Drama – Page 101 – Discover great gay stories.

Get ‘Woke’ on Dekkoo!

Winner of the “Best Web Series” award at the La Rochelle Fiction Festival in 2017 and the “Best LGBT Series” award at the UK Web Fest that same year, the gay drama series Woke (originally titled Les Engages) is now available to watch on Dekkoo!

The show follows Hicham (Mehdi Meskar), who runs away from his home and comes to Lyon looking for Thibaut (Eric Pucheu), an attractive young man who had tried to kiss him just a few years before… and left a lasting impression.

Thibaut is an activist at the local LGBT Community Center. Hicham soon discovers his world. As his process of self-discovery unfolds, Hicham’s initial apprehension soon turns to enthusiasm. However, he soon comes to find that Thibaut isn’t exactly the person he appears to be.

Check out the trailer below and catch up on all the action on Dekkoo – where all ten episodes of the first season are now streaming.

Get lost in the beauty of ‘Malila: The Farewell Flower’

Former gay lovers Shane and Pitch reunite after years apart and try to heal the wounds of their past. Shane is haunted by the tragic death of his daughter, while Pitch suffers a grave illness, rejecting medical treatment as painful and ineffective. Pitch creates beautiful structures of flowers and banana leaves as a way to cope. Meanwhile, Shane trains to become a Buddhist monk, to build karma for Pitch to either keep him alive or to help in his afterlife. A remarkably beautiful, spiritual film, Malila: The Farewell Flower is as close to transcendent as cinema gets.

Born in Nakhon Phanom, north-eastern Province of Thailand, in 1981, writer-director Anucha Boonyawatana heads up one of the largest video production companies in Thailand. Her student film, Down the River, which, like much of her work, combines Buddhist philosophy, Thai art and a gay love story, won numerous awards and was even given a release in the United States. She followed that up with her debut feature The Blue Hour, which screened in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015.

Malila: The Farewell Flower, Boonyawatana’s second full-length feature, might also be her most gorgeous, haunting and heady. It’s streaming right now on Dekkoo. Check out the trailer below.

New This Week – 7/27/18

Ayden and Brent work together to maintain a healthy relationship as two gay men in a society where they are setup to fail. Binge-watch the entire first season of ‘About Us’.

A Jewish New Yorker is bedridden patriarch dying of lung cancer, confesses for the first time to son that he was always attracted to men. Despite his long-lasting marriage and faithfulness to wife. Watch the gay short film ‘Like Father’ now on Dekkoo!

Mischa, a rap producer, is in a secret relationship with Lukas, a young performer, who is spiraling out of control on drugs and the fear that he is past his prime. When Lukas’ younger brother begins to capture Mischa’s attention the siblings begin to compete for the spotlight and Mischa. Watch ‘Off Beat’ now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A brand new gay film that has an eye for natural splendor and a feel for humanity’s existential fears.

Just added: ‘Off Beat’

Off Beat follows 26-year-old Lukas (Hans-Jakob Mühlethaler), who is not so much living as floating.

His dream of making it as a musician is on the wane and his great passion – freestyle hip-hop – has also past its heyday. Lukas lives with his producer, 46-year-old Mischa (Domenico Pecoraio), in an old loft where they cultivate cannabis. They have been having a turbulent affair for years – but this is a closely guarded secret.

Lukas has grown cold inside and only really feels himself in moments of excess. Drunk and coked-up to the eyeballs, he toils his way through a gig in a small club. In the audience his sixteen-year-old brother Sämi (Manuel Neuburger), an ambitious rapper himself, feels nothing but shame for his brother’s embarrassing performance.

Mischa decides that he has had enough of Lukas’ escapades and suggests they ask Sämi to join the band. Sensing that he is about to be substituted, Lukas gets out of his head and starts to take back control of his life.

A gritty drama that shines a spotlight on a corner of closeted gay life not often seen on film, Swiss writer-director Jan Gassmann’s Off Beat is now streaming on Dekkoo. Check out the trailer below.

