Tom Brown – Pushing Dead

By starrymag | June 4, 2016

By: Nicole Smith

 

AIDS and comedy are two words in the vernacular that are typically never paired together. But Director Tom Brown isn’t your ordinary director. Brown has been making indie films since his early youth and later used his talents as a professional fundraiser for nonprofits, colleges and universities to raise money to make short films. He also found a niche early on by producing corporate videos, commercials and music videos.

 

It paid the bills, but Brown thrived on directing and creating a gripping narrative. He soon discovered film festivals — a foreign world for sharing work. “When I discovered film festivals, that’s when I really got excited,” he said. “It was the first time I ever had anybody see my stuff. I could watch the audience experience it because that was the most fun part of it.”

 

Brown’s exploration of the film festival circuit began in 1997 and he found early success with some of his short films finding a home on PBS, Bravo and IFC. He soon earned the attention of Sundance Film Festival, and later, The Sundance Institute provided assistance for him to develop a feature, Pushing Dead. In addition, Brown is a fellow of the Sundance Filmmakers Lab and the Sundance Writers Lab.

 

Thirty-one years ago, Brown was diagnosed with HIV, a disease that can diminish the body’s immunity and lead to the progressive AIDS infection if left untreated. Instead of staying silent in his battle with the disease, Brown decided to turn a negative into a positive and simply make people laugh, while sharing his journey. “Most of my short films are very different from each other, but there were a few I did around 2000 where I was doing a lot of AIDS comedies. Those were the films that Sundance saw and that was the reason I decided to do a longer AIDS comedy [Pushing Dead],” he said. “It’s tonally very different from those because those were really wacky and this is very much real life.”

 

When The Sundance Institute pushed Brown to write a longer narrative, he received a Rockefeller Grant that required him to write at least five pages of script. In 1999, those five pages became the rough draft of Pushing Dead and Brown used the opportunity to explore the deep emotion and fear surrounding his battle with HIV, while also inserting a bit of comedy into the screenplay. “I decided to write about something that I knew really well, so I was writing more about my fears than I was writing about personal experience. After being positive for a really long time, what I wanted to share was just how you cope and how you feel and what happens with the psyche — a mini snippet out of my survival guide. You have to learn to accept that you’re going to live with HIV/AIDS and that you better get along because you’re going to be living together forever. So, that was the idea,” he said.

 

After many revisions and three production attempts, Pushing Dead was finally brought to life late last year in Brown’s hometown of San Francisco. The plot centers around Dan Schauble (James Roday), who is a loose version of Brown himself. After depositing a $100 check he received for his birthday, Dan soon learns he is considered to be earning too much money and is dropped from his health care plan. Dan’s struggle with coverage and trying to purchase his necessary medications is the running theme throughout the film. “Right now, if you hit the donut hole (temporary drug coverage limit), you still have to cover half of that. So, it’s still a big problem for people, especially people like me who have wildly expensive meds,” he said.

 

He added, “I incorporated the healthcare system because I was writing about my fears. It’s such a complicated mess and it’s less of a mess now, but it’s still very complicated. People have still, unfortunately, fallen into the donut hole now and they can’t get their meds. A lot of people just don’t question the system and they believe the one caseworker that they talk to or the pharmacist that tells them their insurance isn’t going to cover the meds and that’s it. Then, they give up and they don’t take their meds for a while.”

 

Danny Glover is also cast in the project as Bob, Dan’s boss. The cast is rounded out with Robin Weigert (Paula, Dan’s roommate) and Tom Riley as Mike, a British painter and love interest for Dan. As Brown was looking for a lead to play Dan, he came across Roday through Glover’s agent. While not familiar with Roday’s work, Brown said he thought he was the perfect fit for the role. “I think he was kind of surprised, based on who the character is, that not only were we considering him, but that it was just an outright offer,” he said. “I wanted James because he was just really engaging and really likable the first moment he stepped on screen.”

 

Brown said the dramatic role with a comedic edge also gave Roday a chance to explore his roots in theatre. “He would turn to me in between a take and say, ‘I still am baffled that you picked me for this,'” Brown said. He continued, “It’s kind of a light comedy, I guess, because it’s kind of a sweet movie and it’s definitely a funny movie, but it is also a dramatic movie. There aren’t a lot of super heavy scenes or anything like that, but when it got to those moments, we tried to clear everybody out just so that he could have some time to do those scenes. He did a remarkable job. He’s really, really amazing. People that don’t know him love him in it so I’m sure that all his fans will really love him in it.”

 

In September 2015, Roday told Starry Constellation Magazine: “Mostly it’s just the story of a life that thousands of Americans are living that we don’t give a lot of credence to or think much about, but it’s very real. It’s written very honestly with a ton of humanity. I wouldn’t say it’s a depressing film or a dark film. It’s just a movie about a life that’s probably very different than yours or mine and the truth the goes into that, the extent to which these people have to make sacrifices in order to try and keep up with the disease they have.”

 

Brown said the cast needed little direction, but in terms of creative liberty, he wanted the character of Mike to “really stand out.” One of Brown’s fears was that Riley and Roday would look too similar on screen, but he had a solution. “I was really grateful when [Tom] agreed to let us strip the color out of his hair,” Brown said with a laugh. He added that Glover had been attached to the Pushing Dead project for a number of years and additional casting decisions were finalized as script revisions were made.

 

“Everybody came into it with a good understanding of who they were playing,” Brown said, adding that he is most proud of the cast when reflecting on the project as a whole and feels the film can be relatable to anyone. “A goal of mine was to make it a very accessible movie and it has a gay protagonist, but it’s not a gay movie. It’s a movie for everybody. It can become your movie about whatever crap you’re dealing with in life,” he said. “I really love this little movie and there’s so much that I’m proud of. I don’t have fear about going to the premiere. I’m just excited. I’m excited to experience it with everybody.”

 

Pushing Dead will premiere on Saturday, June 18, at the Frameline40 San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival. To purchase tickets to see the film at Castro Theatre on June 18 or Rialto Cinemas Elmwood on June 21 — both in San Francisco — visit https://ticketing.frameline.org/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=3805&FID=53. In the coming months, Pushing Dead will be screened at a number of film festivals and Brown hopes to take the film international, as well.

 

Several film stills from Pushing Dead can be found on the film’s Facebook page and on Twitter @PushingDeadFilm. To view the official trailer for Pushing Dead you can visit https://vimeo.com/165190792.

 

Tom Brown can also be found on Twitter @tom_e_brown.