Category: Award Winner

Short Film Spotlight: Fire at the Lake

The short film Fire at the Lake follows Felix (Hervé Lassïnce), a French farmer who lives an isolated day-to-day with his elderly mother (Isabelle Rama). When he returns home from guarding his cows in the pasture, he’s shocked to find her lying unconscious in bed.

Before he can contact the proper authorities, Felix gets a notification from an attractive younger man (Pierre Moure) who has contacted him on a dating app. At that moment, something inside of him snaps. Instead of checking on his mother’s well-being, Felix flees, driving several miles away to meet up with the alluring stranger in person – and their encounter proves incredibly steamy despite the strange circumstances.

An Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, Fire at the Lake is baffling and captivating in equal measure. This twisted, mysterious and sexually-charged short film from writer-director Pierre Menahem that examines what happens when repressed desire is finally unleashed.

Watch a short trailer for Fire at the Lake below. The full short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A new season of ‘After Forever’ is available now on Dekkoo!

Co-created by Emmy-nominated TV writer and playwright Michael Slade and actor-writer Kevin Spirtas, the moving drama series After Forever follows Brian and Jason, a 50-something gay couple living in New York City who appear to have it all… until they don’t.

When Jason dies unexpectedly, Brian must face the grieving process. Suddenly, he’s forced to think about his own future – and ultimately his own mortality – without the love of his life.

Season Two picks up six months after the end of Season One. Brian has a new relationship and a new job, but Jason is still very present in his life. These eight new episodes continue his and his friends’ journey of love, loss and moving on.

Winner of six Emmy Awards, After Forever is a funny, heartbreaking, heartwarming and ultimately empowering series that will resonate with audiences of all ages and sexual identities as it explores relationships, healing and new beginnings.

Watch the original trailer for After Forever below. Both seasons are available now on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Adjustment

From director Mehrdad Hasani and screenwriter Farzad Ahmadi, this challenging new 16-minute drama tells a story about one child’s bravery in the face of major adversity.

Adjustment follows Shahrokh, a 9-year-old boy who isn’t afraid to play around with his gender expression, despite constant bullying from other kids and aggressive pressure from within his own deeply religious family.

Though he’s been humiliated, pushed aside and victimized, Shahrokh stands firm in his identity. He decides to come out to the people of his village. Having been through a variety or ordeals, Shahrokh shows up or school dressed in girl’s clothes.

While he has an uphill battle ahead, he finds an unlikely ally in his male teacher, learning that being yourself is always the right move – despite anyone else’s reaction.

Watch the trailer for Adjustment below. The full short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Now Available: Holding the Man

Based on the beloved and hugely successful memoir and stage play of the same name, Holding the Man tells the warm, funny and achingly sad story of the love affair between Timothy Conigrave and John Caleo, who met when they were teenagers at Xavier College in Melbourne in the 1970s.

Tim (Ryan Corr) was an aspiring actor. John (Craig Stott) was captain of the football team. Their romance lasted 15 years and endured a good many trials. When John died of AIDS at 33, Tim was forbidden to speak at his lover’s funeral. He set out to write a memoir about their relationship that would show the depth of tenderness they shared.

Featuring moving performances by lead actors Corr and Stott, Holding the Man also includes some legendary Australian actors in supporting roles. Guy Pearce, Anthony LaPaglia, Kerry Fox, Geoffrey Rush and “Succession” star Sarah Snook are all on hand to lend their talent to this powerful true story.

Deeply romantic, even in its tragic denouement, Holding the Man is keenly in touch with the lived experience of its characters, offering a loving tribute to those we lost during the AIDS crisis while celebrating a relationship that blossomed and endured in the face of prejudice and adversity.

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

Now Available: Sublime

How do you avoid losing something precious when it’s the very thing tearing you up inside?

Whether he’s writing music with his garage band buddies, having dinner with his family or sneaking off into the woods with his girlfriend, 16-year-old Manu (Martín Miller) is never quite present. He’s consumed by a secret that’s been eating him up inside.

In his dreams, Manu and his best friend Felipe (Teo Inama Chiabrando) lie in bed together, staring longingly into one another’s eyes while inching closer and closer together. Though they never kiss, the desire is clear. That desire simmers beneath the surface of writer-director Mariano Biasin’s moving new coming-of-age drama Sublime.

Featuring beautiful cinematography, an exceptional soundtrack and palpable chemistry between lead actors Miller and Inama Chiabrando, this award-winning new film follows one teen whose affection for his best friend can only stay suppressed for so long.

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

Queer Classics: Edge of Seventeen

A high-water mark of queer cinema in the ‘90s, the coming-out classic Edge of Seventeen was recently remastered for a new director-approved HD restoration – now available on Dekkoo.