New This Week – 7/20/18

Hicham runs away from his home and comes to Lyon, looking for Thibaut, a young man who tried to kiss him a few years earlier. Thibaut is an activist at the ‘G-Spot’, a LGBT Center. Hicham enters his world, apprehensive but enthusiastic. However, as Hicham begins a journey to find his own identity, he comes to understand that Thibaut isn’t exactly who he appears to be. ‘Woke’ is available to binge-watch now on Dekkoo!

An average gay guy discovers a magic website that can change him into the fantasy man he desires, but there is a price to pay. ‘VGL-Hung!’ is available to stream now!

Eighteen-year-old Mathieu vacations at the beach with his family when he meets local teen Cédric. After an extremely erotic kiss, the boys begin a passionate romance, complete with skinny-dipping at night, nude dancing on the beach and intense lovemaking in the dunes; yet, as Mathieu grapples with his sexuality and copes with his sick mother, absent father and annoying kid sister, his bond with Cédric grows stronger until it bursts. The gay classic film ‘Come Undone’ is available now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: Two men of color work together to maintain a healthy relationship in a society where they are set up to fail.

Film Flashback: Like It Is

Set amidst the disparate worlds of the London pop music scene and the bare knuckles boxing clubs of working-class Blackpool, the 1998 gay classic Like It Is is a sexy, and at times, caustically funny tale of one youth’s coming out and his first, tumultuous gay love affair.

Craig (real-life boxing champ Steve Bell) is a 21-year-old Blackpooler who makes his living by fighting in illegal bare-knuckle fights. But the tough youth is also a closeted gay. By chance, he meets Matt (Ian Rose), a cocky London music producer who takes Craig under his wing.

The affair that ensues brings wide-eyed Steve down to the swinging gay Soho scene and into the duplicitous clutches of Matt’s friends, which include Paula (Dani Behr), Matt’s flatmate and an up-and-coming singer threatened by the arrival of the youth; and Kelvin (Roger Daltrey… yep, that Roger Daltrey), Matt’s gay and decidedly wolfish boss.

Will Craig find happiness in Britain’s gay Mecca or be forced back to his sordid former lifestyle? Some of the film’s best moments are when it shows the tensions of being gay in a tough, macho environment; the biting indictment of shallow gay men; and the hilarious camp performance by Daltrey (who sinks his toothy grin into his role with lecherous gusto).

Now twenty years old, you can take a trip back in time with Like It Is right now on Dekkoo.

Head down the rabbit hole with Tor Iben’s newest thriller The Year I Lost My Mind

Tom (Alexander Tsypilev) is a lonely young man. While carrying out a burglary he falls in love with Lars (Julien Lickert), a young history teacher. Tom starts to stalk Lars and pursue him without revealing himself… or feelings for him.

Meanwhile, Tom is developing a second obsession with a biker – whom, strangely, he seems to keep running into. More and more Tom gets lost inside a dangerous, real-life game of hide-and-seek and a labyrinth of passions. Once Lars becomes aware of Tom’s creeping presence, things take an even wilder turn.

A new thriller from Tor Iben, the German director behind The Passenger and The Visitor (both of which are also now on Dekkoo), The Year I Lost My Mind is sexy and unsettling in equal measure.

“This movie is an attempt to look into the abyss of gay history and trace the marks that this history has left,” said Iben, continuing “this project is for everybody who loves dark stories, dark movies with an artistic touch or anyone who thinks this kind of movie, this kind of attempt, has to be supported!”

Check out the trailer for The Year I Lost My Mind below. It’s available right now on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 7/13/18

In ‘The Revival’, a secret love affair between a southern Baptist preacher and a young drifter challenges the equilibrium of a growing church. Stream this new gay film now on Dekkoo!

This documentary chronicles Madonna’s controversial 1990 “Blonde Ambition” international tour. The film is a behind-the-scenes look at Madonna’s relationships with her dancers and crew, her then-boyfriend Warren Beatty, and her family and friends, achieving an intimate glimpse into the boundary-pushing singer’s drive and individuality. ‘Madonna: Truth or Dare” is now available on Dekkoo!

