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Now Available: Bitter Years

One of the founders of the Italian Homosexual Liberation Movement, created at the beginning of the 1970s, Mario Mieli was an activist, intellectual, writer, performer and a key figure on the Italian cultural scene.

Though he committed suicide at the age of thirty, he lived a busy and full life, leaving an impression on LGBTQ culture in Italy together with his friends like architect Corrado Levi, painter Piero Fassoni, singer Ivan Cattaneo, activist Angelo Pezzana, writer Fernanda Pivano and poet Milo De Angelis.

Starring Nicola Di Benedetto in the lead role, Bitter Years traces the ups and downs of Mieli’s short, but influential life. According to Andrea Adriatico, the film’s director, “He liked to provoke and to be an innovator but, today, his thought has been completely forgotten.”

“A son of the upper middle class and second to last of seven children, he spent an entire life having a complicated relationship with his parents, Water and Liderica, and the last years of his life were spent with his lover Umberto Pasti, in a very difficult and intense love story.”

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

The award-winning short film Alaska is a Drag tells a fish out of water story… literally

The short film Alaska is a Drag, now available on Dekkoo, is a fish out of water story… literally. The film’s hero, Leo (Martin L. Washington Jr.), is an aspiring superstar stuck working in a fish cannery in Alaska. Leo sees disco balls in the scales of the fish he slices. Everyone who slices fish all day, daydreams – Leo’s are just more glamtastic.

Most of the time, Leo and his twin sister Tristen (Maya Washington) are left to fend for themselves. To escape the monotony of fist fights and fish guts, they create their own magic, the Northern Lights follow them as they vogue down a woodsy path.

They hang out at the one gay bar in a hundred miles, owned by their surly surrogate mom – Jan (Margaret Cho).

Their real mom (Nia Peeples) left years ago and their dad George (Kevin Daniels) preaches on the side of the road. After years of getting beat up by his former best friend, Kyle (Christopher O’Shea), Leo has learned to fight back – his skills catch the eye of his cannery boss, an amateur boxer (Jason Scott Lee) who offers to train him to be a fighter.

And when the new kid in town, Declan (Matt Dallas), wants to be his sparring partner – Leo’s worlds begin to collide, Tristen enters Leo in a drag competition – he’s never performed for anyone but her – the drag audition falls on the same day as the qualifying round for boxing and Leo has to face the real reason he’s afraid to leave Alaska.

Watch the trailer for Alaska is a Drag below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Engaged

Engaged is a short romantic comedy that follows Darren (Daniel K. Isaac), who keeps trying – and failing – topropose to his boyfriend Elliot (Ryan Jamaal Swain).

When their relationship is put into an uncomfortable spotlight during a friend’s outrageous engagement party, Darren realizes he actually might be self–sabotaging himself… due to unresolved insecurities about his sexuality.

Engaged is a 17-minute short film written and directed by Dave Scala, a second-generation Filipino-American filmmaker and playwright who received his BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts film school. His four previous short films have screened and won top awards at over 40 film festivals in the US and abroad. His previous LGBT short film Grotto (released in 2013) won the Outstanding Emerging Talent award at FilmOUT San Diego, and screened at over 30 festivals, including the Palm Springs International ShortFest. Engaged has also won numerous awards at film festivals around the country.

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

Watch the trailer for the new Dekkoo Original Film Variações: Guardian Angel

Born in the small village of Amares, in the north of Portugal, António Variações was a unique man. At an early age, unhappy with his life working at a local factory, he came to Lisbon to stay with some relatives. But he was different and he wanted more. He wanted to travel and see the world and he emigrated, starting to work as a barber.

But his love for music and performance soon became so strong that he came back so he could sing in his own language. His looks and outfits, however, led him to become a victim of prejudice. He managed to persevere. Even without knowing anything about music he fought for his right to do it the way he believed it was best.

A stylish new biopic, Variações: Guardian Angel, a new Dekkoo Films Original, tells a story about music and about fighting for what we believe.

Watch the trailer for Variações: Guardian Angel below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Jeremiah is a well-crafted nine-minute coming-out horror story

“When I was little, my mom used to read these stories to me and my brother, like these old folk tales. One of them was about this man who was so alone, so angry that he turned himself into a monster.”

A chilling allegory about repression, loneliness and coming out, writer-director Kenya Gillespie’s Jeremiah packs some serious suspense into its short nine-minute running time.

At the start of the film, we meet the title character, Jeremiah (Alan Trong), sitting alone on the bleechers, surrounded by both a literal and figurative darkness that threatens to engulf him. An attractive high school football player, he’s reeling from an unfortunate and unexplained encounter with his coach. His equally cute friend and teammate seeks to console him, but there is a mysterious masked figure lurking in the background which forces Jeremiah to look deeper at the true cause of his fears.

Jeremiah is Kenya Gillespie’s narrative short film debut and it shows incredible promise. With spare, careful cinematography and a string-heavy soundtrack that sends chills down your spine, you can easily imagine him expanding Jeremiah into an “elevated horror” feature on par with Hereditary or It Follows.

