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Pride Month Spotlight: Proud

In 1981, love was forbidden. In 1999, starting a family seemed impossible. By 2013, everything had changed.

From French filmmaker Philippe Faucon, the award-winning director behind Fatima, this amazing new three-part cinematic event takes us through each of these years.

Proud tells the stories of Charles (Frédéric Pierrot), Victor (Samuel Theis) and Diego (Julien Lopez), three generations of men, all from the same family, who represent the seismic social changes that took place within the LGBTQ community over the course of just three decades.

A three-part episodic cinema event, Proud offers up a chronology of tolerance and a portrait of one family through changing times. Cahiers du Cinema called it “one of the most exciting series of the year.” Le Parisien called it “A series that defends the fundamental rights of gay people.”

Watch the trailer for Proud below. All three installments are available now on Dekkoo.

Three gay Palestinian friends advocate for sexual and national equality in the moving documentary Oriented

A feature-length documentary from Israel-based British director Jake Witzenfeld, Oriented follows the lives of three gay Palestinian friends as they confront their national and sexual identities in modern Tel Aviv.

Khader is an “It Boy” and provocateur from a prominent Muslim mafia family in Tel Aviv’s neighboring Arab suburb of Jaffa. An aspiring journalist and producer, he lived for many years in the heart of Tel Aviv with his “Jew-ish” boyfriend David.

Fadi left his Christian community in northern Israel to pursue his dream of becoming a nurse. He feels that his new freedom is marred by the guilt of his nation’s tragedy. His passionate nationalism is challenged when he falls in love with an American Jew fighting in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Naeem describes himself as a Palestinian, vegetarian and feminist. Like Fadi, he comes from a Christian family in northern Israel. His time in Yafo inspired him to confront his family’s expectations and be honest with his loved ones about his sexual identity.

Determined to change their reality, the three friends form a non-violent, cultural resistance group to advocate for sexual and national equality. Meanwhile, a war is brewing that may jeopardize their best laid plans.

A stirring film which has sparked active engagement at community screenings, Oriented has inspired a great deal of discourse about LGBTQ rights, the perception of “the other” in conflict zones and the role of grassroots social activism all around the world.

Watch the trailer for Oriented below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Let’s Meet Again at the End of the World

Breaking up is hard to do, but sometimes it’s the right thing to do. The stylish new twelve-minute short film Let’s Meet Again at the End of the World puts that notion on full display. Todd Flaherty, the film’s writer and director, also stars as Adam, a hopeless romantic who is trying to shake off the after-effects of a recently-ended codependent relationship.

Starting fresh, he takes himself on a seaside vacation, but soon runs into his ex-boyfriend Ben, played by Joey Taranto. Finding Ben hard to resist, Adam dives right back into the relationship, entangling himself in a passionate week-long romance. But as old patterns reemerge, Adam must decide whether to keep their flame alive or break free from the tumultuous affair once and for all.

A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Flaherty has worked extensively as a theater actor off-Broadway and regionally. He made his filmmaking debut with the series Undetectable which he created, wrote and co-directed. The show also earned him Indie Series Awards for Best Writing and Best Lead Actor in a Drama. Let’s Meet Again at the End of the World further marks him as a talent to watch.

Unfolding in a non-linear structure, using voiceover to convey deeper emotions through metaphor, the film will resonate with anyone who has had trouble freeing themselves from a relationship that just isn’t working.

Let’s Meet at the End of the World is available now on Dekkoo. You can also find the full first season of Undetectable to dig into Flaherty’s previous work. He’s currently working on his feature-length debut.

Diamantino is a wild genre-blending and gender-bending queer comedy satire

Vividly photographed in Super 16mm and featuring the biggest stampedes of giant Pekingese puppies you’ve ever seen, the critically-acclaimed, genre-blending and gender-bending Diamantino is an underrated high-camp masterpiece!

From directing duo Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, the film stars super hottie Carloto Cotta as a big-hearted but dimwitted Portuguese soccer hunk who, after blowing it during the World Cup finals, goes from superstar to laughing stock overnight.

His sheltered worldview is further shattered after learning about the European refugee crisis. He soon resolves to make amends by adopting an African refugee – only to find that his new “son” is actually an undercover lesbian tax auditor investigating him on the suspicion of corruption.

From there, Diamantino gets swept up in a gonzo comic odyssey involving cigarette-smoking evil twins, Secret Service skullduggery, mad science genetic modification and a bizarre right-wing anti-European Union conspiracy.

In the Los Angeles Times, Justin Chang called Diamantino “the funniest gender-bending, human-cloning refugee-crisis soccer comedy I’ve ever seen, and also the most thoughtful.” And Glenn Kenny said in the New York Times “this simultaneously goofy and deft satirical comedy… feels like an early Adam Sandler comedy remixed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.”

Watch the trailer for Diamantino below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Now Available: North Sea Texas

Set during an unspecified period of the 1970s, North Sea Texas is a coming-of-age romance directed by acclaimed short filmmaker Bavo Defurne, making his feature-length debut. Based on a novel by Belgian children’s author Andre Sollie, the film follows Pim (Jelle Florizoone), an introverted teenager who lives with his ex-beauty queen mother in a small coastal town.

Dreaming of a loving father who will someday come for him, but never does, Pim brightens up his days by drawing, dreaming up fantasy lives and expressing his emerging desires through a secret collection of “borrowed” objects that he keeps in a shoebox. He’s also fallen in love with Gino (Mathias Vergels), the charismatic, motorcycle-riding older boy next door.

