Category: Award Winner

Short Film Spotlight: Vermont

Desires shift after a trip to the mountains in the kaleidoscopic 20-minute short Vermont.

Ryan McDermott, making his acting debut, stars as a young man who, having recently returned from a winter trip to the mountains, drifts through New York City – contemplating an unseen landscape and exploring liaisons with various men.

The film also features a number of other non-actors who make up an ever-shifting ensemble cast of mostly queer men.

Shot on 16mm by cinematographer Robert Orlowski and set to a piano and flute score composed by Cody Boyce, Vermont is heavy on style and atmosphere. It feels like a mysterious and contemplative lost indie from the 1970s heyday of underground New York cinema. We can’t wait to see what writer-director Joseph Barglowski gets up to next.

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

Short Film Spotlight: Incomplete

From talented actor, writer, director and dancer Sasha Korbut, the new 15-minute short Incomplete examines feelings of loneliness in a crowded world that’s simultaneously connected and apart.

A young man, alone in a phone booth on a New York City street corner, holds a hand-written letter that expresses his longing and desire for a man he’s yet to meet. As we hear the letter read aloud, we’re invited to watch his fantasies of connection in quick bits of dance with random men – pairings that instantly come and go, never quite right.

Each of the three main dances in the film explore different aspects of connection – intellectual, physical and spiritual. Finally, in a crowded square, the young man begins to dance on his own. His movements become a scream of desperation, a way to be seen and heard. Soon, he finds an inner peace that he never imagined and learns that he’s not really as alone as he thought.

A heady experimental film with gorgeous production values, Incomplete asks the question: do we need another person in our lives to feel complete, or are we really missing a connection within ourselves?

Watch a short trailer for Incomplete below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: The Letter Men

Between the years 1938 and 1941, a British man named Gordon Bowsher wrote over 200 love letters to his sweetheart, Gilbert Bradley, while he was off in combat during World War II.

Surviving records of queer relationships from that time period are rare. Presumably, most letters would have been destroyed out of fear of discovery. But luckily, Gordon’s letters have survived. Gilbert kept them safe until his death in 2007 – and they were eventually discovered by museum curators in 2015.

Now, more than 80 years after they were first written, the letters represent the largest known collection of LGBTQ+ love notes from the era. With exceptional production values and a fleet 8-minute runtime, director Andy Vallentine manages to craft an epic depiction of one gay love story that was almost lost to time.

Using Gordon’s own words, The Letter Men transports us back to that era, showing us not only the battlefields and the air raid shelters, but the deepest recesses of the human heart.

Featuring truly swoon-worthy lead performances from actors Matthew Postlethwaite and Garrett Clayton, the film offers a unique window into the untold true story of two gay men who were desperately in love, torn apart by war and unknowingly fated to live on in queer history.

Watch a short trailer for The Letter Men below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

The critically acclaimed romantic gay drama ‘And Then We Danced’ returns to Dekkoo!

A passionate tale of love and liberation set in modern-day Georgia, writer-director Levan Akin’s beloved coming-of-age drama And Then We Danced follows Merab (Levan Gelbakhiani), an ambitious young dancer who has been training from an early age to earn a spot in the National Georgian Ensemble with his partner, Mary (Ana Javakishvili).

His world is suddenly turned upside down with the arrival of Irlaki (Bachi Valishvili), a charismatic, naturally gifted newcomer who becomes both his strongest rival and the object of his secret desires.

Within the highly gender-conservative, traditional world of Georgian dance, Merab must navigate his newfound feelings of attraction while competing for his lifelong goal. But as the two young men grow closer together and their mutual longing comes to the surface, they may unleash a floodgate that will pit them against the country’s outdated culture.

Initially screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival, And Then We Danced offers a riveting and visceral examination of dance, identity, gay longing and everything in between.

The film earned massive critical acclaim when it was first released in 2019 and was even chosen as the Sweden’s entry for the Best International Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.

Watch the trailer for And Then We Danced below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

The director of ‘Were the World Mine’ returns with the electrifying new musical ‘Glitter & Doom’

In a fantastical summer romance set to the iconic hits of the Grammy Award-winning, trailblazing Indigo Girls, Glitter & Doom follows the love-at-first-sight connection between carefree circus performer Glitter (Alex Diaz) and struggling musician Doom (Alan Cammish).

An undeniable spark throws the pair into a summer of camping trips, late-night conversations and innovative song-and-dance numbers – until the real world comes calling for them.

Their relationship is put to the test as Doom confronts the realities of finding success in the music industry and Glitter has an opportunity to run away to Paris as a circus performer.

Glitter and Doom soon find themselves struggling to make sense of their whirlwind summer while staying true to themselves and pursuing their dreams.

