Category: Drama

Short Film Spotlight: Sparrow

Written and directed by Welby Ings, Sparrow is a visually inventive 15-minute short film from New Zealand which follows an unusual young boy who believes he can fly.

Adorned with a set of homemade wings, he finds himself a frequent target of bullying at school. When he discovers the truth behind a family myth involving his war veteran grandfather, he finally discovers the strength to stand up to his abusers.

Visually stunning and deeply moving, Sparrow earned acclaim and awards at countless film festivals all around the globe when it was originally released in 2016.

Welby Ings recently made his feature-length debut with a boxing drama called Punch, which has also been earning a great deal of buzz at festivals over the past year and is expected to be released in the US in 2023.

Watch the trailer for Sparrow below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Once a Year on Blackpool Sands follows two coal miners and secret gay lovers during one night in 1953

Based on a stage play of the same name, Once a Year on Blackpool Sands is a powerful new British drama inspired by real events – regarding an extraordinary night in 1953, several days after the Queen’s Coronation.

Macaulay Cooper and Kyle Brooks star as Tommy and Eddy, coal miners and secret gay lovers who spend their holiday at a quirky bed and breakfast in Blackpool, along with a few other “alternative” members of society. Together, they summon up the courage to do the first fabled walk towards Gay Pride.

Written and directed by Karlton Parris, the film offers a rare glimpse into an underrepresented era in LGBTQ history. Touching and poignant, Once a Year on Blackpool Sands portrays the lives of working-class gay men and the women who supported them in a time when homosexuality was a crime.

Watch the trailer for Once a Year on Blackpool Sands below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Alan Cumming and Garrett Dillahunt star in the emotional period piece Any Day Now

From writer-director Travis Fine, Any Day Now is a fact-based drama starring Alan Cumming and Garrett Dillahunt. Set in the late-1970s, the film follows a gay couple who take in a child with down syndrome, played by Isaac Levya.

Once their new living arrangement is discovered by the local authorities, the men find that they must fight their way through an unjust and incredibly discriminatory legal system to adopt the child they have come to love as their own.

A deeply moving drama which takes a look at a difficult time in history, Any Day Now earned rave reviews from critics and won audience awards at over ten film festivals when it first made the rounds in 2012, including Tribeca where it premiered. Alan Cumming was also given Best Actor awards from Outfest, Seattle, Key West and Napa Valley film festivals.

Watch the trailer for Any Day Now below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Two bullies flirt with the wrong girl in the dark revenge comedy Groupers

Two homophobic high school bullies flirt with the wrong girl at a club in Groupers, a controversial new film from writer-director Anderson Cowan.

After picking up drunken teens Brad and Dylan (Peter Mayer-Klepchick and Cameron Duckett) in a bar, Meg (Nicole Dambro) drugs them and ties them up in an empty swimming pool at an abandoned house.

She selected them because they were inflicting homophobic terror on her gay little brother, who recently attempted suicide. Now she’s using them for her thesis project, an experiment to prove that sexuality is not a choice.

Thesis papers, online revenge, Chinese finger traps, philosophical house squatters, dim witted street thugs and grown men riding tricycles all intersect in this wild and proudly unconventional new dark comedy.

Watch the trailer for Groupers below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Intrinsic Moral Evil

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite.”

Using gorgeous cinematography, quick editing, slow motion effects and three immensely talented performers, Intrinsic Moral Evil is a captivating 10-minute dance piece brought to life in the most cinematic way possible.

Beginning with a personal opening narration, the dance tells a story of masculine identity and growing up. Three dancers play games with the viewer’s perception and expectations. Are we watching a memory, a dream, the search for identity or possibly all three things at once?

Filmed in 2013 in the Netherlands by writer/director Harm Weistra, Intrinsic Moral Evil is a layered piece of work which invites the audience to make their own interpretations while marveling at the movement on screen.

Watch a short trailer for Intrinsic Moral Evil below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.