‘Center of My World’ – Coming to Dekkoo tomorrow, 9/26/17!
Category: Drama
New This Week – 9/22/17
Born in Guatemala, Marco Ovando discovered his love of photography while studying science and communications. Inspired by the work of Avedon, Ellen von Unwerth and Herb Ritts, he moved to New York in 1999 and quickly became a fixture on the nightlife scene. His work has appeared in such publications as Paper, OUT and The Advocate. This erotic video collection captures Ovando’s love of human expression and the beauty of the male form. The Marco Ovando Collection is now available on Dekkoo!
An outrageous and hilarious Polish import, ‘Baby Bump‘ is like a Walt Disney film directed by David Lynch. The absolutely gorgeous and equally mind-blowing film wowed audiences at the Venice Biennale, where it received the coveted Queer Lion prize.
When two boys from different social backgrounds connect via the internet they go on an adventure into the suburbs around Paris. Lost among architectural projects from times when the future was still bright, they nourish their own personal utopia. Watch ‘Utopies’ now on Dekkoo!
Having given up on school and most of his family, Shou lives in an apartment with his younger brother, Ryou, and rarely leaves. Things start to change once Ritsu arrives. A young designer back in Japan after studying abroad in New York, Ritsu works for Shou’s father… and has been given permission to stay with his two unruly sons. ‘Forbidden Love’ is now streaming on Dekkoo!
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Coming next week: Phil has a crazy family… and the handsome, mysterious new boy at school proves to be the perfect distraction
DEKKOO DISPATCH 036 – ‘BOYS’
Title – ‘Boys’
Director – Mischa Kamp
Starring – Gijs Blom, Ko Zandvliet, Jonah Smulders, Ton Kas
Release Date – 2014
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Monday of next week we’re releasing one of the sexiest gay romantic films of 2017, ‘Center of My World‘ almost a month before it hits DVD! To prepare you for the insane sexiness you’ll be checking out next week I thought a small appetizer would be a good idea to ‘whet’ your appetite.
‘Boys‘ is a captivating coming-of-age/romance from the Netherlands. Originally produced as a TV movie it was so well-made that the producers were able to expand its reach to theaters in the Netherlands and eventually it made it’s way to other countries as well. Could it be because of the two incredibly good looking leads? Gijs Blom & Ko Zandvliet are extremely magnetic by themselves, but together they present a vision of what young gay love really will look like in the future.
Sieger lives with his father and brother. It quick becomes apparent that Sieger is living with the recent grief of his mother. In order to tune out the tensions that exist between his motorcycle-obsessed brother getting into fights with his dad Sieger participates in track & field with his local high school. One day a new kid joins the team, Marc, which inspires a new array of feelings to confuse Sieger even further. Pretty soon afterwards they share their first kiss while swimming at the local lake. Marc seems confident in his attraction, but Sieger struggles to accept the relationship.
Making the film shine even brighter is brilliant cinematography and toe-tapping musical selections from M83, Foo Fighters, and Katy Perry!
I know the wait for ‘Center of My World‘ has felt like forever, but it’s almost here! Watch ‘Boys‘ to tie you over 😉
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Watch it with: A friend who loves romantic films
Mix it with: A glass of white wine
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New This Week – 9/15/17
Aspiring actors Adam and Ben live together and often support each other as male hustlers to make ends meet. When their pimp offers them an opportunity to perform in a cabaret show, they soon learn that the world of underground theater can be just as strange, perverted and dangerous as having sex for money. ‘Glamour Dolls’ is now available to watch on Dekkoo!
Inspired by the alarming increase in real-life tragedies involving high school bullying and suicide, ‘Teens Like Phil‘ tells the story of a gay teen, Phil, and his former friend, Adam, who brutally bullies him.
‘But She’s My Best Friend‘ is a gay comedy series about two gay best friends, Christian and Joey, and their lives in West Hollywood. Binge watch all 11-episodes now on Dekkoo.com!
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Coming next week – “Like something David Lynch would have made if he were an angry Polish kid.” – Guidelive
One Great Gay Shot – ‘I’m Fine’ Season 2 (Currently in production)
We have been receiving some photos from the set of ‘I’m Fine‘ season 2 which is currently filming in Los Angeles. We love this shot of Lee Doud who plays Jeff and Michael Litchfield, a newcomer to the series, and wanted to share. Enjoy!
The Dekkoo-original series returns in early 2018.
New This Week – 9/8/17
‘Popporn‘ is a comedic series where comedians roast gay porn scenes. What’s weird, what’s strange, what’s hilarious, what’s gross, what’s surprising, what’s enticing? Nothing will escape their comedic wrath!
When Ash invites his ex-boyfriend on a road trip to the Florida Keys, he doesn’t mention that their weekend getaway is actually a dangerous drug deal. ‘Stay‘ is a stylish and sexy short film from director Brandon Zuck.
After finding his way to Manila and working numerous odd jobs, Juan Reyes now works as a live-sex performer at an underground gay bar. When an arrest forces Juan to rethink his life he must say good-bye to everything he knows. Watch ‘The Game of Juan’s Life’ now on Dekkoo!
