WORKING MAN is a classic American story designed for a contemporary world. When the last factory in a small Rust Belt town closes its doors, an unlikely hero emerges in dutiful, quiet Allery Parkes (Peter Gerety). A career employee of the factory, the aging Allery can’t reconcile how to live a life simply sitting at home doing nothing, and against the advice and pleas of his loving wife, Iola (Talia Shire), he forms an unlikely friendship with his charismatic neighbor, Walter Brewer (Billy Brown), in order to revive the defunct factory. As their community rallies around them – and as their former corporate bosses strategize how to implode this unexpected movement – Allery learns that he might be something he never thought possible: a leader.
“I grew up in the rural Midwest, so WORKING MAN has a lot in common with places and people I know,” says director Robert Jury. “But it also reflects what’s currently happening and has already happened in a good chunk of working class America. It’s a story that is set in a small, Rust Belt city where financial uncertainty and the fear of factory shutdowns are the norm. It is a place where many wonder what’s happened to the world they once knew.”
WORKING MAN is written and directed by Robert Jury, and produced by Clark Peterson, Robert Jury, Maya Emelle, and Lovell Holder. Katherine Eslao, Tim Ranzetta, Lee V. Stiff, and Morgan R. Stiff serve as Executive Producers. The film stars acclaimed film and stage actors Peter Gerety (Amazon’s Sneaky Pete, HBO’s The Wire), Billy Brown (ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder, Showtime’s Dexter), and 2-time Oscar nominee Talia Shire (Rocky, The Godfather).