On the holiest night during the month of Ramadan, Mo, a practicing Muslim reluctantly attends his best friend’s birthday party, where he unexpectedly meets Kal, a 30-year-old all-American white guy, who catches him by surprise with each twist and turn through the streets of Los Angeles. ‘Breaking Fast’ is now available to stream on Dekkoo.

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Coming next week: “Shimmeringly beautiful and utterly real.” – Stephen Holden, THE NEW YORK TIMES

New This Week: The Revival

A desperate young man wanders into town looking for food and shelter. A progressive pastor tries to open the minds of his Old Testament congregation. A born again, recovering alcoholic fights for his church. A pastor’s wife looks to her gay husband for salvation. All of this comes to a scorching climax and an old-time revival that the film’s small-town won’t soon forget.

An exceptional feature-length debut from director Jennifer Gerber and screenwriter Samuel Brett Williams, The Revival explores faith in the Deep South in a drama that asks how far you’re willing to go for the things you believe in.

Eli (David Rysdahl) is a young preacher who has recently returned to his small, Arkansas hometown with his pregnant wife (Lucy Faust). Harvard-educated, Eli is more progressive than your average Southern Baptist preacher, and he’s looking to incorporate some of his forward-thinking into the sermons at his deceased father’s struggling church. Of course, that news does not go down easy with most of his parishioners, who still cling to the “fire and brimstone” portions of the bible.

Things get even more complicated when Daniel (Keep the Lights On star Zachary Booth) shows up at a church potluck. An alluring, mysterious drifter passing through town, Daniel brings out the savior (and a few other things) in Eli. Offering his new acquaintance shelter in a secluded cabin, Eli finds himself more and more drawn to Daniel. The two are soon deep in the throes of a secret affair, and their blossoming romance begins to threaten everything that Eli has worked so hard to establish.

Originating as an off-Broadway stage play by Williams, who adapted his own work for the film, The Revival is edgy, erotic and powerful. “We aim to challenge audiences to deeper understand issues of repression and hate,” said director Jennifer Gerber. “It’s vital to me that my films tackle real stories from the south. In my opinion, The Revival is a story that needs to be told. Given the current political climate we are in, I want to delve into the psychology of a community of people that make up much of our country but very little of our popular culture.”

The Revival is available on Dekkoo now. Check out the trailer below.

A teacher is wrongfully accused in ‘The Green’

An emotional gay drama, The Green is an honest, hard-hitting film about a well-meaning teacher in trouble. Early on in the film, a confident gay high school student makes the observation that “people always look for the easiest scapegoat when their sense of entitlement is threatened.” That line of dialog sets the movie in motion.

Jason Butler Harner stars Michael, an openly gay, happily-partnered teacher who has taken a special interest in a troubled, artistically-inclined student named Jason (Chris Bert).

It is alluded to that Jason’s family life is not very stable. His mother and stepfather (Karen Young and Bill Sage) don’t seem like the most nurturing or attentive parents. Despite warnings from his best friend and co-worker (Illeana Douglas, charming as always) about getting too involved in the lives of students, Michael presses on. He sees potential in Jason and cares about his well-being.

Unfortunately for all parties involved, a heated public argument ensues during a school art show. Jason’s parents soon begin to suspect that Michael’s interest in their son may have lurid undertones.

It doesn’t take long before Michael becomes the town pariah, accused of carrying on a predatory relationship with his student. Adding insult to injury, his relationship with Daniel (Cheyenne Jackson), his loving partner of 15 years, is thrown into jeopardy when authorities start investigating the pair as partners in sordid crime.

The pair’s only major ally comes in the form of Karen (Julia Ormond), a tough-as-nails attorney who believes in Michael’s innocence (and also happens to be gay). Karen is ready for a dirty fight – planning to expose Jason’s parents as ethically-bankrupt opportunists. But, Michael’s refusal to cause harm to this already struggling family might prevent him from clearing his name.

A provocative drama with a stellar cast, The Green is playing now on Dekkoo. Check out the trailer below.