As things become fraught at home, Pim starts spending more and more time with Gino and his family. The two boys soon become closer than ever – and though Gino returns Pim’s affections, he insists that they keep their relationship a secret. When a girl catches Gino’s eye and he moves away, it leaves Pim feeling more alone than ever. But, as time goes by, the true depth of their feelings for one another are revealed.

Though not without its heartbreaks, North Sea Texas is an ultimately uplifting film that explores burgeoning sexuality through a refreshingly honest and optimistic lens. And with numerous award-winning short films under his belt, director Bavo Defurne knows what to do with his camera. Capturing the beauty and color of the film’s setting, North Sea Texas offers up an almost other-worldly, fairy tale vibe that compliments the tricky romance at the film’s core.

Watch a short clip from North Sea Texas below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

Dekkoo Digest: Ross breaks down the films Diamantino, Let’s Meet Again at the End of the World and Socrates

Welcome our new series: Dekkoo Digest! Each week we will be giving you info on Dekkoo’s newest films and television series. Dekkoo releases at least three gay films each and every week!

A troubled teen strives for physical perfection in the provocative drama The Perfect David

Sixteen-year-old David (Mauricio Di Yorio) is much like any teen, but his boyish good looks rest upon a hulking, muscular body. He spends the majority of his time obsessively working out, trying desperately to reach idealized bodybuilder perfection.

This obsession is mostly fueled by the desires of his troubled mother Juana (Umbra Colombo), an accomplished artist who controls David’s every move, overseeing all aspects of her son’s regimen and weightlifting training.

As David dedicates himself to developing his physique, the allure of a social life begins to call out to him. His group of male friends begin beckoning him to be more outgoing while an attractive classmate sets eyes on David and works to win him over. And as these social opportunities start intruding on his physical training, a disoriented David starts taking some performance-enhancing shortcuts, sending him into a dangerous downward spiral.

From director Felipe Gomez Aparicio, The Perfect David is a visually stunning and provocative character-driven drama. It’s at once a delicious ode to the beauty of the male form, a warning of the dangers of seeking absolute perfection.

Watch the trailer for The Perfect David below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Big Joy celebrates the life of San Francisco artist and bard of sexual liberation James Broughton

Years before the Beats arrived in San Francisco, the city exploded with artistic expressions: painting, theatre, film, poetry. At its center was the groundbreaking filmmaker and poet James Broughton.

From documentary filmmakers Stephen Silha and Eric Slade, Big Joy explores Broughton’s passionate embrace of life, his proudly pansexual transcendence and his fiercely independent mantra: “Follow your own weird.”

Broughton’s remarkable story spans the post-war San Francisco Renaissance, his influence on the Beat generation, his escape to Europe during the McCarthy years, a lifetime of acclaim for his joyous experimental films and poetry celebrating the human body, the discovery of his soulmate at age 61, and finally, his ascendancy as a revered bard of sexual liberation.

Watch the trailer for Big Joy below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

Go deep into the legacy of Jobriath, the iconic, openly gay rock superstar that almost was

At one time, 1970s glam rock musician Jobriath was known as “The American Bowie,” “The True Fairy of Rock & Roll,” and “Hype of the Year.” Unfortunately, the attention didn’t last long. The first openly gay rock star, Jobriath’s reign was brief, lasting less than two years and two albums.

Done in by an over-hyped publicity machine, shunned by the gay community and largely dismissed by critics as all flash and no substance, Jobriath was excommunicated from the music business. He retreated to the Chelsea Hotel where he died, forgotten, in 1983 at the age of 37 – one of the earliest casualties of the AIDS crisis.

Now new generations of fans have discovered him through acts like The Pet Shop Boys, Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, Siouxsie Sioux, and Morrissey, all of whom cite Jobriath as a groundbreaking influence.

Through interviews, archival material and animation, director Kieran Turner crafts a riveting documentary that examines the heartbreaking and unbelievable true story of this unsung gay icon – whose legacy goes deeper than the labels hung upon him.

Watch the trailer for Jobriath A.D. below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

Now Available: In the Family

In the town of Martin, Tennessee, Chip Hines (Sebastian Banes), a precocious six year old, has only known life with his two dads, Cody (Trevor St. John) and Joey (writer-director Patrick Wang). And a good life it is.

When Cody dies suddenly in a car accident, Joey and Chip struggle to find their footing again. Just as they begin to, Cody’s will reveals that he named his sister as Chip’s guardian. The years of Joey’s acceptance into the family soon unravel as Chip is taken away from him.

In his now solitary home life, Joey searches for a solution. The law is not on his side, but friends are. Armed with their comfort and inspired by memories of Cody, Joey finds a path to peace with the family and closer to his son.

With an ambitious 169-minute running time, In the Family is an intimate drama with an epic scope. Wang, who has gone on to make films such as The Grief of Others and the two-part community theater celebration A Bread Factory, created In the Family independently and earned great acclaimed for his effort.

Roger Ebert, writing at the time of the film’s release in 2011, awarded the film four out of four stars and said “I was completely absorbed from beginning to end. What a courageous first feature this is, a film that sidesteps shopworn stereotypes and tells a quiet, firm, deeply humanist story about doing the right thing.”

Watch the trailer for In the Family below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.