“Queer filmmaker Jordan Firstman’s hilarious new short is a brutally honest glimpse at a queer romance.” – Out Magazine
Usually a reserved guy, Greg (Craig Chester of Swoon, Adam & Steve and Kill Your Darlings) struggles to keep up with young, unpredictable Josh (writer-director Jordan Firstman) on their first date. But as the night continues, things spiral out of control and the two men must confront the generational divide in this cutting and insightful comedy about what it means to be gay in contemporary America.
A charming, funny and insightful 20-minute short film, Call Your Father was a huge hit at film festivals all around the country. You can watch it right now on Dekkoo.
Not quite as incendiary as it was when it was first released in 1994, or as the theme might suggest, Priest tells the moving, truly provocative story of one clergyman’s struggle for sexual identity and religious idealism.
Linus Roache gives a stirring performance as Father Greg, a newly transferred priest assigned to a parish in a working-class neighborhood of Liverpool. As he comes into conflict with the liberal Father Matthew (Tom Wilkinson, terrific as always), whi is having a scandalous affair with the housekeeper (Cathy Tyson), Father Greg tries to come to terms with his emerging sexuality.
As the heart of this classic film is also the touching story of a sexually abused teen (Christine Tremarco) who confides in Father Greg, thus engaging him in a crisis on conscience.
A remarkably compelling debate on religious dogma, one intended to provoke thought and stir your emotions, Priest made a whole lot of waves when its premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (where it won the People’s Choice Award) back in 1994 – and went onto a wide release in early 1995. The film was loudly condemned by the Catholic Church in Ireland, who called for a ban. Using sound judgement, the Irish Film Censor Board decided to go ahead and allow it to be released… on Easter weekend, no less. This marked one of the first major disagreements between the Church and the Board.
Winner of the “Best Web Series” award at the La Rochelle Fiction Festival in 2017 and the “Best LGBT Series” award at the UK Web Fest that same year, the gay drama series Woke(originally titled Les Engages) is now available to watch on Dekkoo!
The show follows Hicham (Mehdi Meskar), who runs away from his home and comes to Lyon looking for Thibaut (Eric Pucheu), an attractive young man who had tried to kiss him just a few years before… and left a lasting impression.
Thibaut is an activist at the local LGBT Community Center. Hicham soon discovers his world. As his process of self-discovery unfolds, Hicham’s initial apprehension soon turns to enthusiasm. However, he soon comes to find that Thibaut isn’t exactly the person he appears to be.
Check out the trailer below and catch up on all the action on Dekkoo – where all ten episodes of the first season are now streaming.
Former gay lovers Shane and Pitch reunite after years apart and try to heal the wounds of their past. Shane is haunted by the tragic death of his daughter, while Pitch suffers a grave illness, rejecting medical treatment as painful and ineffective. Pitch creates beautiful structures of flowers and banana leaves as a way to cope. Meanwhile, Shane trains to become a Buddhist monk, to build karma for Pitch to either keep him alive or to help in his afterlife. A remarkably beautiful, spiritual film, Malila: The Farewell Flower is as close to transcendent as cinema gets.
Born in Nakhon Phanom, north-eastern Province of Thailand, in 1981, writer-director Anucha Boonyawatana heads up one of the largest video production companies in Thailand. Her student film, Down the River, which, like much of her work, combines Buddhist philosophy, Thai art and a gay love story, won numerous awards and was even given a release in the United States. She followed that up with her debut feature The Blue Hour, which screened in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015.
Malila: The Farewell Flower, Boonyawatana’s second full-length feature, might also be her most gorgeous, haunting and heady. It’s streaming right now on Dekkoo. Check out the trailer below.
Off Beat follows 26-year-old Lukas (Hans-Jakob Mühlethaler), who is not so much living as floating.
His dream of making it as a musician is on the wane and his great passion – freestyle hip-hop – has also past its heyday. Lukas lives with his producer, 46-year-old Mischa (Domenico Pecoraio), in an old loft where they cultivate cannabis. They have been having a turbulent affair for years – but this is a closely guarded secret.
Lukas has grown cold inside and only really feels himself in moments of excess. Drunk and coked-up to the eyeballs, he toils his way through a gig in a small club. In the audience his sixteen-year-old brother Sämi (Manuel Neuburger), an ambitious rapper himself, feels nothing but shame for his brother’s embarrassing performance.
Mischa decides that he has had enough of Lukas’ escapades and suggests they ask Sämi to join the band. Sensing that he is about to be substituted, Lukas gets out of his head and starts to take back control of his life.
A gritty drama that shines a spotlight on a corner of closeted gay life not often seen on film, Swiss writer-director Jan Gassmann’s Off Beat is now streaming on Dekkoo. Check out the trailer below.
Well-received by critics, audiences and juries at film festivals all around the globe, writer-director Mike Mosallam‘s short film Breaking Fast is currently on the path to becoming a feature film. The original short is now available on Dekkoo!