Written by Todd Stephens, the director behind Gypsy ’83, Another Gay Movie and the acclaimed recent release Swan Song, and based on his own coming-of-age story, Edge of Seventeen is set in Sandusky, Ohio during the summer of 1984.

Chris Stafford stars as Eric, a closeted young man who has just finished his junior year of high school and takes a job serving food at the local amusement park. When he meets Rod, an attractive, slightly older co-worker played by Andersen Gabrych, he finds himself exhilarated, but somewhat terrified by his sudden attraction.

Their heated flirtation slowly brings Eric out of his shell, but his sexual awakening is complicated by his family life, his undefined relationship with his best friend Maggie (played by Tina Holmes) and, ultimately, the time period itself – it’s the Reagan era, after all.

Featuring Lea DeLaria in a scene-stealing supporting role and a pitch-perfect soundtrack that includes Bronski Beat, Flock of Seagulls, Thompson Twins and the Eurythmics, Edge of Seventeen is an unflinchingly honest and deeply touching gay romance than still resonates today.

Watch the original trailer for Edge of Seventeen below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

The first season of ‘After Forever’ is now available on Dekkoo

Co-created by Emmy-nominated TV writer and playwright Michael Slade and actor-writer Kevin Spirtas, the moving series After Forever follows Brian and Jason, a 50-ish gay couple living in New York City who appear to have it all… until they don’t.

When Jason dies unexpectedly, Brian must face the grieving process. Suddenly, he’s forced to think about his own future – and ultimately his own mortality – without the love of his life.

Winner of six Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Digital Drama Series, After Forever is a funny, heartbreaking, heartwarming and ultimately empowering series that will resonate with audiences of all ages and sexual identities as it explores relationships, healing and new beginnings.

The first season of After Forever is available on Dekkoo now. The second season will premiere in August. Watch the trailer below.

‘The First Fallen’ is a profoundly moving 1980s period drama from Brazil

Set in 1983 The First Fallen stars Johnny Massaro as a young biologist who returns home from studies abroad and starts to feel that there is something wrong with his body.

This is the beginning of the AIDS crisis – when the first wave of the epidemic hit Brazil. Lives will change, friends will be lost and gained and the future is suddenly uncertain.

With energy, humor and righteous anger, director Rodrigo de Oliveira (the award-winning filmmaker behind Tu Me Manques) creates a drama full of powerful performances, vibrant color and dramatic craft.

Partly entertainment and partly a work of cinematic activism, The First Fallen takes audiences on an emotional journey, offering up a powerful ode to the victims of the AIDS crisis and the community of solidarity and support that formed during those terrifying early days.

Watch the trailer for The First Fallen below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Pride Month Spotlight: Queer Docs

For Pride Month this year, we wanted to shine a spotlight on some amazing documentaries.

A mix of films both underseen and celebrated, heartbreaking and triumphant, with varied tones and subject matter, this collection of docs take us deep inside true queer stories of life, loss and love.

Bridegroom, Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine and Gemmel & Tim tell true stories of people taken from us too soon, but whose lives and legacies have left us left us changed for the better.

50 Years of Fabulous, Oriented, A Queer Country and Pride & Protest take us to specific places to celebrate the power of community. Drag Race star Jamal Sims’ doc When the Beat Drops offers up a fun and fast-paced history of bucking in Atlanta.

An Act of Love and This is What Love in Action Looks like capture activism in unlikely places. Finally, Electroboy and Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood explore two fascinating queer figures from two very different time periods.

The Pride Month Spotlight: Queer Docs collection is available on Dekkoo now – and all throughout the month of June.

Cicada is a feast for the eyes as well as the heart

Co-written by Matthew Fifer and Sheldon D. Brown, who also star in the film, the must-see new indie comedy-drama Cicada examines inter-racial relationships, bisexual identity and sexual abuse while also exploring the intricacies of falling in love and how that can go hand-in-hand with uncovering uncomfortable truths about one’s self along the way.

Fifer, who also co-directs with Kieran Mulcare, stars as Ben a young bisexual man who, after a string of unsuccessful encounrers with women, decides it’s time to go “back on the dick.” He soon develops an intense relationship with Sam (Brown), a man of color struggling with deep wounds. As their summer romance progresses and their intimacy grows, Ben’s past begins crawling to the surface – putting the pair’s still-burgeoning love affair in jeopardy.

Co-starring Cobie Smulders, David Burtka and SNL breakout star Bowen Yang, Cicada is easily one of the most acclaimed gay films of the past several years. Vogue said that it “will stay with you long after the credits roll.” And The Jam Report called it “one of the most beautifully-crafted pieces of queer cinema of recent times.” We firmly agree with both assessments.

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