Category: Adolescence

Short Film Spotlight: Leap Weekend

14-year-old David (Matías Álvarez) is spending summer vacation with his cousin Pamela (Camila Oliva) at her remote home in Chile. In the middle of an oppressive heatwave, her boyfriend Javier (David Vargas) arrives for an extended visit.

In David’s eyes, Javier is the epitome of cool. He quickly becomes something of an older brother figure for the shy and reserved teen – offering him his first sip of beer and even taking him out for driving lessons.

David soon becomes infatuated with the older man, stealing his used gum and taking an extra special interest in the clothes he leaves behind in the bathroom. As the heatwave intensifies, so does David’s desire for Javier – which leads to some less-than-wise decisions.

Featuring beautiful black and white cinematography, writer-director Daniel Rivera’s Leap Weekend has a timeless and deeply personal quality, perfectly capturing the intense rush of one young man’s first serious crush.

Watch a short clip from Leap Weekend below. This gorgeous 19-minute film is streaming now on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Life In Love with Nick and Kaiden

Meet new couple Nick and Kaiden. They’re navigating an unconventional work life and the politics of London’s queer community, as well as their blossoming partnership. Will their relationship, first built on sexual desire and lust, turn into the year’s sweetest love story?

Love should be a safe space, and Nick and Kaiden have spent the first few weeks of their relationship crafting that intimate, personal enclave. Shaving one another’s butts, talking about the complexities of sex work, and clubbing at queer parties in Leeds – it’s all there.

As we find out, their tentative first steps together reflect how important it is to stay raw and playful with each other.

Filmed as part of a docudrama series exploring Gen Z’s relationships, trysts and every encounter in between, Life in Love with Nick and Kaiden has been released as a stand-alone short film offering a glimpse into the most intimate moments of one young couple’s blossoming love affair.

Watch the trailer for Life in Love with Nick and Kaiden below. The short documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Paper Airplanes

A teen boy’s spiritual and sexual awakenings coincide in the poetic 17-minute short Paper Airplanes.

Santiago Cabrera stars in the film at Mateo, a young man who is living with his casually overbearing aunt while grappling with the loss of his mother.

In this vulnerable state, he finds himself unexpectedly connecting with the spiritual realm. Suddenly he’s being followed by the ghost of Enrique (Alex Orellana), a recently deceased classmate, who is rumored to have killed himself after his parents discovered that he was gay.

Comforted by Enrique’s spectral presence, the two grow increasingly closer. But is Mateo really experiencing supernatural visions – or is this his mind’s way of dealing with his own grief and repressed desires?

A meditative film from Ecuadorian writer-director Rob Mendoza, Paper Airplanes is a thoughtful and romantic queer ghost story, as well as a coming-of-age fable about growing into your own skin and learning to say goodbye.

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

‘The Schoolmaster Games’ is a wildly original and deeply homoerotic high school melodrama

Based on a novel by Swedish author Kristofer Folkhammar and inspired by both American high school movies and gay porn, the unusual genre hybrid The Schoolmaster Games brings to life a vibrant alternate reality where sexuality is freely expressed, but manipulative power games are always at play just beneath the surface.

Desires are running wild at Saint Sebastian, a high school populated entirely by gay men. At this school, everyone is completely free to express their sexuality however they choose.

At the start of the year, much-desired heartthrob Charles (Christian Arnold) enters into a secret sexual power game orchestrated by the strict schoolmaster (Johan Ehn) – who is tortured by memories of his own repression during a time before the erotic acceptance that currently prevails at the school.

When the competition for the prestigious “Winter Procession” tightens, friendships crack and their whole utopian existence begins to fall apart piece by piece.

From Swedish director Ylva Forner, The Schoolmaster Games is a colorful, original and thrillingly homoerotic high school melodrama like no film ever before.

Watch the trailer for The Schoolmaster Games below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Visionary director João Pedro Rodrigues returns with the stylish genre-hybrid ‘Will-O’-the-Wisp’

From visionary queer auteur João Pedro Rodrigues, the acclaimed Portuguese director behind the The Ornothologist and the provocative gay classic O Fantasma, comes a bold and wildly unpredictable new musical fantasia.

Beginning in the year 2069, Will-O’-the-Wisp follows Portugal’s fictional King Alfredo, who, on his deathbed, starts to recall the social activism and erotic exploits of his youth in the early years of the 21st century.

