Adolescence – Page 32 – Discover great gay stories.

Short Film Spotlight: Pitbull

Written and directed by John Ira Palmer, the six-minute short film Pitbull follows Javi (Josué Jiménez), a young man from East Los Angeles who is being harassed by his deeply homophobic neighbor. As tensions escalate, he must decide whether to finally confront his tormentor or turn the other cheek.

A writer, director and producer, Palmer created the short film Elwood Takes a Lover, which screened at festivals around the world and was an official selection of The American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. He was named a quarter-finalist for the 2019 Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, and is also a co-writer of Samir, the Warner Bros-funded USC feature film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo.

Palmer also produced the documentary Al Imam, which became a Vimeo Staff Pick, aired on National Geographic, and earned KCET Fine Cut’s top prize. He also co-produced The Dare Project, directed by Adam Salky and written by David Brind, which screened at Outfest and Frameline in 2018.

In 2016, Palmer was invited to the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Artist Academy for emerging filmmakers at the New York Film Festival. John’s experimental 16mm and super-8 short films have screened at venues such as REDCAT, Blum & Poe, and Pacific Film Archive. He has been selected for artist residencies at Echo Park Film Center and AICAD’s New York Studio Program, and awards including the ARRI Emerging Filmmaker Grant, the James Broughton Film Award, and a Princess Grace Foundation Film Honorarium. John earned his MFA at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and his BFA at San Francisco Art Institute.

Watch the trailer for Pitbull below. The full short film is now available on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 8/30/19

A timid 18-year-old living with his financially-struggling immigrant parents, chances upon a secret cruising spot when he takes a job at an all-male spa. There he begins to realize hidden desires that threaten his life as a dutiful son and student. ‘Spa Night’ is available to stream on Dekkoo!

‘But She’s My Best Friend’ is a gay comedy series about two gay best friends, Christian and Joey, and their lives in West Hollywood as they try to find a happy medium between being an adult and being a mess. Season 2 of this hilarious series is available now on Dekkoo!

It is the year 2040, Earth has been abandoned by the wealthy, who have migrated to space colonies. Bored, a rich young man decides to return home. Gradually, he perceives strange signs in the streets and discovers the existence of a secret cult. Stream ‘The Cult’ now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: Violence, jealousy, desire and what it takes to hide what you are.

Writer-director Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night is an intensely personal must-see film

Writer-director Andrew Ahn’s remarkably assured feature-length debut is a portrait of forbidden sexual awakening set in the nocturnal world of spas and karaoke bars in Los Angeles’ Koreatown.

David Cho (Joe Seo, who won the Special Jury Award at Sundance for his breakthrough performance), a timid 18-year-old living with his financially-struggling immigrant parents, chances upon a secret spot for cruising when he takes a part-time job at an allmale spa, and begins to realize hidden inner desires that threaten his life as a dutiful son and student.

Effervescent and atmospheric, this one-of-a-kind coming-of-age story makes the steamy spa a liminal place between dream and reality, and desire and disillusionment.

“Spa Night is an intensely personal film,” said Ahn. “I knew very early in the screenwriting process that I had to draw from my own life experiences in order to find the honesty I wanted to show on screen. As the son of Korean-American immigrants, I have felt the conflict between my parents’ expectations and my own personal desires. In Spa Night, I wanted to explore what it means to be a part of a Korean-American family. As Spa Night progressed into production, the film became even more personal for me. We shot on location in Koreatown, Los Angeles — at restaurants I have eaten at, spas I have visited, and streets I have walked down. As I directed scenes, I saw my family in this fictional family I had created.”

“My main character David speaks in a mix of Korean and English to his parents, the same mix I use when I speak to my parents. With Spa Night, I want to open up American independent cinema to include stories about immigrant communities told in languages other than English. It is important that our cinema culture reflect the diversity of the American experience. By telling this story, I am attempting to validate the immigrant experience and acknowledge my parents’ sacrifice to leave their home country and start a new life in America. Spa Night is my way of fulfilling my parents’ hopes and dreams.”

