Category: Adolescence

Short Film Spotlight: Long Haul

The 21-minute short film Long Haul is a coming-of-age road drama set in the world of American long-haul trucking.

Bo (Jacob Buster) is an ultra-conservative teen who goes on a cross-country delivery job with his estranged father (Jeffrey Hanson). During the journey, the son struggles with his parents’ divorce and discovering that his father is gay.

Based on writer-director Bryan Fugal’s own life, Long Haul is a deeply personal story. “The son character is based on a combination of me and my siblings,” said the filmmaker. “And the father character is based on my biological father. I think it is a unique and very relevant story to our time.”

The screenplay for Long Haul was a semi-finalist in international screenplay competitions, including the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, Screen Craft Short Screenplay Contest, and was a finalist for the David Ross Fetzer Foundation Grant for Emerging Artists. In addition, the screenplay has been endorsed by several other noted artists and film producers, including Arthur Van Wagenen, Mac Reynolds of Imagine Dragons, Bryce Fillmore and Kendall Wilcox.

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

New This Week – 9/4/20

Montreal is snowed under. While the downtown cranes dance their hypnotic ballet, two strangers meet randomly in an unfinished apartment. Their chance encounter leads to a violent attraction and a dependency beyond reason. ‘The Acrobat’ is available now, exclusively, on Dekkoo!

Dekkoo Films presents ‘Mani’.

Mani a 12-year-old boy is coming to terms with his burgeoning puberty and sexuality while navigating a series of male-dominated environments in contemporary Tehran. ‘Mani’ is available to watch now on Dekkoo!

Motty and Alon, a gay couple from Israel, are pursuing their dream of becoming parents. This feature-length documentary follows them on the journey – as they communicate with Krista, their American surrogate, and await the arrival of their biological twins. Along the way, the film raises questions about parenthood, religion, social norms and our technologically advanced world. Watch ‘Double Income, Kids’ on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A Brazilian transplant and his friends take to the streets of San Francisco to pursue an American fling. 

New This Week – 8/28/20

Director Ksenia Ratushnaya’s bold first feature, Outlaw shines a spotlight on modern LGBTQ life (and strife) in Russia. Highly controversial due to the country’s “gay propaganda law,” this provocative and visually dazzling new film tells two parallel love stories – one a love triangle between a gay teen, a popular girl and a violent jock; the other a romance between a general and a transgender dancer in the Soviet ’80s. ‘OUTLAW’ is available now exclusively on Dekkoo!

Bo, a religious and ultra-conservative teen goes on a cross-country delivery job with his estranged father. On the trip, Bo struggles with his parent’s recent divorce and discovering that his father is gay. ‘Long Haul’ is available now on Dekkoo.

In 2016 a small group of families with transgender kids joined the fight against a wave of discriminatory anti-transgender legislation that swept the nation and their home state. With the help of a coalition of civil rights activists and ally lawmakers, these families embarked on an uncharted journey of fighting for their children’s lives and futures in this present-day civil rights story. Stream ‘The Most Dangerous Year’ now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: Another brand new gay film arrives on Dekkoo exclusively! Months before it’s DVD release.

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.

 

 

 

New This Week – 7/31/20

‘Bitter Years’ is a drama based on the life of Mario Mieli, one of the founders of the Italian Homosexual Liberation Movement, created at the beginning of the 1970s. He was an activist, intellectual, writer and performer – a key figure on the Italian cultural scene. ‘Bitter Years’ is a streaming exclusively on Dekkoo!

A man ridicules his wife’s fascination for masculinity, but she’s dead serious. Watch ‘A Double Life’ now on Dekkoo!

Leo stands out in a crowd. That’s not always a good thing working in a fish cannery in Alaska. His dreams of leaving this small town are hard fought, until a new boy moves to town and sees him for who he really is (an international superstar). ‘Alaska is a Drag’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: An ederly woman begins to learn that she knows nothing about her son.

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.

 

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.

New This Week – 7/17/20

Daniel is a young man struggling with an inner identity that is desperate to be realised. After leaving his father to move to London, his subconscious desires begin to take control. ‘Into the Mirror’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

The murder of Madorilyn Crawford, a famous transsexual artist, hides dark secrets that involve powerful people in the Colombian politic context and exposes the hypocrisy of those who handle power above the law. Watch ‘Natural Selection’ now on Dekkoo!

An Asian-American high school football player confronts his deepest fears after an encounter with a mysterious figure. ‘Jeremiah’ is available to watch now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: Dekkoo Films presents a biopic about António Variações, a famous Portuguese pop rock singer from the 80s who died from AIDS-related complications in 1984.

Now Available: Cheetah in August

A former high school track athlete’s distorted views on love, negatively affects the people closest to him in the acclaimed LGBTQ series Cheetah in August.

The show centers around the deep personal journey of the main character, August (Andre Myers), as he examines his life in therapy, from his high school years into adulthood. At the start of the season we are introduced to August’s alter ego, “Cheetah”, who is the main force preventing August from enjoying a monogamous relationship with his current lover. As a large cast of characters are soon introduced, they intertwine within a web of sex, lies, deception, and murder.

Sexuality, love, religion, psychology and self-hate are all themes that are touched on throughout Cheetah in August, which proudly aims to raise awareness of societal issues often swept under the rug. Series creator Anthony Bawn has said that he hopes to use the show to explore ideas of ethnic LGBTQ identity through a “mentally confused young adult searching for normalcy” and that he pictured how a young black male growing up in a religious family could develop social desegregation within the gay community.

Watch the trailer for Cheetah in August below. The first two twelve-episode seasons are available now on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 7/3/20

Mateo is an intelligent boy who falls in love with his friend Daniel. When their relationship is revealed, Mateo is at a crossroads and must decide between fighting his adversities, or giving up everything – including his own life. ‘Green Butterflies’ is available now on Dekkoo.

Lucas is a cocky pretty boy who lives for casual sex and no commitments. Dean 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. Season 2 of ‘Two Naked Gay Guys’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

This documentary chronicles the project by Steven Reigns devoted to collecting rubbings from LGBTQ historical markers, signs, tombstones, cenotaphs, plaques, and monuments. Watch ‘The Gay Rub’ on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A conservative professor at a Christian college finds himself in a gay support group.