Jagger Serafin as Henry in Jason is my Dad.

Written, directed and co-produced by actor-turned-filmmaker Ashley Zukerman, new short film Jason is my Dad follows an Uber driver who finds himself helping a private school kid with a paper route while trying to get a refund for a washing machine that he says never arrived. 

Ashley Zukerman is most known for his acting work having recently starred in Apple TV’s Silo, Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar and HBO’s Succession and feature film In Vitro, arguably his best performance yet. Also known for Peacock’s The Lost Symbol, Leigh Janiak’s Fear Street Trilogy for Netflix and Hannah Fiddle’s A Teacher for FX. He has been nominated for four AACTA awards, winning the award for Best Actor in a Television Drama for season one of Shelley Birse’s acclaimed ABC series, The Code. 

Here, Ashley writes about his directorial debut, Jason Is My Dad.

Ashley Zukerman

By Ashley Zukerman

Jason is my Dad is the story of two people caught up in an unhealthy system – a system that stifles their opportunity for connection. 

Hank, the gig economy driver played by veteran Australian actor Darren Gilshenan, is treated as an extension of a technology promising an easier life. 

Henry, played by Jagger Serafin, is an heir to privilege, still learning its implications. In their odd meeting we look for answers and come up empty handed. Perhaps until we meet the boy’s dad, Jason. 

Cinematographer Bonita Carzino fills her 3:2 frame with the characters and interior of the car, when we see the outside it’s obscured – immersing us in Hank’s world. Others can come and go, but he is stuck. And the camera stays with him, locked, experiencing every bump in the road. 

Darren Gilshenan as Hank in Jason is my Dad. 

Sophie Woodward’s costume and production design works similarly – Hank and the car share a palette that doesn’t exist in the real world or the people who inhabit it. 

Darren Gilshenan gives a deeply felt performance with ease and alacrity as Hank’s inner warmth slowly crumbles.

 Jagger Serafin as Henry is vulnerable and enigmatic – the boy muscling his way into adulthood, wrestling his own experience with what he’s been taught. 

Through their performance, a camera style that holds frames as long as it can, and Kait Plum’s edit that is as harsh to the driver as we sometimes are in our world, we reach for a mood that’s ever changing. 

At times connected, in moments funny – but for the most part a thriller: An ugly idea that grows and grows, threatening to burst.

Jason is my Dad will screen at the Stellar Short Film Festival this weekend. Details here. 

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