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

Now Available: The Blue Hour

“The Blue Hour” can mean the time between day and night, a realm between dream and reality, or a point between good and evil. Based on a true story, The Blue Hour from director Anucha Boonyawatana is all about the relationship between a boy, who is pressured by his family, and a mysterious young man who will lead him into horrifying situations.

A sexy supernatural love story about a bullied loner, Tam (Attapun Poonsawad), who finds solace in the arms of Phum (Oabnithi Wiwattanawarang), a boy he meets at a haunted swimming pool. Phum reveals that his family’s land has been stolen and the new found lovers imagine a perfect life together on the disputed land. Haunted by a ghostly presence, Tam struggles to stay connected to reality.

An official selection of the Berlin International Film Festival, The Blue Hour is a dark atmospheric tale of love and distress.

Born in Nakhon Phanom, a North-Eastern Province of Thailand, in 1981, Anucha Boonyawatana is a Thai independent film director and also founder of G-Motif Production, one of the largest video production company in Thailand. His thesis film “Down the River”, combination of Buddhist philosophy and Thai art and a love story of a gay couple, won Young Thai Artist Award and has been shown at several film festivals. He collaborated with TUC, Thai-American Public Health Agency (under the US government) and UNESCO to direct the online movie “Love Audition1, 2” aim to promote health and relationships among Thai gay teenagers. In 2012, his short film “Erotic Fragments No.1, 2, 3” was screened in competition at Berlinale Shorts of the 62th Berlin International Film Festival. The Blue Hour is his first feature film.

Check out the trailer for The Blue Hour below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 8/16/19

‘The Blue Hour’ is a sexy supernatural love story about a bullied loner, Tam, who finds solace in the arms of Phum, a boy he meets at a haunted swimming pool. Stream it now on Dekkoo!

This documentary chronicles the life and crimes of former gay porn star Luka Magnotta who was convicted of killing and dismembering a man and posting the video online. ‘Sex, Fame and Murder: The Luka Magnotta Story’ is streaming now on Dekkoo!

This edgy drama follows 19-year-old Ari, a gay Greek-Australian whose roiling ethnic- and sexual-identity struggles lead to a wild, 24-hour odyssey. Watch ‘Head On’ on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week:

New This Week – 8/2/19

In a working class neighborhood in Casablanca, Abdellah, a homosexual teen, tries to build his own life within his big family, caught between an authoritarian mother and an older brother, who he adores. Stream ‘Salvation Army’ now on Dekkoo!

When Nathan tells Bret that he’s HIV positive, it doesn’t go well for Nathan. But months later, things take a turn for Bret. ‘All Things Fade’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

If you can imagine ‘Lethal Weapon’ with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as younger, hotter ex-boyfriends, you’ll have the basis for ‘Hot Guys With Guns’, a modern take on the old-fashioned detective story. It’s ‘Chinatown’ meets ‘Boystown’. ‘Hot Guys With Guns’ is available now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: Dekkoo Films presents a smart, funny, and sexy globe-trotting (and bed-hopping) romantic drama.

Fall in love with The Way He Looks

Positively enchanting, The Way He Looks is a feel-good high school romance that will likely warm over even the coldest, blackest and most bitter of hearts.

Blind student Leo (Ghilherme Lobo) doesn’t usually let his disability get him down. He’s of a sunny, cheery disposition – happy to lay around the pool with his best gal-pal Giovana (Tess Amorim). He wants to be treated like any other teenager. When new kid Gabriel (Fabio Audi) arrives at school, however, Leo starts feeling the pangs of puppy love and finds his confidence on less solid ground. Gabriel and Leo take an instant liking to each other and start spending a great deal of time together, but that makes Giovana feel left out and puts their friendship in jeopardy. On top of that, Leo is very worried that his feelings for Gabriel – who, for all Leo knows, is straight – might never be returned.

