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New Series: Single Record

Single Record is a hip-hop series shot as a narrative documentary. The series tells the story of Aaron (Nelson Moses Lassiter) a young rapper fighting through depression as he breaks through in the music industry while coming to terms with his sexuality. As his inner circle witnesses his unraveling, they must work behind the scenes to save his stalling career and ultimately his life, at the same time they manage the fallout in their own personal lives.

The show is designed to illustrate how people can often ignore calls for help and not realize something is wrong until its too late. Single Record is told through the perspective of Aaron’s friends. Each one of them have a different idea of what is going on and each perspective has some truth. The whole truth is revealed by combining all the perspectives. The idea of perspective is to illustrate that we are often unaware how our decisions and actions impact other people and their actions.

“I wanted to create a show that touches on sexuality, identity and self acceptance. I used Hip hop because it is a genre that has strong views on sexuality. I wanted to show the impact these views can have on someone’s life and hopefully change the way people think,” said Lassiter, the show’s creator and star. “As a gay black man who is also a rapper, I deal with these issues and I wanted to create a world that shows what others like me have to go through and ultimately encourage others to accept themselves and others.”

The first six episodes of Single Record are available to stream now on Dekkoo.

Now Available: In the Family

In the Family takes place in the small town of Martin, Tennessee, where Chip Hines (Sebastian Brodziak), a precocious six year old, has only known life with his two dads, Cody and Joey (Trevor St. John and 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 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.

Wildly acclaimed by critics and in-the-know audiences for his work on this film – as well as the recent duology A Bread Factory, Part One and A Bread Factory, Part Two – writer/director Patrick Wang is one of the most thoughtful, talented and ambitious indie filmmakers most people aren’t familiar with yet.

The late, great Roger Ebert said of In the Family, “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. It is a film that avoids any message or statement and simply shows us, with infinite sympathy, how the life of a completely original character can help us lead our own.”

In the Family is now available to stream on Dekkoo. Check out the trailer below.

It only takes four minutes and forty-two seconds to reach Ecstasy

He would do anything to be touched by his former lover once more… ANYTHING.

Writer-director-star Kyle Reaume’s four minute and forty-two second short film Ecstasy is an exploration of the coalescence of love and violence. Playing out in slow motion, with no discernible dialog, the film introduces us to an attractive young man (Justin Miller) sitting alone at the bar. Across from him, he spots an old flame (Harrison Reynolds). Though we know pretty much nothing about their relationship, it’s safe to assume that things didn’t end well.

Reaume juxtaposes one of the couple’s happiest moments with the immensely queasy confrontation that is about to unfold. Ecstasy packs a powerful punch (quite literally) into a very short run time.

You can watch Ecstasy now on Dekkoo and make sure to check out Kyle Reaume’s other available short film, What About Shelley, while you’re at it!

Don’t Miss OUT on Stage, the New Dekkoo-Original Comedy Series!

A Dekkoo-Original, co-produced with Comedy Dynamics, OUT on Stage: The Series is now available!

OUT on Stage is THE absolutely hilarious and one-of-a-kind, originally produced comedy hosted by Zach Noe Towers. The director and star of Killer Friends (on Dekkoo now), Zach was one of OUT Magazine’s “10 Comedians to Watch in 2018.” Comedian Sarah Silverman calls him “So, SO, SO Funny.” He’s also the current host of The Elite Daily Show on Verizon’s Go90 Network.

Experience the party when Zach and 16 other top-rated LGBTQ stand-up comedians discuss taboo subjects as only they can. The massive cast includes: Jonathan Rowell, A.B. Cassidy, Casey Ley, Julian Michael, Chris Bryant, Eric Hahn, Janine Brito, Jared Goldstein, Kyle Shire, Jordan Pease, Irene Tu, Raineir Pollard, Daniel Webb, Anthony Desamto, Gloria Bigelow and Joe Dosch.

Gather your friends for a full season of comedy you won’t soon forget! Check out the trailer for OUT on Stage below.

Short Film Spotlight: Ultra Bleu

Stylish and sexy, the 20-minute short film Ultra Bleu follows a young man in a love life-related crisis.

After a rough confrontation with his cheating ex-boyfriend, Jim (writer-director Nick Neon) comes to think that he’ll never find the love life he’s looking for – especially not through dating apps. Just when he’s ready to throw it all away, he has a chance encounter that gives him a new perspective on romance and life itself.

