Category: Documentary

‘Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution’ examines the 1980s LGBTQ+ punk scene

Started in the 1980s as a fabricated movement intended to ‘punk’ the punk scene, Queercore quickly became a real-life cultural community of LGBTQ music and movie-making revolutionaries.

With this frank and fascinating feature-length documentary, director Yony Leyser (the filmmaker behind Chokehole, Desire Will Set You Free and William S. Burroughs: A Man Within) chronicles the start of the pseudo-movement through to the widespread rise of pop artists who used queer identity to push back against gay assimilation and homophobic punk culture.

Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution is just what the title suggests: a ‘how-to-do-it’ guide for the next generation of queer radicals. The extensive participant list includes Bruce LaBruce, G.B. Jones, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, John Waters, Justin Vivian Bond, Lynn Breedlove, Silas Howard, Pansy Division, Penny Arcade, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Gordon, Deke Elash, Tom Jennings, Team Dresch and many, many more.

Watch the trailer for Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution below. The documentary 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.

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.

Go on tour with the drag wrestling collective ‘Chokehole’ in this fabulous documentary

Chokehole: Drag Wrestlers do Deutschland tells the story of how one disenfranchised group of queer performers defeated all the odds to create a wildly compelling theatrical show.

One hot summer night in New Orleans, a popular drag collective decided to stage a wresting night. Dressing as their vibrant alter-egos, they proceeded to beat the living daylights out each other while the audience collectively lost their minds. That night, the wrestling collective ‘Chokehole’ was born.

From Yony Leyser, the filmmaker behind Desire Will Set You Free and Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution, this new 22-minute documentary follows the group as they take their show to Germany.

The film observes the artists both in and out of drag, sharing their larger-than-life and theatrical alter egos while displaying the unique vulnerabilities that lie behind each character. This film explores their loud, vibrant personas alongside their heart-breaking personal stories – and the adversity they’ve had to overcome.

We learn how each character copes with love, sex, transitions, post-trauma and socioeconomics while getting a glimpse into their fantastical, vividly realized world – which is as much an escape for the artists as it is for the audience.

Watch a short teaser trailer for Chokehole: Drag Wrestlers do Deutschland below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Get ready to go ‘Deep in Vogue’ with this documentary about the Manchester ICONS Ball

Over the course of one year, British documentary filmmakers Dennis Keighron-Foster and Amy Watson developed relationships with the house mothers and members of the local Manchester drag community – charting the buildup to the wild and wonderful ‘Manchester ICONS Vogue Ball.’

Deep in Vogue celebrates the colorful, emotional, political and deeply queer stories of the vogue scene in the United Kingdom and the many talented people involved in the community.

Synonymous with the gay ballrooms of ‘80s New York, this documentary asks why we need Vogue in Manchester now more than ever. While focusing their cameras around the Manchester ICONS Vogue Ball, the filmmakers examine important themes – like the disenfranchisement of black youth and the often reductive ways in which gay subcultures become commercialized.

Offering a deep and candid look at one welcoming community, Deep in Vogue is ultimately about people coming to love and accept themselves while finding a new family – and putting on a hell of a show in the process.

Watch the trailer for Deep in Vogue below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.