Category: Documentary

‘To Decadence with Love, Thanks for Everything’ takes viewers on an intimate trip through Southern Decadence

The action-packed documentary To Decadence with Love, Thanks for Everything follows the lives of drag queen extraordinaires Laveau Contraire and Franky Canga as they prepare for Southern Decadence, a weekend of queer celebration in New Orleans.

During this behind-the-scenes journey, we meet a rich community of Southern artists who proudly challenge social norms and the boundaries of self-expression.

Showcasing the diversity of New Orleans while teaching a poignant lesson about knowing your worth, this new film from director Stuart Sox provides a personal perspective from the performers as well as the producers, as Laveau strives to create more opportunities for BIPOC performance artists.

From drag queens to burlesque performers and everything in between, To Decadence with Love, Thanks for Everything is a lively portrait of a nearly 50-year tradition and the diversity community that pulls it together year after year.

Watch the trailer for To Decadence with Love, Thanks for Everything below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Room for a Man’ is a deeply personal, remarkably assured doc about identity and sexuality

One of the first things that writer, director and documentary subject Anthony Chidiac confesses in his deeply personal film Room for a Man, is that he is paralyzed by fear. He finds the very concept of life in the outside world overwhelming.

Chidiac lives with his mother, a French teacher, in Beirut, and rarely leaves the house. His home is a refuge, but in some respects it’s also a prison. To Anthony, the outside world feels like a hostile environment. That’s partly because of his sexuality – something that his own family refuses to accept. His mom wanted him to become a notary, so that he would earn a lot of money and become ‘a real man.’ But that’s not how he sees himself.

When his bedroom undergoes a renovation, much to his mother’s dismay, Syrian construction workers arrive to do the remodeling. As they peel away at the walls, Anthony engages them in an exploration of his own identity and sexuality within the confines of the apartment.

As the construction workers come and go in the freshly embattled household, unexpected passions get stirred. Through the process of renovation – and the making of this film – Anthony finally begins to blossom and embrace his own identity.

Though he may suffer from insecurities, his filmmaking is remarkably self-assured. Room for a Man is a courageous, stylish and ultimately life-affirming cinematic experiment.

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

Muffy Blake Stephyns slays D.C. in the illuminating documentary ‘Queen of the Capital’

Bureaucrat by day and drag queen crusader by night, Muffy Blake Stephyns has high aspirations.

Muffy and her everyday persona, Daniel, must navigate her bureaucratic day job at the Department of Labor in Washington, DC, all while balancing her role in the Imperial Court of Washington DC, a philanthropic organization full of drag queens, drag kings and other vibrant performers.

Every year, the court elects an emperor and an empress. Drawing on experience as a former political consultant, Muffy spends a year campaigning for the title.

Documentary filmmaker Josh Davidsburg follows all of the action in the feature-length film Queen of the Capital, illuminating the thriving Washington D.C. drag scene and exploring the story of one individual on a colorful crusade for the community at large – who also finds time to be funny as hell along the way.

Watch the trailer for Queen of the Capital below. The full documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘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.