As a fresh-faced, curly-haired young prince played by Mauro Costa, Alfredo shocked his riotously wealthy royal family by deciding to become a volunteer firefighter –in part to serve his community, but also as an excuse to be surrounded by a bevy of hot, beefy fellow firemen.

When he meets Alfonso (André Cabral), an alluring young instructor, new possibilities open and the pair become deeply immersed in their desire for one another.

This sexually-frank new film – a heady mix of historical tableau, musical comedy, queer romance and post-colonial provocation – maintains a joyous energy while examining heavy themes. Rodrigues manages to confront the inherited ills of our modern day while also indulging in delightfully bawdy humor and plenty of song-and-dance flights of fancy.

Watch the trailer for Will-O’-the-Wisp below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A personal video sparks a media firestorm in the acclaimed Singaporean drama ‘#LookatMe’

When twin brothers Sean and Ricky are invited to attend church with Sean’s girlfriend, they are treated to an Evangelical rock concert capped by a searing anti-gay sermon.

Incensed by what he’s seen, Sean, a Youtuber, decides to drop an outrageous video lampooning the megachurch’s pastor, but soon finds himself widely condemned – and even prosecuted – for flouting Singapore’s strict laws on public expression.

As Sean descends into near-madness in prison, Ricky gains prominence as an LGBTQ+ activist. Both find themselves at the heart of a culture war that spills out from social media into the real world.

Featuring an impressive lead performance by Yao (sometimes credited as Thomas Pang), an up-and-coming Singaporean actor who plays both brothers, #LookatMe blends together a wide variety of moods and genres, veering from deadly serious to colorfully camp without ever losing sight of its humanity.

Banned from screening in Singapore during a particularly ironic moment of life imitating art, director Ken Kwek’s acclaimed film tells a morally essential fable about social media celebrity, cancel culture and the erosion of basic human rights.

Watch the trailer for #LookatMe below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Take a trip back to 1996 with the sexy surfside drama ‘Bromance’

From writer-director Lucas Santa Ana and co-writer Diego Mina, sexy surfside drama Bromance follows four close friends who go on a camping trip together in a remote part of Argentina… and find some of their barely-concealed sexual tensions quickly bubbling to the surface.

Once in virtual seclusion by the beach, Julietta (Luana Pascual), the only girl of the group, quickly recognizes that the boys (Javier De Pietro, Agustín Pardella and Marcos Ribas) seem to have a closer relationship than what she would consider ‘normal’ (it’s only ’96, after all). The line between friendship and love fade further for two of the boys in particular as their desire becomes too much to bear.

When what started as a simple getaway quickly becomes tinged with sex, romance and conflict, everyone is forced to confront who they really are for the very first time.

Starring some very hot lead actors – including De Pietro, the scrumptious star of Marco Berger’s films Absent, Young Hunter and Sexual Tension: Volatile – Bromance uses a distinct time period and a clever found-footage aesthetic to deliver a thoughtful and supremely sexy meditation on young, burgeoning gay love.

Watch the trailer for Bromance below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Logan Miller stars in the gripping gay indie family drama ‘Take Me to the River’

Writer-director Matt Sobel’s assured directorial debut Take Me to the River tells the story of an artsy, confident and proudly gay California teen who is reluctantly heading to Nebraska with his parents for a for a family reunion.

Logan Miller, the charismatic, scene-stealing young character actor from Love, Simon, Escape Room and countless indie gems, stars as Ryder, the gay teen in question. Though his parents are supportive, there is some question over how the rest of their extended family will react to his lifestyle.

After planning to come out to his conservative relatives, he agrees to hold off at his mother’s request. Nevertheless, he makes a showy entrance at the cookout with his short shorts and eye-catching shades.

No one seems particularly impressed – except for a 9-year old cousin named Molly (played by Ursulla Parker), who follows him around adoringly. When they go to the barn to look for birds in the rafters and she comes back screaming and inconsolable, Ryder comes under suspicion from the rest of the family. In the process of clearing his name, he learns that some family secrets are better left in the dark.

Co-starring Robin Weigert, Richard Schiff and Josh Hamilton, Take Me to the River is a gripping, thoughtfully layered and superbly well-acted drama about clashing cultures, buried secrets and the ties that bind us.

Watch the trailer for Take Me to the River below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.