Tag: Morgan Jon Fox

Pride Month Spotlight: This is What Love in Action Looks Like

Though he’s know primarily for films like Blue Citrus Hearts and his Dekkoo Original Series Feral, writer-director Morgan Jon Fox set out to make a difference with his 2011 documentary This is What Love in Action Looks Like.

Be Strong

When 16-year-old Zach Stark told his parents that he was gay, they panicked, believing that something was psychologically wrong with him. They soon sent him to “Love In Action,” a religious organization that promised to “cure” homosexuality.

GodLovesMyDaughter

Founded in 1973, Love in Action, now known as “Restoration Path” is the oldest and largest ex-gay organizations in the United States. They take the position that homosexuality is strictly behavioral and can be cured. Originally for adults, they began a program for teens, many of whom sent involuntarily.

Their draconian methods for sexual “redemption” prompted Fox, already a well-established indie filmmaker, to both become active in the ensuing protest against the group as well as document it all through interviews with several youths who had been in the program, the then current director of “Love in Action” (himself, a “former gay”) and the many young protesters who were compelled to mobilize against the organization.

Media lots of Cameras

An important look at gay youth, intolerance and skewed religious beliefs, This is What Love in Action Looks Like is available on Dekkoo. It’s one of our heralded Pride Picks.

Dekkoo gears up for release of our FIRST original series!

Like HBO’s ‘Looking’ or ‘Girls,’ but set in Memphis, Tennessee. That’s how creator Morgan Jon Fox characterizes ‘Feral,’ a Dekkoo.com original TV series that debuts October 6 exclusively on the subscription streaming service dedicated to gay men.

WATCH FERAL AT DEKKOO.COM!

In ‘Feral,’ Fox (who also serves as the series writer and director), weaves a tale of survival as a group of gay 20-something’s learn about love, loss and friendship while
living in the vibrant, artistic queer community of Memphis.

The story line revolves around the lives of Billy and Daniel, two best friends sharing a comfortably broken in bungalow in the diverse neighborhood of Midtown. It begins
when the two are forced to kick out their third roommate, after discovering his heroin addiction.

‘Feral creator Morgan Jon Fox – photo by Breezy Lucia

Known for gritty southern stories about characters on the fringe, Fox describes his protagonists as, “…kids who are left on their own, whether it’s financially, whether
it’s identity, or whether their lovers are deceased. Whatever that is, they’re left to their own devices to carve their own way. They’re feral beings.’

While shows like ‘Looking’ and ‘Girls’ may have provided the template, the Middle America Memphis setting and vibe is what sets ‘Feral,’ refreshingly apart from its
predecessors. Missing are the stock characters, the hipsters, the cliches that are predictably trotted out in gay dramas large and small. “You won’t see the gay stereotypes you see in shows set on the West or East Coast,” promises Fox.

“Now, my characters have theirissues,” Fox explains, “but I didn’t want them to be based in cynicism. I wanted their motives and struggles to be pure and honest in a way that
wasn’t just, ‘I’m a spoiled rich person without meaning in my life. “That the characters are queer is not beside the point “it’s embraced “but it’s not the point, either.”

Jordan Nichols (Billy) and Tristan Andre Parks (Hart) in ‘Feral’

‘Feral’ is not only the first TV series in which thousands Middle American LGBT 20-somethings can finally see themselves realistically reflected, but a welcome window
through which everyone “gay or straight“ can vicariously experience what life is like for the young gay millennials in the American Heartland.

“There are so many stories that are set in New York or L.A., but I feel that we have a story to tell that is uniquely southern,” says Fox. “Memphis is a big city, but because we are in a sense living off the grid, in the Bible Belt, and without the supportive institutions that exist in big coastal cities, we have created our own community, and I think that’s what’s so beautiful about coming up in Memphis.”

Seth Daniel Rabinowitz (Daniel) in ‘Feral’

”Feral’ is about a group of gay kids in their 20s growing up in Memphis, Tennessee and I am one of those things,” says actor Seth Daniel Rabinowitz, who plays Daniel. “It was interesting to take what I experienced growing up in the Mid-South and adapt it to the character. It wasn’t so much that I was playing my character Daniel, as it was that Daniel and I were playing the character together.

What’s striking in ‘Feral’ and beautifully evident in all of Fox’s projects is his ability to create endearing scenes of authentically touching, sometimes heartbreaking intimacy: a quiet embrace in the woods, a twilight conversation on the couch, a softly spoken journal entry.

Fox has directed four feature films including, ‘Blue Citrus Hearts,’ ‘OMG/HaHaHa’ and ‘This Is What Love In Action Looks Like’ are all informed by his painful coming out as a
gay man in the conservative south and has been called one of the originators of the “Memphis Style” of filmmaking known for strong, authentic performances, improvised scripts and tight editing. Filmmaker Magazine named him as one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film”.

‘Feral’ boasts a soundtrack featuring numerous artists from the Memphis area. Headed up by country-punk band Lucero, it also includes songs by the post-punk quartet Nots and on-the-verge breakout musician Julien Baker, whose debut album ‘Sprained Ankle’ was named “one of the best albums of 2015 by The New York Times.

‘Feral,’ a Dekkoo.com original, debuts October 6, 2016.

‘Feral’ leads: (l-r) Leah Beth Bolton, Chase Brother, Seth Daniel Rabinowitz & Jordan Nichols – photo by Breezy Lucia