The 17-minute short follows Mo (Ryan P. Shrime), an Arab-American Muslim man dealing with heartbreak. Soon into the film, Mo meets Kal (Tom Berklund), a very sweet and attractive All-American dude. At first, Mo assumes that the two of them will have little to nothing in common. To his great surprise, however, Kal offers to break fast with him during the month of Ramadan. As the two men learn more and more about each other, they begin to fall in love.
“My intention was to tell a story that my friends and I could see ourselves in – one that spoke to the nuances of daily life and treated identity: religious, sexual, gender and otherwise, as harmonious lenses by which individuals interact with the world around them,” said Mosallam during an interview with the Arab Film Festival, where he was selected as a juror. “When a friend asked what characters in modern cinema I felt best represented my journey, as a Muslim, I was at a complete loss to name one.”
Mosallam is working to change that in ways both big and small – and Breaking Fast is certainly a step in the right direction. Check out the trailer below and make sure to watch the film on Dekkoo.
Artist Paul Harfleet’s family had always accepted his sexuality, but it was a different story outside the home. Like many young gay people, he regularly faced abuse. So, like any artist worth his salt, he turned that trauma into something brilliant: The Pansy Project.
Harfleet plants pansies at sites where some form of homophobic abuse has taken place. He’ll go to the location, find the nearest source of soil and (generally without civic permission – ssshhh!) plants one unmarked pansy. The flower is then photographed (beautifully, we might add), uploaded to his website, given a title inspired by the abuse. Titles like “Let’s kill the Bati-Man!” and “Fucking Faggot!” reveal a frequent reality of the gay experience, which often goes unreported to authorities and by the media in certain parts of the world.
This simple action operates as a gesture of quiet resistance. Some pansies flourish, while others wilt. The artist began by planting pansies to mark his own experience of homophobia on the streets of Manchester, but now he plants them for others both on an individual basis and as part of various festivals and events.
Harfleet has visited cities all over Europe. To date, he has planted almost 300 individual pansies. His photographs have been exhibited internationally in Berlin, Paris, London and his hometown of Manchester, where the project began.
Following Harfleet as he brings the project to France for the first time, the new documentary Pansyis now streaming on Dekkoo. From Paris to Marseille, via Lille, Strasbourg and Avignon, Harfleet goes searching for testimonies and exposes the prejudices and discrimination gay people still face.
Check out the trailer for Pansybelow and make sure to watch the full film on Dekkoo.
Set amidst the disparate worlds of the London pop music scene and the bare knuckles boxing clubs of working-class Blackpool, the 1998 gay classic Like It Is is a sexy, and at times, caustically funny tale of one youth’s coming out and his first, tumultuous gay love affair.
Craig (real-life boxing champ Steve Bell) is a 21-year-old Blackpooler who makes his living by fighting in illegal bare-knuckle fights. But the tough youth is also a closeted gay. By chance, he meets Matt (Ian Rose), a cocky London music producer who takes Craig under his wing.
The affair that ensues brings wide-eyed Steve down to the swinging gay Soho scene and into the duplicitous clutches of Matt’s friends, which include Paula (Dani Behr), Matt’s flatmate and an up-and-coming singer threatened by the arrival of the youth; and Kelvin (Roger Daltrey… yep, that Roger Daltrey), Matt’s gay and decidedly wolfish boss.
Will Craig find happiness in Britain’s gay Mecca or be forced back to his sordid former lifestyle? Some of the film’s best moments are when it shows the tensions of being gay in a tough, macho environment; the biting indictment of shallow gay men; and the hilarious camp performance by Daltrey (who sinks his toothy grin into his role with lecherous gusto).
Now twenty years old, you can take a trip back in time with Like It Is right now on Dekkoo.
A Dekkoo-original, co-produced with Comedy Dynamics, OUT on Stage: The Movie is coming to theaters on Tuesday, July 24 via Fathom Events. Join us for this exclusive one-night event – your first and only time to experience this OUT at the movies!
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 is 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 Gay and Lesbian 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.
Hurry – bring your friends for a night of comedy you will never forget before it’s too late! Check out the trailer below and CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR TICKETS.
Tom (Alexander Tsypilev) is a lonely young man. While carrying out a burglary he falls in love with Lars (Julien Lickert), a young history teacher. Tom starts to stalk Lars and pursue him without revealing himself… or feelings for him.
Meanwhile, Tom is developing a second obsession with a biker – whom, strangely, he seems to keep running into. More and more Tom gets lost inside a dangerous, real-life game of hide-and-seek and a labyrinth of passions. Once Lars becomes aware of Tom’s creeping presence, things take an even wilder turn.
“This movie is an attempt to look into the abyss of gay history and trace the marks that this history has left,” said Iben, continuing “this project is for everybody who loves dark stories, dark movies with an artistic touch or anyone who thinks this kind of movie, this kind of attempt, has to be supported!”