Directed by beloved Were the World Mine filmmaker Tom Gustafson and punctuated by a star-studded supporting cast – including Lea DeLaria, Tig Notaro, “Drag Race” alum Peppermint, Ming-Na Wen, Missi Pyle and Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers themselves – Glitter & Doom is a creatively ambitious, visually stunning queer musical about the power of love – and, of course, the “Power of Two.”

Watch the trailer for Glitter & Doom below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘The Radical’ introduces Muhsin Hendricks, the world’s first openly gay Imam

Four years in the making, The Radical offers up an intimate portrait of Muhsin Hendricks, a Capetonian former dress designer who came out in 1996 and became the world’s first openly gay Imam.

Today, even under the threat of death, he leads a devoted group of queer Muslims through the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation, an organization that supports the LGBTQ+ community and runs various educational and empowerment programs that help Muslims reconcile their sexuality with their faith.

Filmmaker Richard Finn Gregory follows Hendricks to East Africa to film his work with queer Muslim activists in the countries where their very identity is still outlawed.

The film provides first-person accounts of growing up queer as a South African Muslim in a society caught between the liberalism of its constitution and the conservativeness of its cultures and history, chronicling individual journeys to queer acceptance and the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights across the entire continent of Africa.

Watch the trailer for The Radical below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

The New Queer Cinema classic ‘Young Soul Rebels’ comes home to Dekkoo

Young Soul Rebels, a 1991 classic from maverick New Queer Cinema director Isaac Julien, has been restored to its original director’s cut in a stunning new 4K version overseen by Julien and director of photography Nina Kelgren.

Set in East London in 1977 – just days before Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee – the film revolves around underground DJs Chris and Caz, who find their worlds rocked when a close friend is murdered in a queer hook-up park.

Their tight-knit local Black community suspects potential right-wing involvement, while the police point fingers at Chris as the prime suspect.

Winner of the Critic’s Prize at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, Young Soul Rebels has gone on to earn even more critical acclaim in the time since its release.

With pulsating energy and an unforgettable soundtrack, Julien examines race clashes and the interaction between cultural youth movements – namely skinheads, punks and soul boys – along with the social, political and cultural tensions between them.

Still as relevant today, we’re thrilled to introduce Young Soul Rebels – back and looking better than ever – to a whole new generation.

Watch a trailer for the new restoration below. Young Soul Rebels is now available on Dekkoo.

Alexandra Billings stars in the endearing and inspiring comedy-drama ‘Queen Tut’

‘Transparent’ actress Alexandra Billings stars in the endearing comedy-drama Queen Tut as a trans stage veteran who takes an aspiring seamstress and drag queen under her wings.

Following the death of his mother, Egyptian-raised teen Nabil (Ryan Ali) reluctantly moves to Toronto to live with his traditionally-minded father. There he meets Malibu (Billings) who is on her own crusade to protect Mandy’s, her drag nightclub and queer haven, from demolition.

The shy Nabil, wanting to learn how to sew like his late seamstress mother, finds a drag mentor in the exuberant Malibu, who makes all her own dresses.

As the boy begins to find his true self, the local community’s fight to save their favorite nightclub quickly escalates, pitting Nabil against his architect father and drag queens and queers against the gentrification-minded establishment.

Funny, inspiring and packed with memorable performances, Queen Tut is a rousingly entertaining and insightful coming-out drag tale which has left audiences cheering at film festivals all around the globe.

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

Two men’s marriage plans cause a media firestorm in the romantic drama ‘Mysterious Ways’

From Paul Oremland, the New Zealand-based filmmaker behind 100 Men, Surveillance 24/7 and Like It Is, Mysterious Ways tells the powerful and courageous story of two men who become torn between their faith, their families and their love for one another.

Anglican priest Peter (played by British actor Richard Short, from The Tragedy of Macbeth and the Canadian TV series ‘Mary Kills People’) and boyfriend Jason (played by newcomer Nick Afoa) want to get married.

For Anglicans, this is not allowed – and homosexuality itself is still taboo in Samoan culture. Samoan-Kiwi Jason has to deal with his family’s strict cultural beliefs while Peter clashes with the Anglican Church hierarchy.

When news of their marriage plans make headlines, it scandalizes the devout local community and unleashes a media storm that pushes the couple’s relationship to the limit.

A searing critique of the church’s attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community, Mysterious Ways is an impassioned and moving drama.

In the words of director Oremland, “Most religions still see being gay as sinful. This does huge harm to millions of people in terms of self-esteem, family rejection and legitimizing hatred. A love story where God is on our side is a powerful statement that is needed now more than ever.”

Watch the trailer for Mysterious Ways below. The film is now streaming 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.