The cast in also uniformly excellent. Ghilherme Lobo is a compelling and endearing lead, Fabio Audi is a total high school dreamboat (it’s easy to see the attraction) and Tess Amorim, whose character, in lesser hands, could have been written as a complete drip, is thoroughly loveable and relatable as Leo’s jealous best friend.

The Way He Looks is based on writer-director Daniel Ribeiro’s 2010 short film of the same name – which won countless awards and charmed the pants off of audiences and juries during it’s initial film festival run. Anyone who has seen the original short will get the sense that Ribeiro is padding the run-time here. The short, after all, reached, in 17 minutes, the same heartwarming ending that the film takes 96 minutes to arrive at.

Spending time with these characters, though, is so pleasant that it hardly matters. The extra superfluous material is quite welcome. It’s nice to have extra time in this universe. It’s hard not to fall in love with this movie. Watch the trailer below. The Way He Looks is now available on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 7/19/19

When Tyler O’Conner, a young gay author, visits a therapist, he realizes that his intense fear of negative consequences is keeping him from living his life to the fullest. Determined to change his behavior, he decides to bite the bullet and ask his cute neighbor, Shane, out for coffee. But will his deep-seated neurosis threaten their burgeoning romance? ‘Analysis Paralysis’ is a available to stream now on Dekkoo!

Leonardo is a blind teenager searching for independence. His everyday life, the relationship with his best friend, Giovana, and the way he sees the world change completely with the arrival of Gabriel. Watch ‘The Way He Looks’ now on Dekkoo!

‘A Last Farewell’ is both a calm and upsetting portrait of an aging author’s sorrow over the death of his long-term partner.

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Coming next week: The Dekkoo-original series ‘I’m Fine’ returns for its final season!

New This Week – 7/5/19

A DEKKOO EXCLUSIVE!

When Martin arrives in Paris to reconnect with his first love Lea, he is forced to accept that their relationship is over. But when Martin sets out to rebuild his life with dreams of being a film director he suddenly falls in love with another man. ‘Love Blooms’ is a poignant, sensitive look at young love and the struggle to become an adult. ‘Love Blooms’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

Love and Sebastian meet by coincidence in the street on the Swedish summer night. They happen to share the same secret, but their encounter will have severe consequences for them both. Stream ‘My Name is Love’ now only on Dekkoo!

Tired of the religious zealotry and anti-gay bigotry in their Texas town, sisters Latrell, LaVonda, and Aunt Sissy decide to protest an “Anti-Equality Rally” which aims to forbid any same sex weddings in their county. ‘A Very Sordid Wedding’ is available to stream on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: “Writer-director Matthew Montgomery and his co-writer Stephen Twardokus have found fruitful dramatic ground between the nervous excitement of cruising and the danger of venturing deep into the woods.” – The Los Angeles Times

Now Available: Closet Monster

Oscar Madly (“Locke & Key” and “American Crime” star Connor Jessup) is an imaginative “only-child” in St. John, Newfoundland, whose closest friend is a pet hamster named Buffy (voiced by Isabella Rossellini). If his life wasn’t challenging enough being caught in the middle of his parents’ turbulent divorce, Oscar is viciously catapulted into adulthood when his father teaches him about a shocking hate-crime involving a young gay man.

Fearing that he too might be gay, Oscar is driven to suppress his femininity. But when Oscar comes of age, his resistance to his sexuality weakens as he forms a tenuous friendship with a tattooed co-worker from Montreal who opens his eyes to a whole world of new possibilities. However, as Oscar begins to reclaim his identity, he experiences confusing sexual fantasies about his new friend that are fueled by fear.

When Oscar finally confronts and triumphs against the fear instilled by his father, the result is an explosive spectacle of human empowerment unlike anything Oscar could have ever expected.

A raw and emotional coming-of-age coming-out story, Closet Monster leaves a strong impression. The film is now available on Dekkoo.