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Exploring Sexuality in the Digital Age: My Sweet Prince

In a smoke-filled basement, lit only by the flicker of a screen and the occasional orange glow of a spliff, a teen boy named Tommy (Yoni Roodner) sits detached from his friends, paralyzed by the fear of his own sexuality.

Afraid of the intense attraction he feels towards his male friends, he chooses to forgo physical company and instead seeks out anonymized friendships online, carefully muffling the dial-up sound of the router for midnight chat sessions with his pen pal and confidant on MSN Messenger.

Set during the early days of the internet, My Sweet Prince, a clever short written and directed by London-based filmmaker Jason Bradbury, uses segments from the filmmaker’s own teenage VHS diaries, shot during childhood summers at his home on the Isle of Wight. This footage is spliced together alongside the fictional story of Tommy, a young boy wrestling with doubt and uncertainty while finding solace in the virtual company of his online crush.

Looking back at at a very particular moment in time, My Sweet Prince subtly examines how the internet’s arrival catalyzed an unprecedented set of formative experiences for a guinea pig generation of youngsters.

Watch the trailer for My Sweet Prince below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Dark Comedy: Stimulants and Empathogens Review

An award-winning dark comedy from Poland, Stimulants and Empathogens follows Antek (Michal Murawski), a closeted gay teen from a wealthy family.

At the start of the film, Antek is harboring a hopeless crush on Kuba (Gracjan Kosyl), a fellow teen who just happens to be a drug dealer.

Looking to get closer, Antek invites Kuba to his family’s villa under the pretext of another deal. What he doesn’t know, however, is that Kuba is on a mission, ordered by his superiors in the drug trade, his father and brother. They suspect that Antek may be reselling their product at a profit.

What begins as a romantic comedy of errors soon turns into a social satire rollercoaster of clashing cultures.

Watch the trailer for Stimulants and Empathogens below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A Big Gay Hairy Hit: Celebrating Bears in Hollywood

A hilarious and deeply touching documentary feature, A Big Gay Hairy Hit (also known as Where the Bears Are: The Documentary) tells the story of how three older gay ‘bears,’ working in Hollywood and tired of having their gay-themed ideas rejected by the mainstream, decided to self-produce their own independent web series.

Blending “The Golden Girls” with “Murder She Wrote,” the comedy series they created centers around three bear roommates who solve crimes.

Against all odds, Where the Bears Are became a sensation with gay audiences, running for seven seasons while becoming one of the most successful scripted web series of all time.

Featuring lead actors and creators Rick Copp, Joe Dietl, and Ben Zook, this retrospective documentary examines ageism, body-shaming, sex-positivity, the creative process and how friendship can deliver a finished product that is beloved all over the world.

Watch the trailer for A Big Gay Hairy Hit below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Front Cover: A Heartfelt LGBTQ+ Love Story

Ryan (Jake Choi) is a handsome fashion stylist living in New York City. He openly rejects his traditional Asian-American upbringing, fearing that it will prevent him from enjoying his life as an openly gay man.

Everything starts to change, however, when Ryan is given an assignment and begins working with Ning (James Chen), a famous and alluring Chinese actor.

Despite a rocky start, an unlikely romance develops between the two, leading Ryan to re-examine his roots and consider an enticing new path for his career, as well as his love life.

With Front Cover, Ray Yeung, the acclaimed director behind Cut Sleeve Boys, All Shall Be Well and Twilight’s Kiss, crafts a tender and entertaining look at clashing cultures and the ultimate triumph of romance, guaranteed to make you swoon.

Watch the trailer for Front Cover below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Forgetting the Many: The Royal Pardon of Alan Turing’ looks at how far gay rights have come in the UK

After decades of attempts to reform archaic laws that criminalized male homosexual acts as “gross indecency” – and to expunge the records of many convicted men – a new bill was finally passed in British Parliament. Narrated by Ben Whishaw, Forgetting the Many: The Royal Pardon of Alan Turing tells the story of that long struggle.

A wave of post-WWII prosecutions compromised thousands of men, including the brilliant World War II computer pioneer and code-breaker Alan Turing. In 1967, a new “Sexual Offenses Act” partly decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults in England and Wales, but was not fully enacted until 2003, when the homophobic law was finally repealed. Full, unequivocal pardons for those convicted under the old law were still awaited.

In this riveting and informative documentary from director Rosemarie Reed, six different men tell individual stories of how Britain’s anti-gay laws impacted their lives while also examining the much-deserved Royal Pardon that was posthumously given to Alan Turing in 2013.

Watch the trailer for Forgetting the Many: The Royal Pardon of Alan Turing below. The documentary is now available on Dekkoo.

A grieving lover seeks revenge in the tense Lithuanian thriller ‘The Activist’

Twenty-something printing house worker Andrius (Robertas Petraitis) is skeptical about the activist work of his boyfriend Deividas (Elvinas Juodkazis) and fears that they may soon become the targets of neo-Nazis.

