Gay web series have gone beyond solely being about what it is to be gay, and recently there’s been a great interest in exploring the intersectionality of different identities, including LGBT ones. Fridays follows in that vein, as it’s about two deaf characters, who communicate using American Language, and one of them is gay.
The Pilot episode has now been released, and alongside that a Kickstarter campaign has launched, which hopes to raise at least $6,000 in order to get the rest of the first season made.
Here’s the synopsis: ‘Fridays is a web series about best friends Kate and Michael, who live in Los Angeles and have just undergone huge life changes: Kate is newly married and Michael is newly single.
‘The main characters are deaf and communicate in American Signed Language (ASL), with subtitles for people who don’t know sign language. Kate and Michael are two deaf people who live in a hearing world, to comic, tragic, painfully funny, and joyous results.
‘Whether it is issues of love, money, or ordering a latte at Starbucks, Kate and Michael are two people you’ve never quite met before, and you’ll love getting to know them. Stars and co-creators Shoshannah Stern and Josh Feldman are deaf. They also wrote and directed the pilot.’
Josh Feldman, who plays Michael, told Out, that the project is very personal, “I grew up deaf but didn’t come out [until] much later, because it was especially frightening to consider myself a double minority: deaf and gay. It felt overwhelming… My real hope is to introduce more deaf gay characters to film and television, because I really needed to see that when I was a young kid, growing up.”
He adds, “With Fridays, we hope to add a new perspective to the entertainment industry that we believe is lacking. Deaf characters in the media often aren’t fully realized characters, mainly because their storylines or their portrayals have everything to do with their being deaf. With Fridays, we want to introduce the world to two deaf people who are funny, complicated, and fully realized.”
Take a look at the pilot episode below, and if you like what you see, head over to Kickstarter.
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