major scandal that threatens to derail the whole campaign.”