When Daniel Robbins set out to make a reality television-like comedy about local elections in Manhattan, he knew his preferred candidate, Zack Weiner, for city council, would likely lose, but the film itself has been a runaway success. In “Citizen Weiner,” Robbins follows Zack Weiner and his campaign staff as they collectively gun to defeat front-runner Gale Brewer in District 6 on the Upper West Side. Brewer has held the seat intermittently for 13 years.
“I’m surprised that the production even made it over the finish line,” Robbins told The Epoch Times. The film’s release a week before the Nov. 5 general election is not an accident.
It’s by design, according to Robbins, because society as a whole is obsessed with national politics. “People are going to be either very elated or depressed depending on who wins,” he said. “We want the film to be somewhat of a salve to let people know that regardless of the outcome, the difference is really made on a community level.
” The production began in September 2020 during COVID-19 lockdowns and ended in June 2021. “We wanted to see if we got a candidate who is an actor and his whole campaign staff are actors, [and from that] would this feel genuine and surprisingly, it felt like a real campaign to most people,” Robbins said. Joe Gallagher played Weiner’s campaign manager.
Sarah Coffey portrays the communications director. James D. Watson is the trusty finance director while Aaron Dalla Villa plays head of secu.