Deividas is the head of “Rainbow Kaunas,” a group organizing the first Pride celebration in the second biggest city of Lithuania. One night, after coming back from a fight, Andrius finds that Deividas has been murdered.

Seeing indifferent reactions from the police – and from Lithuanian society at large – Andrius takes on a new mission: to infiltrate the local neo-Nazi organization, find his boyfriend’s killer and serve his own brand of justice.

The third and final entry in a new queer film trilogy from prolific writer-director Romas Zabarauskas – following 2020’s The Lawyer and 2023’s The Writer – The Activist is a stylish thriller with a strong sociopolitical message, celebrating the brave activists who stand up against threats to liberal democracy around the world.

Watch the trailer for The Activist below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo along with previous trilogy entries The Lawyer and The Writer.

Exploring Grief: The Journey in Warm Smooth Mean

An emotional and gorgeously shot 14-minute drama from director Jess Maldaner and screenwriter Mark Allen, Warm Smooth Mean concerns a grieving son digging into his famous father’s mysterious past.

The short film follows Hunter Nelson (William McKinney), a brooding young man troubled by the suicide of his father, River Nelson. Before his death, River was one half of a legendary country western duo called Silent Station.

When Hunter receives an unexpected royalty check from his father’s work, he embarks on a journey to find the mysterious Jerry Lee McCoy (Cameron Dye), his father’s former bandmate, and pass along the money.

Finally coming face to face with Jerry, Hunter is surprised to find himself rudely rebuffed. He sets forth attempting to break down the older man’s defenses and to finally get some answers about what was behind his father’s untimely passing years ago.

Check out the poster for Warm Smooth Mean below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo!

A man looking down, wearing a dark denim jacket, with soft light coming through a window in the background. The image features text that reads '20 YEARS AGO TODAY COUNTRY LEGEND RIVER NELSON LEFT US... WARM SMOOTH MEAN'.

Head to the beach with ‘The Best Friend,’ a sexy, vibrant and romantic new gay musical!

Set at a bright and beautiful Brazilian beachside, The Best Friend follows Lucas (Vinicius Teixeira), a handsome young architect who is in a crisis with his boyfriend. On vacation, he spots Felipe (Gabriel Fuentes), an alluring former school crush who is now working as a local tour guide.

Hidden desires are soon re-awakened. In this musical paradise, Lucas surrenders to the pursuit of liberating intimacy while Felipe loses himself in colorful nights and a variety of willing partners.

Will these two men find happiness and love together under the scorching Brazilian sun? As nostalgic pop music of the 1980s and ’90s fuel spontaneous song and dance, the pair explore reconciliation, jealousy, and self-discovery.

From writer-director Allan Deberton, The Best Friend is a vibrant gay musical, blending romance and rhythm within the coastal paradise of Brazil while celebrating gay love with lighthearted charm and infectious energy.

Watch the trailer for The Best Friend below. The film is now available exclusively on Dekkoo!

Short Film Spotlight: Solitude

Young Zeph’s (Jael Saran) relationship with his best friend and secret crush, Sol (Da’Von J. Solomon), is called into question as the pair spend increasingly more time together preparing for an art exhibition.

Desperate to save her son, Zeph’s mother Augustine (Marlo Stroud) stages an ambush to confront him. Events soon take a grim turn, forcing Zeph to question how he will reconcile who he really is with the person he’s pretending to be for the sake of his disapproving family.

A 17-minute short from Atlanta-based writer-director Knial Saunders, Solitude is a deeply affecting vignette, following the burgeoning sexuality of a queer black teenager who is forced to make the painful choice of conforming to family expectations or finally reaching out for romantic love and self acceptance.

Check out the poster for Solitude below. The short film is now available on Dekkoo.

Don’t miss ‘Joyland,’ a critically-acclaimed, award-winning queer romance from Pakistan

Banned in its home country of Pakistan, the critically-acclaimed Joyland explores the many sides of love and desire in a patriarchal society.

Gentle and timid, Haider (Ali Junejo) lives with his wife, his father, his elder brother, pregnant sister-in-law and their three daughters in Lahore, Pakistan. As the family eagerly anticipates the birth of a baby boy to continue their family line, Haider secretly takes a job as a background dancer at an erotic theatre.

The unusual position shakes up the steadfast traditional dynamics of his household and enables Haider to break out of his shell. He also finds himself intrinsically drawn to Biba (Alina Khan), the strong-willed trans woman who runs the show.

Soon, Haider and Biba fall into a secret summer romance, which opens his eyes and ultimately his worldview, in ways unexpected, intimate, and heartbreaking.

Writer-director Saim Sadiq calls Joyland “an homage to all the women, men and trans people who pay the human cost of patriarchy.” It is also a celebration of the desire that creates unlikely bonds and the love that immortalizes them.

Watch the trailer for Joyland below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.