\u201cGuys Reading Poems\u201d world premiered at Palm Beach International Film Festival and went on to screen at ten film festivals, winning the \u201cAudience Award for Best Feature\/Drama\u201d at Woods Hole Film Festival, the \u201cCreativity in Drama\u201d award at Breckenridge Film Festival and \u201cBest in Fest\u201d at the South Texas Underground Film Festival. Early praise for the film includes a rave review from John Paul King of The Los Angeles Blade, who writes, \u201cBy channeling the pain of damaged youth into a unique film meditation, [Hughes] has created a touchstone for anyone who struggles to reconcile these psychic scars within their own life. It\u2019s an interior landscape that can be recognized by almost anyone, of course; and by treating it with candor, acknowledging its dark beauty, and honoring its inseparability from identity, Hughes has given us a movie that illuminates\u00a0<\/span>the path to transcendence\u2026it deserves to be called essential viewing.\u201d Alexander Ryll of Gay Essential called it, \u201ca gripping mindbender that compels the viewer to gasp both in terror and awe\u201d while Ernest Owens of Philadelphia Magazine describes the film as, \u201ca visual poetic experience and jaw-dropping black-and-white thriller.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n According to director Hunter Lee Hughes, the film is \u201cdesigned as a dream with the dreamer slowly waking up\u201d and is largely based on public domain poetry he discovered in his late grandmother\u2019s collection. \u201cGuys Reading Poems\u201d is the feature directorial debut for Hughes, who previously wrote and directed the LGBT internet television series \u201cDumbass Filmmakers!\u201d and authored two queer plays. Michael Marius Pessah served as the film\u2019s cinematographer, after earning the prestigious \u201cFive in Focus\u201d award from OutFest for his work on \u201cJoshua Tree 1951: A Portrait of James Dean.\u201d Shpetim Zero created haute couture designs for the film and Joachim Horsley composed the original score. Nathaly Lopez contributed the production design and was nominated for her work in the film by Action-on-Film Festival, which also gave a nomination to Luke Judy and awarded the film the “Best LGBT Project” at their 2017 edition. The film was edited by Patrick Kennelly.<\/span><\/p>\n The cast is rounded out by: Blake Sheldon, Jerod Meagher, Justin Schwan, Jason Fracaro, Gopal Divan, Vincent Montuel, Megan Sousa, Daniel Berilla, Alastair Bayardo and Hughes. The project’s producers are Debbie Vandermeulen, Hughes, Fracaro, with Sammy Kusler, Paul Trusik, Bradley R. Bernstein, Neelou Malekpour, Josh Cohen, and Berilla rounding out the producing team. Executive producers are Elizabeth A. Bell, Anja Gohde, J. Parker Buell, Johann Moonesinghe, with Bradley R. Bernstein, Kerry Buell, Colin K. Buell and Tom Liebengood as co-executive producers, Terry Nitschke as co-producer, with Michael Fister, Jordan Gregory, John C. Hall, Patrick Holzen, David Russo and Robert D. Womack as associate producers.<\/p>\n Gravitas Ventures is a leading all rights distributor of independent cinema. Founded in 2006, Gravitas connects independent filmmakers and producers with distribution opportunities across the globe. Working with more than 500 content partners, Gravitas Ventures has distributed thousands of films into over 100 million homes. Recent releases include\u00a0Eli\u00e1n from Academy Award<\/span>\u00ae\u00a0<\/sup><\/b><\/span>winning Executive Producer Alex Gibney, Katie Holmes\u2019 feature directorial debut,\u00a0All We Had, Jonathan Hock\u2019s\u00a0Fastball, Colin Hanks\u2019\u00a0All Things Must Pass,Being Evel\u00a0from Academy Award<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/b><\/span>winning director Daniel Junge and producer Johnny Knoxville,\u00a0Backstreet Boys: Show \u2018Em What You\u2019re Made Of, and\u00a0For The Love of Spockfrom Director Adam Nimoy. <\/span><\/p>\n Some of the platforms in which the film will be appearing include: Comcast, Dish Network, Cox, Verizon FiOS, suddenlink, Mediacom, Insight, Wow! Cable, EastlinkTV, Rogers on Demand, Shaw, iTunes, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu, Amazon Video-on-Demand, Microsoft and Vimeo.<\/p>\n For more information, please visit\u00a0gravitasventures.com<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>For additional information on the film, visit GuysReadingPoems.com<\/span><\/a>. For trailer and pr videos: http:\/\/youtube.com\/fatelinkproductions<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Photos by: Michael Marius Pessah. Above: Patricia Velasquez. 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<\/a>\u201cGuys Reading Poems\u201d follows an avant-garde painter (Patricia Velasquez, \u201cThe Mummy,\u201d) whose sanity dissipates when she\u2019s abandoned by her handsome lothario husband (Alexander Dreymon, \u201cThe Last Kingdom\u201d) for his stunningly beautiful mistress (Lydia Hearst, \u201cSouth of Hell\u201d). In a feature debut performance, Luke Judy plays the resourceful child who creatively uses poetry to survive when his disturbed mother locks him in a puppet box, then transforms the child\u2019s makeshift prison into an art installation. The supporting cast includes Rex Lee (\u201cYoung and Hungry\u201d) and Christos Vasilopoulos (\u201cThe Last Ship\u201d).\u00a0 <\/span>The film, shot in black-and-white, uses 32 poems as a framing device for the story about an artistic but damaged family. Most of the poems in the film are public domain poetry, with two written by West Hollywood’s first poet laureate Steven Reigns.<\/span><\/p>\n