Adolescence – Page 36 – Discover great gay stories.

New This Week – 1/25/19

Aaron, an up-and-coming young rapper, is starting to find career success. Unfortunately, his rise is tempered by a volatile music industry, his dangerously jealous older brother and his own insecurities surrounding his sexuality. Binge the first season of ‘Single Record’ now, only on Dekkoo!

Dekkoo Films presents the gay short film, ‘1992’. Martin is seventeen and spends all day recording everything with his Hi8 camera. One day Martin meets Dominique, who works as a watchman at his school.

This documentary discusses how a small Mediterranean fishing village of some 3,500 people in 1900 has now become the Gay Mecca of the Mediterranean and can serve as an example for other less tolerant countries of harmonious LGBT integration. Watch ‘The Gay History of Sitges’ now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: “An exploration of identity.”

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.

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!

New This Week – 12/21/18

With the style of a European art filmmaker, director/co-writer Eldar Rapaport tells the story of a gay love triangle by using innovative edits, a beautiful (frequently naked) cast and an exploration of how we find our life’s love. Stream the gay film ‘August’ now, on Dekkoo!

Over the course of one night, a newly out-of -the-closet young man struggles to hold back his feelings for his straight best friend while dealing with the problems and complications of being different in a hetero-normative world. The gay short film ‘Midnights With Adam’ is available now on Dekkoo!

Fabricating credentials to score a last-ditch job as a high school guidance counsellor, a boozing, drug-addled former child star becomes an improbable hit with his students by dispensing the worst advice possible. ‘Guidance’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: What happens when two gay men in a disintegrating relationship leave the big city to spend some time alone, together in nature?

Meet Naz & Maalik, Now Available on Dekkoo

In this riveting dramatic tale, gay teens Naz and Maalik are friends, classmates, business partners and lovers. As the two closeted Muslim teens go about their regular daily routine on a Friday afternoon in Brooklyn they arouse the suspicions of an undercover FBI agent who begins to track them.

This complex tale of race, religion and sexuality features a pair of tremendous performances from lead actors Kerwin Johnson Jr. and Curtiss Cook Jr. Intimate and meditative, Naz & Maalik examines the mysterious forces that animate teenage minds.

An exceptionally well-crafted drama, and an auspicious feature debut from writer-director Jay Dockendorf, Naz & Maalik is now available on Dekkoo. Check out the trailer below.

New This Week – 11/30/18

Two closeted Muslim teens hawk goods across Brooklyn and struggle to come clean about their sexuality, as their secretive behavior leads them unknowingly into the cross-hairs of the War on Terror. ‘Naz & Maalik’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

Scott gets a visit from Connor which brings his past back to haunt him, but will it change his future? Dekkoo Films presents ‘Just Me’, a new gay short available to stream immediately on Dekkoo.

The son of divorced parents, twelve-year-old Guigo is preoccupied with his cell phones and his crush on a young girl named Sabrina. On a fishing trip with his best friend Tullius, his father Roberto and Roberto’s new friend Paul, he’s shocked to learn he has no internet access and no way to text his crush. Things get even more overwhelming when he learns that Paul is his father’s new boyfriend. Stream ‘Guigo: Offline’ now on Dekkoo!

Dennis, a late-middle-aged gay man, wakes up to discover Zach; an attractive young man, in his bed. Is Zach just a one-night stand, or is it more than that? Binge watch the first season of ‘How It All Began’ now on Dekkoo.

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Coming next week: A shocking and beautiful gay love story.

Don’t miss the acclaimed doc Red Without Blue

An award-winning documentary originally released in 2007, Red Without Blue is a groundbreaking artistic examination of gender, identity, and the unswerving bond of twinship, despite transformation.

An honest portrayal of a family in turmoil, the film follows a pair of identical twins as one transitions from male to female. Captured over a period of three years, directors Brooke Sebold, Benita Sills and Todd Sills document the twins and their parents, examining the Farley family’s struggle to redefine themselves as a unit.

The twins’ early lives were quintessentially all-American: picture-perfect holidays, supportive parents who cheered them on every step of the way. By the time they were 14, their parents had divorced, they had both come out as gay, and a joint suicide attempt precipitated a forced separation of Mark and Alex for two and half years.

Through extensive, deeply candid interviews with the twins and their family, Red Without Blue recounts these troubled times, interweaving the twins’ difficult past with their efforts to find themselves in the present.

The film follows the painful steps of Clair’s transition, including electrolysis and the difficult decision to proceed with bottom surgery. Through its portrayal of these articulate and independent twins, each haunted by the painful experiences of their adolescence, the film questions normative standards of gender and identity – as Mark and Clair reassert their indescribable bond as identical twins. Through the power of the their voices, we hear the story of a family’s redemption from a dark past, and ultimately, its revival to the present.

Check out the trailer for Red Without Blue below and watch the full film on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 11/2/18

Gay writer/director Don Roos (‘The Opposite of Sex’) returns in prime form with a wicked ensemble comedy about a group of gay, lesbian and hetero friends and family connected by secrets and lies. Watch ‘Happy Endings’ now on Dekkoo!

Cancer patient Hannah fears her husband Elwood will have no one to care for him after she’s gone. Long suspecting Elwood had feelings for another man in his youth, Hannah sets out to find his unrequited love in hopes of reuniting them. Stream the gay short film ‘Elwood Takes a Lover’ now on Dekkoo!

The intimate bond between two identical twin brothers is challenged when one decides to transition from male to female; this is the story of their evolving relationship, and the resurrection of their family from a darker past. Stream ‘Red Without Blue’ on Dekkoo now!

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Coming next week: The feature-length directorial debut of actor Gerald McCullouch, who most gay cinema fans will recognize as one of the leads of BearCity.

New This Week – 10/26/18

Derek Jarman delivers a retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century painter through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld. Watch ‘Caravaggio’ now on Dekkoo!

James, a sexy, youthful sought-after instagram star in high-society and self-proclaimed ‘Trophy,’ is dumped by his wealthy live-in benefactor. Now he must learn that the real world is not the facade he’s built for himself on social media. Stream the award-winning short film ‘Trophy Boy’ on Dekkoo!

As 19-year-old Bennett Wallace navigates early sobriety, late adolescence, and the evolution of his gender identity, his mother makes her own transformation from resistance to acceptance of her trans son. ‘Real Boy’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A wicked ensemble comedy about a group of gay, lesbian and hetero friends and family connected by secrets and lies.

It’s time for a Break Through

The new film Break Through from director Aaron Hose documents a group of passionate twenty-somethings within the Theatre for Social Change movement, as they unite in a stand against the stigmatization and marginalization of LGBTQ citizens in America.

Part human interest story, part dramatic interpretation, this uplifting film examines the importance of seeing your sexuality as only one thing that defines you as a person.

Having courage, self-acceptance and parental support is crucial for our LGBT youth, especially since we live in a society where many of them are still bullied for being “different”. Break Through aims to open the eyes of those who are quick to dismiss gay, lesbian and transgender issues as “no big deal”. Sure, things may be getting better, but being “out in the open” is by no means easy.

Check out the trailer for Break Through below. The full documentary is now available on Dekkoo.