Written by Michael Akers & Sandon Berg

MORGAN

A Film by Michael Akers

Written by Michael Akers & Sandon Berg

Festivals & Awards
up to date list available on the website

Upcoming Dates

Melbourne Queer Film Festival

March 25, 2012

Cleveland International Film Festival

March 23 & 24, 2012

San Diego FilmOut

June 2012

Cincinnati CKNY Scene Film Festival

TBA - July 20-22, 2012

Previous Screenings

WORLD PREMIERE!

Atlanta "Out on Film"

October 3, Monday @ 9:10PM

Rochester "ImageOut"

October 8, Saturday @ 4PM

OPENING NIGHT!

Sacramento Int'l Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

October 13, Thursday @ 7:30PM

Winner - "Audience Award!"

Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

October 17, Monday @ 7:15PM

Chicago "Reeling" Film Festival

November 5, Saturday @ 12NOON

Washington, DC "Reel Affirmations"

October 21, Friday @ 5PM

OPENING NIGHT!

Tucson Out in the Desert Film Festival

February 17, Thursday @ 7PM
Jury Prize - Best Feature

Synopsis:

From director Michael Akers (Gone, But Not Forgotten; Phoenix) and producer Sandon Berg (Gone, But Not Forgotten; Phoenix) comes a genre defining film about a young gay man whose spirit and drive prevents him from accepting his new life as a paraplegic.

Morgan joins the life of Morgan Oliver (Leo Minaya, Manito; How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer) when he returns to the home and life that he left as a walking man, before an accident in a bike race leaves him a paraplegic. Although his well-meaning mom, Peg (Madalyn McKay, Taffy Was Born) and best friend Lane (Darra “Like Dat” Boyd, VH1’s Flavor of Love) try to convince him that everything is great, Morgan exiles himself from the outside world that only serves to remind him of a life he can no longer lead. A chance encounter on a basketball court with Dean Kagen (newcomer Jack Kesy), a sensitive and awkward ex-inmate, inspires Morgan to enter the wheelchair division of the race in which he wrecked. As Dean helps Morgan train, a romance blossoms between them. But when Dean comes home to find Morgan collapsed on the bathroom floor after a hard day of training, he realizes that Morgan's true demon is his addiction to the win. Dean questions Morgan's priorities in their relationship and demands that Morgan quit the race. Unable and unwilling to squelch his competitive nature, Morgan defies Dean's wishes and races the hill that took his ability to walk. In a repeat of the events at his last race, Morgan finds himself at the bottom of a ravine, and is forced to face the impossibly arduous journey back alone.

“Leo Minaya gives a winning performance,” OutWord Magazine. With amazing supporting performances by Kesy, Boyd, McKay and Theodore Bouloukos (Vacationland, Between Something and Nothing), and gorgeous cinematography by Chris Brown (Phoenix), MORGAN is a powerful story
of perseverance, determination and, of course, love.

The Inspiration

Most any storyteller will tell you that the best stories are the ones that find you. We were holding auditions for our third film, Phoenix. I called a young actor named Andy to give him his audition time. I asked him if he had any questions about his character or the project. “Not really,” he said, “but there’s just one thing: I’m in a wheelchair. “ I looked at his headshot. “It doesn’t say you’re in a wheelchair,” I told him. “It’s in my picture,” he told me. I looked. No wheelchair. “You can see the wheel, under my right arm.” I looked. It was a relatively close-up picture. I studied under his right arm and sure enough, there was part of a wheel in the frame. “Is that a problem?” he pressed. I thought about it. “No. I would consider an actor in a wheelchair.” Why not? But then I suddenly remembered something and I stammered out: “It’s just that, uh, the space where we’re holding the auditions, it’s on the second floor and, uh, there’s no elevator.” “Oh, that’s OK. I can leave my wheelchair downstairs and just crawl up the stairs.” It is the sort of commitment I like to have from actors, but I was embarrassed. “Why don’t we schedule another time to meet, in a place that’s a little more wheelchair friendly.”

When we finally did meet Andy, he was cute, bubbly and gregarious. He read his role quite well, but his stories were even better. He talked about everything from how he was able to get around in Los Angeles to dating. He told me he had to dump one guy because he discovered the guy was only dating him because he had a wheelchair fetish. Andy had found him naked in his wheelchair one night after they’d gone to sleep. He was fearless. In the end, we didn’t cast Andy in Phoenix because the lead character had to be able to walk. But his life story stuck in my mind.

Michael and I began crafting the story we called “Hot Wheelz.” Then we got scared. Would anyone want to see a movie like this? We put everything we have into our movies, we risk everything. Is there a place in the world for this film? I got emails from Andy, “How’s the script coming? When will you start shooting?” I told him I was having second thoughts. He told me how important he thought the film was and how important it was to him. “You’re giving voice to a bunch of us that nobody makes movies for.

We picked up the story again and began fleshing it out. Finally it clicked. We were writing the scene at the end of the when Peg says, “You just have to find that part of yourself again.” We looked at the words on the page. There is was. We all have something in our lives:loss of a loved one, divorce, unemployment, an accident, something that takes away a piece of ourselves so we feel like we don’t know ourselves anymore and we have to rebuild. That’s the relevance of Morgan. We were moving ahead again.

Making the Movie

We knew that we wanted the movie to be a love story so originally we called the project “Hot Wheelz.” We began interviewing gay men in wheelchairs. Through a Web site specifically for paraplegic and quadriplegic gay men, we found a beautiful young man named Robbie. He had been a tennis player. I had several long, candid conversations with him: how did he become paraplegic, what did it take to survive, what was rehabilitation like, what was the moment like when he realized he would never walk again, what can he still do and what can’t he do, how does he go to the bathroom, how does he have sex? He was open to all my questions and generous in all of his answers.