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Coming next week: A shy high school kid is pushed to the limit by his bully and former crush in this tense short thriller
DEKKOO DISPATCH 034 – ‘STAY’ AND ‘FOUR’
Title – ‘Four‘
Director – Joshua Sanchez
Starring – Wendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, Aja Naomi King, E.J. Bonilla
Release Date – 2012
Title – ‘Stay‘
Director – Brandon Zuck
Starring – Brandon Tyler Harris, Julian Brand
Release Date – 2013
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Happy September everyone. I doubt many of you have children, but if you do I hope you’re very much enjoying having them off of your hands and back in school! And if you’re still in school then I’m so very sorry. Maybe these two films will cheer you up!
We’ve brought you two short films now from Brandon Zuck (‘The Happy Ones‘ ‘Goodbye Blue Sky‘) and this one is my favorite so far. ‘Stay‘ is an intimate drama (with a hint of action that we’ve become used to with Zuck’s work) taking place in the Florida keys (having the convertible top down while it’s raining is soooo Florida) concerning friendship, drugs, and intimacy issues. Ash tries and tricks his ex-boyfriend (Jacks) into joining him for a road trip that’s actually a drug deal. Once Jacks finds out he’s infuriated and only calms down when there’s an offer of money (sigh. typical dude-bro). The rest of the film is spent with discussions about their relationship – a lot of which feels very honest and heartwarming. After researching the film a bit more I found out that Brandon Zuck is attempting to make it into a feature film – very cool!
Continuing on with the theme of character-studies our featured feature film of the week is ‘Four‘ – a heartfelt drama about 4 people living their lives and trying to figure out how love works. The film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and took home an ensemble acting award for all 4 actors. For a tight 75-minute film it’s an incredibly honest piece of work and one definitely worth watching.
June – A young man struggling with his homosexuality who turns to anonymous online dating sites to find some kind of happiness.
Joe – A hardworking family man. Everyone he knows would describe him as honest, happy, and smart, but he hides his homosexuality from everyone and seems disgusted with gay men that aren’t him or those he holds in his favor.
Abigayle – Joe’s daughter who has to take care of her ill mother when her father is ‘away on business’.
Dexter – Half bad boy / half poet who wants to find love. A bit of a slacker, but charming nonetheless.
Over the course of one night these characters talk, kiss, scream, cry, and try to interpret the world around them. The most interesting plot line is definitely June & Joe who’s interactions sometimes feel like spoken-word poetry. Joe’s outgoing nature is the perfect compliment to June’s shy bordering on mute personality. I do wish the movie went a little further in its investigation of Joe’s family. There’s an easy 10 minutes that could have been added to it, but my guess is that the filmmaker wants us to understand how secrets can congeal in a nuclear family and remain undisclosed. Regardless this is a very moving film that I think you’ll all very much fall in love with.
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Watch ’em with: You and yourself
Mix it with: A drink that reminds you of your first love
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DEKKOO DISPATCH 033 – ‘TONIGHT IT’S YOU’ AND ‘SEBASTIANE’
Title – ‘Sebastiane‘
Director – Paul Humfress, Derek Jarman
Starring – Leonardo Treviglio, Barney James, Neil Kennedy, Richard Warwick
Release Date – 1976
Title – ‘Tonight It’s You‘
Director – Dominic Haxton
Starring – Jake Robbins, Roy Allen III, George Alvarez, Ian Lerch
Release Date – 2016
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Well boys, it’s almost the end of summer and to celebrate/mourn we’ve got two films that will help to make the transition as smooth as possible.
To celebrate the coming of fall (which in turn means Halloween!) we’re premiering the Dominic Haxton (‘We Are Animals‘ ‘Tonight It’s Me‘) directed horror-themed short film ‘Tonight It’s You‘! It’s always fantastic when there’s a new entry into the very deserted category of Queer Horror and ‘Tonight It’s You‘ is a 17-minute sexy thrill ride through hookup app anxiety, intimacy, and religion. What starts off as a hot hookup for CJ in the woods turns into a fight for his life by the end of the film. I was lucky enough to see this film on the big screen and holy shittttt I was so surprised at just how scared I was. Definitely check this out!
And if you’re the type that’s clinging onto summer well then have no fear because shirtless soldiers speaking Latin are here! Enter the world of ‘Sebastiane‘ – an incredibly homo-erotic take on the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian by filmmakers Paul Humfress and Derek Jarman. While you might not have heard of the former, the latter is an incredibly influential and important director in the world of Queer Cinema. Derek Jarman passed away of AIDS in 1994, but left behind an incredible array of cinema and art. His most successful film was ‘Caravaggio’, but his other films such as the experimental film ‘Blue’ (1993 – A film where the only video is a blue screen and the audio is a series of voices including the director’s describing his failing health [he’d gone partially blind at that point]) and the gay-activism themed ‘Edward II’ (1991) are all incredible achievements and works of true art.
