Q&A with Sean Baker, Prince Adu, and Karren Karagulian

The third feature from fly-on-the-wall filmmaker Sean Baker stars real-life street hustler Prince Adu (who received a consultation credit) as Lucky, a Ghanaian émigré who hawks knockoff merchandise for kindly Armenian crook Levon (Karren Karagulian). His sordid life is turned upside down when an ex-girlfriend entrusts him with their infant son and disappears. Reminiscent of the Dardennes’ L’Enfant, Baker’s film etches a bustling portrait of NYC’s fashion district and the immigrants living off the grid there. This handmade, no-budget film received numerous prizes including Best Dramatic Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and The New York Times observed that “like its subject . . . the movie is sharp, charismatic and so light on its feet we never know which way it will turn.”