The script stage lasted a long time as the project underwent several major revisions. We were struggling to find the universality of the story. How could we explain the character’s journey into accepting his new life as a paraplegic in terms an audience could understand? It was during this period that we both experienced a lot of upheaval and change, including re-locating to the East Coast. Our lives may not have been going according to our plans, but we always assumed that we would eventually get back to the place we once were. One day, it became clear that we could never go back; no matter how much we wanted to. Our lives had changed too much. And that was when the script for Morgan was finally written.

Casting the roles was very tricky. Several scenes called for flashbacks in which Morgan needed to be able to walk. So we needed a convincing actor to play the character in both worlds. We narrowed our choices to Leo Minaya and Jack Kesy because of their talent. “I need to see you kiss,” I told them. It’s something I require of any actors playing love interests because (a) I want to see their chemistry and (b) I want to make sure they’re capable of on-screen intimacy before I’ve started shooting the film. Well, they kissed and their chemistry electrified the room. But it was not clear who would play Morgan. We spent an afternoon auditioning them together. We’d bought an old wheelchair and they took turns playing Morgan and Dean. After that, it was clear: Leo should play the title role and Jack should be the love interest. They left. We looked at each other, “Do you think that’s the first time that either one of them has kissed a guy?” We never asked and never will.

As we moved into production, one of our primary concerns was authenticity. We did significant research into the kinds of spinal cord injuries, the types of rehabilitation and the major lifestyle changes of the newly paralyzed. Leo and I work diligently on portraying the character sensitively and truthfully. Leo spent several weeks in a wheelchair, learning to see the world from that perspective. He remained committed to the realism of Morgan’s situation. And, as with all art, the truth gave birth to moments of beauty. One shot that I particularly like is of Morgan having to get his jacket from the closet. Clearly his mom hung it up there out of habit, and Morgan, now unable to reach the hook, has to pull it down. We just let things be real, and then we said, ‘ok, what would you do now?’”

For more information on the production, please read the following interview in EDGE Magazine.

New LGBT film ’Morgan’ tackles sensitive subject matter

by Lewis Whittington
EDGE Contributor
Friday Aug 5, 2011

Director Michael Akers and writer Sandon Berg were working in various movie industry jobs when they met 13 years ago in Los Angeles. The couple has made four films together and are completing their latest effort "Morgan" before taking it to film festivals this fall. Last month they had a test screening of the movie on the last night of Philly’s QFEST for comments and reaction to their story about a gay bartender who becomes paraplegic after a cycling accident.
In a phone interview from New York, Akers said he likes to hear feedback from savvy, test audiences before he releases a film. Before Qfest, "we had a couple of questions about what we might change," he said. "I had been working on the ending; something was troubling me so we made changes before the festival screening. Based on the audience reaction in Philly, I think we solved it."

Positive feedback

"The Qfest audience took notice of a couple of things that we also had been thinking about changing. Audiences might not know the technicalities, but they can pinpoint a symptom of what is off," Akers explained. "But the main thing was positive feedback about the central story about a suddenly paraplegic man adjusting to his new life."
Akers and Berg previously made the TV satire "Matrimonium" and the break-up cheater drama "Phoenix." Their biggest hit so far "Gone, But Not Forgotten" was also a gay love story involving a character who also suffers physical trauma. "Morgan" took several years to bring to the screen. "We wanted to make this film for a long time, but felt we weren’t ready," Akers said.
As part of their preparation, the filmmakers worked with paraplegic men and the issues they face. "Morgan had this image of himself as the hot bartender and cyclist before the accident. We focused the story on how does he regain his masculinity, attractiveness and self-esteem?" Akers said. "Sandon interviewed several men dealing with similar issues."

As real as possible

Akers said it was crucial to find the right actors for the sensitivity and intimacy required for the parts. They cast Leo Minaya as Morgan ("Manito," "How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer") and Jack Kesy, in his film debut, who plays his new boyfriend Dean.
"We had straight actors and the issue of sexuality was at the forefront of playing these gay roles," Akers noted. "We rehearsed them in both parts, but as we got to know them, it became clear want role each actor should take. Then we used part of their own stories to help craft each role. The actors didn’t really care; they just wanted to be part of this movie."
Akers wanted to make the sex scenes with as much realism as possible. "Love scenes are always tricky. I told the guys I wanted to make sure that was a pulse, a beat directly from the story -- this goes from the leads not touching to touching, to what has to be comfortableness. Like the rest of the film, I just told them, we are going to do this as real as possible. Morgan was aggressive before the accident and we didn’t want to take that away from him in this situation. So we having him leading and seeing how it would really happen and we were surprised at how natural and surprising that scene turned out to be."
Berg and Akers will finish the post-production tweaks this month and the movie will be making the rounds on the gay film fest circuit in its final cut this fall. For updates check their website.

http://www.edgeonthenet.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=movies&sc3=&id=123051

The Response to the Film

By Sandon Berg

Cut To: I’m standing in the lobby right before my first festival screening. Michael and I introduced the film and it starts. A few minutes into the film I notice him: a guy in a wheelchair. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him. I was suddenly a wreck. Was he going to like the film, or would he think it was ridiculous? How did I have the audacity to think I could tell a story about what it is like to be in a wheelchair? This is all a big mistake. I kept watching him.