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A San Antonio filmmaker is taking a story about jazz, cultural exchange and the challenges of communication to one of Asia’s largest international short film festivals.
Nick Mery’s documentary, “One Night Stand in Tokyo,” will screen Nov. 6 at the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia in Tokyo, Japan. The 25-minute film follows South Texas jazz drummer Brandon Guerra as he travels to Japan to perform with musicians he has never met, discovering how music can bridge language and cultural differences.
Much of the film was shot in Shinjuku, a bustling Tokyo district known for its neon-lit streets, shopping and nightlife. Mery said filming in Japan required him to reconsider how he approached his subjects.
“Japan is a culture that really emphasizes respect of your surroundings, respect of the people around you, society in general,” Mery said. “A lot of personal space, like protecting the sanctity of another's peace. A documentary, by nature, is very invasive. It took a minute for us to figure out what that would look like.”
Mery said conversations with Tokyo residents and artists became an important part of the experience, offering perspectives he could not have gained from his own background in South Texas.
The film also explores the musicians’ shared language. Although Mery is not a trained musician, he said watching experienced jazz players interact felt magical.
“When I see expert level musicianship, it's like a caveman seeing fire. It's like medieval people seeing an eclipse,” said Mery. “What it really is, it's a language that you learn, and you learn how to speak that language with other people who have studied and learned the language, right, of music.”
The documentary’s soundtrack reinforces that exchange, including Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol’s jazz standard “Caravan” performed by a group with Guerra and Japanese guitarist Daisuke Abe, performances and samples from Guerra and Mery, a local version of a song by Japanese ‘city pop’ legend Hiroshi Sato and other recordings by Abe.
A filmmaker’s interest in cultural connections
Mery’s work on “One Night Stand in Tokyo” builds on a career in travel-based documentaries and other creative projects. His films have been featured by outlets including MTV, PBS and Rolling Stone.
His interest in exploring other cultures also has a personal dimension.
Mery is Lebanese American and grew up in a family and community shaped by Lebanese heritage in San Antonio. In 2018, he traveled to Lebanon to visit his ancestral homeland, including the village where his great-grandfather lived before the family migrated to Mexico and eventually South Texas.
That journey became the basis for “In Dreams: A Love Letter to Lebanon,” a short documentary assembled from footage Mery shot during the trip. After the devastating 2020 explosion in Beirut, he felt compelled to share images of the country’s beauty and the place’s significance to his family.
The film earned several festival honors, including Best Documentary at the Lebanese Independent Film Festival, Best Short Documentary at the Tokyo Film Awards, Best Documentary at the New Media Film Festival and Best Travel Film at the New York Smart Film Festival.
That interest in how people connect to places, histories, and one another runs through his work. With “In Dreams,” Mery explored his own family’s relationship to Lebanon. In “One Night Stand in Tokyo,” he turns the camera toward Guerra and the musicians he encounters, using their collaboration to examine cultural connection from a different perspective.
Mery said he prefers to let the people in his documentaries carry the story, rather than place himself at its center.
“I would like to learn how to tell a story that doesn't necessarily make me the focus of it,” he said. “It's about exploring benefits and the value and the necessity of not just travel but cultural connectivity.”
From San Antonio to Tokyo
Mery initially financed “One Night Stand in Tokyo” himself before receiving a City of San Antonio grant in 2025 to help support the project. He said funding opportunities can make a difference for artists trying to produce and share their work.
The documentary is part of the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia’s 2026 autumn program, which runs Nov. 5-8 at venues in Tokyo, with online screenings scheduled for Nov. 9-22. The festival is an Academy Award-qualifying event and features short films from around the world.
“One Night Stand in Tokyo” is scheduled to screen at kino cinéma Shinjuku on Nov. 6, followed by a question-and-answer session with Mery.
For the San Antonio filmmaker, the screening brings a story about a South Texas musician’s experience in Japan to an international audience — and continues an ongoing exploration of what people can learn from crossing cultural boundaries.
