Movie will be shot in the Mission this Friday

UPDATE 8/28: I learned more about Pushing Dead, being filmed today at 20th and South Van Ness streets, from Chris Martin, one of the producers. Martin, who says all of the filmmakers involved are local, passed along a one-page description of the movie, billed as an “AIDS comedy.” Here are some excerpts:

When a struggling writer, HIV positive for 20+ years, accidentally deposits a $100 birthday check, he is dropped from his health plan for earning too much. In this new era of sort-of universal care, can he take on a helpless bureaucracy but also come up with $3000 a month to buy meds on his own? Welcome to the world’s first AIDS comedy

Aiming for the mainstream independent market, PUSHING DEAD presents a universal struggle against two faceless, life-threatening entities, disease and bureaucracy, expressed with absurdity and razor sharp wit. Chronic sufferers of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, HIV, etc., and their families and friends, gay or straight, can relate.

ORIGINAL POST: On Friday, 20th and South Van Ness streets will get a little Hollywood. Film crews will be there, taking over a Mission acupuncture and massage studio to shoot a scene from an upcoming feature film starring Danny Glover.

Filming for Pushing Dead will take place inside Double Happiness Health at 3380 20th St. from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., although a couple dozen no parking signs will be posted around the intersection.

The whole film is being shot in San Francisco, according to Susannah Greason Robbins, executive director of the San Francisco Film Commission. Filming began Aug. 17 and is expected to be completed by Sept. 17. Interior scenes will also be shot inside the El Niño Training Center in Potrero Hill, Robbins said.

Directed by Tom E. Brown, the movie also stars James Roday, Robin Weigert and Khandi Alexander. Here is a synopsis from IMDb:

A struggling, HIV-positive writer attempts to navigate the dysfunctional healthcare system before his $5000 a month combo of meds is cut-off. He longs for companionship, but dreading the inevitable “Hi I’m positive” talk, he realizes he first has to settle the rocky relationship he’s already in and build a better marriage with his disease.

Christine Friel, Double Happiness Health’s founder, said a massage scene with Weigert and Alexander is being filmed at her studio.