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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.

Short Film Spotlight: Jackpot

Man, it was hard to get gay porn discreetly before the internet! Especially if you were still coming of age.

Writer-director Adam Baran’s acclaimed short film Jackpot takes place in 1994 – not long ago, yet so far away – and follows a closeted 14-year-old kid named Jack (Ethan Navarro), who hears about a valuable stash of gay porno magazines hidden in a dumpster across town and sets out on a quest to retrieve them before they make their way to the dump. Like any good cinematic quest, there are obstacles to be overcome. In Jack’s case, they take the form of a form of a pack of homophobic bullies who have been taunting him. Luckily, he’s got an imaginary friend on his side to help coach him through – “Jackpot” cover boy Ricky Swayze (Adam Fleming).

Clever, well-directed and surprisingly heartfelt for a film about one young man’s mission to masturbate with a visual aid to match his hidden desires, Jackpot was a massive crowd-pleaser when it made the rounds at film festivals all over the world. The film is now available to watch on Dekkoo!

Now Available: August

Writer-director Eldar Rapaport follows up a string of acclaimed short films (Steam, Postmortem) with this sexy and thought-provoking feature-length debut. August puts creative spin on the classic love triangle story.

At the start of the film, Jonathan (Daniel Dugan) and Raul (Adrian Gonzalez) form what appears to be a happy couple in L.A. However, Jonathan retains his own apartment and has an air of the unresolved adolescence about him. Raul, an Argentine immigrant in a green card marriage, is the more grounded of the pair and holds a job as a bartender as he awaits his final work papers. Troy (“Looking” star Murray Bartlett), after spending a few years in Spain, forms the third corner of the triangle when he returns to the City of Angels. Troy is trouble: he’s the man who broke Jonathan’s heart and, we soon learn, is still in Jonathan’s blood.

Using time jumps, creative editing and a lack of black and white answers, Rapaport represents the story realistically: full of difficult decisions, broken hearts, memories that flash into our consciousness, and the knowledge that true love is out there somewhere.

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

Get ready for the gorgeous, sexy and romantic Dekkoo Exclusive He Loves Me

With beautiful cinematography and natural performances, writer-director Konstantinos Menelaou’s new film He Loves Me is a feast for the eyes and the soul. The film will be available on Dekkoo exclusively, far in advance of its release on DVD in February.

He Loves Me is an exploration of the unconventional nature of love and its ability to survive against the fear of loneliness, psychological traumas and the problems that come with life in the big city. The collapsing relationship shared by two men finds an outlet for escape on an isolated beach. Once there, they feel free to expose their deepest thoughts and release their true emotions. Their wounded relationship might not survive the vacation, but it’s certainly a glorious place to feel things out.

Lead actors Sanuye Shoteka and Hermes Pittakos are artists and performers who were a real-life couple at the time that He Loves Me was shot – and the script for the film was greatly influenced by their relationship.

You can watch the visually stunning trailer for He Loves Me below and tune in to Dekkoo for the feature film. It will be available soon.

The adorable Shared Rooms will get you into the holiday spirit

A sexy, feel-good romantic comedy, Shared Rooms explores the meaning of home and family through three interrelated stories of gay men finding connections during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day

Laslo and Cal (Christopher Grant Pearson and Alec Manley Wilson), a married couple, take in a teenage relative who was kicked out of his home after his parents discovered he was gay; Sid and Gray (Justin Xavier Smith and Alexander Neil Miller), two men looking for a quick hookup, end up finding a much stronger connection; and Julian and Dylan (Daniel Lipshutz and Robert Werner), a pair of roommates, are forced to share the same bed for the week – much to the delight (and horror) of the one harboring a secret crush on the other.

Directed by Rob Williams (3-Day Weekend, Make the Yuletide Gay), Shared Rooms brings together these three interrelated tales of gay men seeking family, love and sex during the holiday season. You can check out the trailer below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

The hilarious dark high school comedy Guidance is now available on Dekkoo

Guidance follows David Gold (writer/director/star Pat Mills), a 36-year old, pathologically immature former child actor who has never been able to get over his high school years. Recently diagnosed with skin cancer, unemployed and with nothing left to lose, he fakes his resume and gets a job as a high school guidance counselor.

Quickly winning over the students at Grusin High with his laidback attitude and similar interests, he befriends Jabrielle (Zahra Bentham), a teenage outcast, and soon learns that sometimes you can go too far, especially when it comes to committing a ridiculous crime.

Hailed as a “Grade A” comedy by the Los Angeles Times and named as a Critic’s Pick by The New York Times, Guidance is riotously funny, filled with fast-paced comedic timing, witty dialogue and a winning performance from jack-of-all-trades creator Pat Mills.

Watch the trailer for this darkly funny film below and skip on over to Dekkoo, where the full film is available now.

Short Film Spotlight: Daniel. Noah.

Noah (Spencer Carter) is a neurotic writer who spends the majority of his time idling in a New York townhouse owned by his mother Carla (Victoria Guthrie). Noah lives there all alone… until his childhood friend Daniel (Gabriel Sloyer) moves in.

Invited by Carla in a misguided attempt to set the two of them up (even though Daniel is straight), Daniel is hoping to use the space as an office in which to start his new psychiatry practice. He gets more than he bargained for, however, as Noah insinuates himself into the role of a patient. Identities begin to blur until both men end up on the therapist’s couch.

Dubbed “an anal-retentive, narcissistic love story,” this 13-minute short film from writer/director Daniel Goldberg has the same smart, “neurotic New York City dramedy” feel of the work of Noah Baumbach and Alex Ross Perry. Check out the trailer for Daniel. Noah. below and visit Dekkoo to watch the full film.

Director Oliver Mason needs your help!

Oliver Mason has been making short films for many years, having started out as a runner in BBC Drama. He went on to train in script development but has found his real passion lies in directing and editing. His short films Away with Me, about spontaneous holiday romance in Nice that turns sour when there is a clash of intentions and expectations between the two men, and Miss Moneypenny, a bright and spunky 4-minute comedy about gay dating, are available now on Dekkoo. He currently has a short film in the works that needs some crowdfunding assistance.

Have We Met Before? is a short docudrama exploring how the internet has changed how gay men meet and interact with each other. Combining real documentary interviews with a freshly created cinematic narrative, Mason is hoping to create something new and engaging which is simultaneously authentic and poetic.

You can read more about the project (and contribute financially, if you’re feeling generous) here. In the meantime, skip on over to Dekkoo to enjoy two of Mason’s earlier works and get a sense of his cinematic flavor.