The film received its international premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival where it was nominated for the short film Queer Palm. Gillespie was also nominated for the 2019 Kodak Excellence in the Craft of Filmmaking Award. His documentary short The Crystal City and narrative short Pray for Dottie were winners of the 2018 and 2019 RTF Longhorn Denius Student Showcase at SXSW.

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

The critically-acclaimed British drama Into the Mirror comes to Dekkoo

One of the past year’s most critically-acclaimed LGBTQ films, the gorgeous, haunting, colorful and deeply emotional Into the Mirror is now available on Dekkoo.

The feature-length debut of co-writers Charles Streeter and Jamie Bacon (who also star in the film) and director Lois Stevenson, Into the Mirror follows Daniel, a young man struggling with an inner identity that is desperate to be released.

After leaving his father’s home and moving to London, Daniel’s subconscious desires begin to take control of his everyday waking life. Upon finding London’s drag hot-spot, “Lost & Found” nightclub, he begins to realize the truth about his gender and sexuality – even if he’s not fully ready to accept it. One way or another, his life will never have to be the same again.

Featuring exceptional performances and cinematography, Into the Mirror marks the arrival of numerous creative talents worth keeping an eye on. Both prolific actors in the UK, Streeter and Bacon show a terrific flair for timely, personal storytelling and we can’t wait to see what they will do next.

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

Short Film Spotlight: Vertical Lines

Dave and Andrew reach a new level of closeness in their relationship when they share their personal experiences with self-harm. An intimate conversational piece inspired by true events, Vertical Lines explores the path forward from personal trauma.

Vertical Lines co-stars and was directed by Kyle Reaume. An award winning Toronto-based director, writer, actor, and picture editor, Reaume is a graduate of the Toronto Film School. His student short film The Lazarus Files took home Best Picture, Best Producer, Best Editor and Best Production Design at TFS Fest and his collective shorts have screened in over 60 film festivals worldwide. In additional to Vertical Lines, you can see his films What About Shelley, Battle Cry and Ecstasy on Dekkoo now.

Reaume’s co-star in the film is writer-director-actor Nick Neon. His films Ultra Blue, The Definition of Lonely and Zero One are also available on Dekkoo right now.

Vertical Lines won the “Best Men’s Short” Audience Award at the Wicked Queer 2018 Film Festival. It also took home the “Best Screenplay” prize at the 2019 Future of Film Showcase.

Vertical Lines is available now on Dekkoo.

Now Available: At the End of the Day

After losing his wife and counseling practice, the only thing thirty-two-year-old Dave Hopper (Stephen Shane Martin) has going for himself is his part-time professorship at his alma mater, a growing Christian college. And the only reason he even got that job was because his previous professor (Tom Nowicki), now ambitious dean, pulled a few strings.

The Dean’s plans for growth hit a snag when the property he wants to develop has been promised to a gay support group – which has plans to open an LGBT homeless teen shelter if they can raise the money in time. The Dean is forced to take drastic measures, offering Dave his dream job, but he only gets it if he goes undercover in the group as a gay man – the abomination he counsels against – and stops them from raising the funds needed to buy the property.

Dave reluctantly agrees, and for the first time, is met face-to-face with the community he has been battling his entire career. The awkward and emotional experiences that follow lead Dave on a journey of truth, revealing that life and love are not as black and white as he first thought.

The feature-length debut from writer-director Kevin O’Brien, At the End of the Day is a compassionate new comedy drama. Watch the trailer below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

New Episodes: Two Naked Gay Guys

Lucas (Matthew Dussler) is a cocky pretty boy who lives for casual sex and no commitments. Dean (Riley Brophy) is a shy romantic trying to work out what he wants. After a hookup leads to a moment of genuine connection, these two guys find themselves both questioning when does a casual fling become something more, and discover that everyone they know has a different answer.

Two Naked Gay Guys follows the growing relationship between Lucas and Dean as they try to navigate their feelings for each other and how that then has a rippling impact on the relationships of the friends and family around them. The series examines themes of love, intimacy, honesty, sexuality, and relationships. When does a relationship truly start? When does a relationship truly end?

All twenty-six “brief” episodes of Two Naked Gay Guys are available now on Dekkoo. Watch the original “sizzle trailer” below.

A family reunion takes a tense turn in Take Me to the River

A Nebraskan family reunion couldn’t seem more backwards to a gay Californian teenager. If Ryder (Love, Simon and Escape Room star Logan Miller) had his way, he’d choose a moment just like this to come out – the bigger the scene the better! For the sake of his conditionally-accepting parents (Richard Schiff and Robin Weigert), however, Ryder agrees to keep quiet… save parading around the picnic in his most audacious pair of short-shorts.

Ryder’s antics raise dubious eyebrows from his hardened cowboy relatives, but nine-year-old Molly (Ursula Parker) can’t get enough. She follows her cool California cousin everywhere. After lunch, they walk to the barn to look for a bird’s nest in the rafters Their strange encounter, and whatever happened while the two escaped their family’s watchful eyes, makes Ryder the sudden target of suspicion, and places him at the center of a long buried family secret.

Featuring excellent performances from a stellar cast (also including Josh Hamilton and Azura Skye), Take Me to the River is an intense indie family drama from writer-director Matt Sobel.

Watch the trailer for Take Me to the River below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.