Ultra Bleu writer-director-star Nick Neon is a (devastatingly handsome and exceptionally talented) half-Korean American actor, writer and director from New York City. After directing his feature-length debut, Fear Eats the Seoul in 2011, Neon co-founded the Seoul-based production company NYK Media Group. He also served as Creative Director at Roll the Dice Pictures, where he directed several K-Indie music videos for artists such as Love X Stereo, Henry Bloomfield and Kite Flying Robot. Ultra Bleu marks his return to narrative filmmaking – he’s also working on expanding the short into a feature length film.

Check out the trailer for Ultra Bleu below. The film is now available on Dekkoo!

Spend 4 Days in France

Writer/director Jérôme Reybaud’s remarkably accomplished feature debut 4 Days in France is a sly and sophisticated take on gay romance in the 21st century.

On a seemingly ordinary night in Paris, Pierre (Pascal Cervo) takes one last look his lover Paul’s sleeping body, then steals away into the early morning light. Where he’s headed, neither of them know. Pierre’s only guide is his Grindr app, which leads him on a series of encounters with an indelible cast of characters across the French countryside. Upon realizing that his lover is gone, Paul (Arthur Igual) sets out after him, using his own phone to track Pierre’s movements in a strange and wonderful game of Grindr cat-and-mouse.

4 Days in France earned ecstatic reviews from critics when it was released in a limited theatrical run last year. Slant Magazine called it “A kind of ode to cruising writ large,” and said “There’s something endearing, if not uncanny, about the way the film evokes universal truths about erotic wandering.”

Watch the trailer for 4 Days in France below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: What About Shelley

Shelley and Billy (Alyssa Owsiany and writer-director Kyle Reaume) are best friends, but their friendship is greatly tested when Shelley’s boyfriend, Adam (Daniel Kelly), secretly comes out to Billy… the only other gay man he knows.

A stylish, smart and funny 12-minute short film, What About Shelley was funded through the inaugural Inside Out BravoFACT Pitch Competition, a $50,000 prize awarded to director/star Kyle Reaume by the Inside Out LGBT Film Festival and BravoFACT.

What About Shelley premiered at Inside Out and went on to screen at eighteen different film festivals worldwide. You can watch the full short now at Dekkoo!

Pushing Dead finds genuine humor in a deadly serious subject

Dan (“Psych” star James Roday) has been living with HIV for the past 22 years. He’s got his $3,000-a-month pill regimen down like clockwork, but when he deposits a $100 birthday check, he suddenly finds that he’s $70 over the financial assistance limit and no longer qualifies for his regular healthcare plan. Now he has to scramble to get his life together… or risk losing it.

Co-starring heavy hitters like Danny Glover, Khandi Alexander and “Deadwood” and “Big Little Lies” star Robin Weigert, the savagely dark new comedy Pushing Dead tackles seriously weighty topics and tenderness and humor. Writer-director Tom E. Brown recognizes the inherent absurdity of our current health care predicament and exploits it for laughs while never selling short his characters or their circumstances.

Watch the trailer for Pushing Dead below and catch the full film now on Dekkoo.

Now Available: Fathers

Fathers follows Phoon and Luke, a loving gay couple in a long-term relationship who have adopted a young son named Butr. Unfortunately, due to the lack of legislation for same-sex marriages in Thailand, only Phoon is allowed to be listed as the child’s father on paper. The family is very happy, but the fathers decide not to explain the situation to their son – a decision that creates many problems when Butr is old enough to attend elementary school.

Facing bullying from other students and their parents, Phoon and Yuke find themselves having to deal with a number of very hard decisions. And if that isn’t enough, a social worker of the Children’s Rights Protection Organization gets involved, questioning the idea of Butr growing up in a family without a feminine presence, and even tracks down his actual mother, who wishes to be a part of his life now.

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

Short Film Spotlight: Midnights with Adam

After engaging in a sexual act with a stranger, J. Harper Lee (Paul Yen), a detached and newly out-of-the closet young man, arrives to a soirée planned by his best friend, Annie (Amanda Kathleen Ward). Throughout the night, as he catches up with close acquaintances and struggles to hold back his feelings for his straight friend, Danny (Ben Whalen), Harper agonizes to build a façade of belonging in a world that is not meant for him.

As midnight approaches, Harper exploits himself in a brief sexual encounter to mitigate his loneliness and disconnection only to realize that he must come to terms with his identity in order to find his place in a hetero-normative world.

Written and directed by Yudho Aditya, the 34-minute short film Midnights with Adam offers a stylish and bittersweet portrait of a young Asian-American man whose sense of self is just starting to come into focus.

Watch the trailer for Midnights with Adam below and visit us at Dekkoo to watch the full film.