‘Sebastiane‘ follows the Roman soldier Sebastianus who after falling out of the emperor’s favors is exiled to a remote garrison of soldiers to work. What follows is fellow soldiers falling over themselves with their lust for Sebastiane, lots of whipping, and bros being bros around the campfire. The movie definitely has strengths and weaknesses. The idea to have all the actors speak Latin was very academic and happened years before ‘The Passion of the Christ’. Also you can definitely see the early stages of Derek Jarman’s fascination with placing contemporary fashions and objects in an era where it sticks out like a sore thumb. The men are also extremely sexy and naked practically the whole time. Probably my only critique of it is that it does meander a bit. It shows its age in that because it was made for a gay audience that was desperate for this kind of overt homo-erotic sexuality in a film, the filmmakers were more concerned with that then with plot and they figured their audience would have the same feelings.
Regardless ‘Sebastiane‘ is a work of art and deserves to be watched with that in mind while at the same time observing the beginnings of Derek Jarman’s storied film career.
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Watch ’em with: A friend who likes to be scared and watch artsy films
Mix it with: A red wine
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New This Week – 8/25/17
Taking place over the course of four years (on four consecutive Valentine’s Days) this achingly romantic indie from Filipino auteur Adolfo Alix Jr. takes an intimate look at the complicated relationship between two college buddies. ‘4 Days’ is available now, one month before it’s release on DVD!
‘Follow Me‘ tells the story of Jasper. He is a young man who has to weigh the overwhelming desire for his first love against the possible angst of rejection.
Based in 300 A.D., this controversial 1976 classic from directors Paul Humfress and Derek Jarman follows Sebastianus, a Roman guard who is exiled to a remote outpost populated entirely by men. Weakened by their desires, the men turn to homoeroticism to satisfy their needs, which tests Sebastianus and his deep Christian beliefs. Watch ‘Sebastiane’ now on Dekkoo!
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Coming next week – ‘Walking Dead’ star Norman Reedus is a broody cutie in this ‘90s indie about a straight boy learning to accept his new friend’s sexuality.
DEKKOO DISPATCH 032 – ‘FOLLOW ME’ AND ‘LOVE IS THE DEVIL’
Title – ‘Love Is The Devil‘
Director – John Maybury
Starring – Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig, Tilda Swinton, Anne Lambton
Release Date – 1998
Title – ‘Follow Me‘
Director – Anthony Schatteman
Starring – Ezra Fieremans, Maarten Ketels, Lien Maes
Release Date – 2015
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“I feel ever so strongly that an artist must be nourished by his passions and his despairs. These things alter an artist whether for the good or the better or the worse. It must alter him. The feelings of desperation and unhappiness are more useful to an artist than the feeling of contentment, because desperation and unhappiness stretch your whole sensibility.”
-Francis Bacon
Well hey there and welcome to tortured-artist-Wednesday! Today we’ve got two movies that focus on angsty artists in love or at least lust.
‘Follow Me‘ is the short yet touching story of a young artist struggling to figure out if the man of his affections is also the man of his dreams. Shot in fragments we see Jasper honing his craft in the classroom and his studio, working in a bathhouse, following his teacher around town, and having sex with said teacher. The incredible score really elevates this quietly shot short film to transcendent heights and makes the mind wander through issues of love, homophobia, and loyalty. Plus it helps that both characters are superrrr cute.
Speaking of cute look which famous handsome man plays gay in ‘Love Is The Devil‘: DANIEL CRAIG! AHH! And he’s naked in it? Whoa.
But seriously ‘Love Is The Devil‘ is a heavy-duty bio-pic about Francis Bacon, a legendary British painter who scandalized the art world with his intense grotesquely sexual yet beautiful oil paintings paired with his well-known penchant for sleazy homosexual encounters with rough trade. Yes Francis Bacon was definitely a bottom and Derek Jacobi plays him fearlessly as a man who isn’t at all afraid of expressing his sexual depravity:
“When I went into the house of pleasure, I didn’t stay in the room where they celebrate acceptable modes of loving in the bourgeois style. I went into the rooms which are kept secret and I leaned and lay on their beds. I went into the rooms which are kept secret which they consider it shameful even to name. But there is no such shame for me because then, what sort of poet, and what sort of artist would I be?”
-Francis Bacon, ‘Love Is The Devil’
So where does Daniel Craig feature in all this artsy-fartsy sexual psychodrama? Well he plays Bacon’s lover naturally. Late one night Francis discovers a man trying to rob him. That man turns out to be George Dyer, a working-class Brit and after a proposition of coming to his bed for ‘whatever he wants’ they become inseparable. Great way to meet a lover right? Well, that story is actually a myth, dreamt of by Bacon, but why not? It’s a better story than meeting in a pub which is where they actually did meet in real life. Dyer went on to become a muse for Francis and modeled for him several times.
The visuals in this movie are incredible! One of the coolest set-pieces is Francis Bacon’s studio. They actually re-created it inch-by-inch. It looks incredibly similar to the real-life studio. Also of note are the camera techniques to re-create Bacon-esque moving images. Also if all of that didn’t entirely convince you we’re also offering TILDA SWINTON! She’s great in it as always 🙂
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Watch ’em with: Your muse.
Mix it with: The classic drink of tortured artists – Absinthe.
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Discover great gay stories. 