Category: Drama
Short Film Spotlight: Tomorrow
As the new millennium was approaching (and some pesky, much-buzzed-about technological anxieties hung heavy on our minds), New Year’s Eve in 1999 became a deeply memorable occasion. The leads of the stellar short film Tomorrow have a slightly different reason to remember that particular evening.
Tomorrow finds college-bound best buddies Clark (Daniel Rashid) and Trevor (Zachary Roozen) concerned about the future of their friendship. It becomes clear early on that Clark is secretly in love with Trevor… and too afraid to say anything about it.
When the two meet a local girl and end up attending a pool party, Trevor asks Clark to help him win her affections. He reluctantly complies, but when said girl turns out to have more of an interest in Clark, the friends learn that jealousy is a two-way street. Soon, their relationship is tested in ways neither could have imagined – resulting in some explosive revelations.
Featuring terrific performances from its game young cast, this tense and emotional film from writer Joshua Paul Johnson and director Leandro Tadashi is a skillfully-made 13-minute coming-of-age gem. The film is presented by the USC School of Cinematic Arts, which is known for turning out talented artists – and it certainly shows in the quality here. We can’t wait to see what these filmmakers get up to in the future.
You can stream Tomorrow TODAY on Dekkoo.
Revisit the controversial 1994 drama ‘Priest’
Not quite as incendiary as it was when it was first released in 1994, or as the theme might suggest, Priest tells the moving, truly provocative story of one clergyman’s struggle for sexual identity and religious idealism.
Linus Roache gives a stirring performance as Father Greg, a newly transferred priest assigned to a parish in a working-class neighborhood of Liverpool. As he comes into conflict with the liberal Father Matthew (Tom Wilkinson, terrific as always), whi is having a scandalous affair with the housekeeper (Cathy Tyson), Father Greg tries to come to terms with his emerging sexuality.
As the heart of this classic film is also the touching story of a sexually abused teen (Christine Tremarco) who confides in Father Greg, thus engaging him in a crisis on conscience.
A remarkably compelling debate on religious dogma, one intended to provoke thought and stir your emotions, Priest made a whole lot of waves when its premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (where it won the People’s Choice Award) back in 1994 – and went onto a wide release in early 1995. The film was loudly condemned by the Catholic Church in Ireland, who called for a ban. Using sound judgement, the Irish Film Censor Board decided to go ahead and allow it to be released… on Easter weekend, no less. This marked one of the first major disagreements between the Church and the Board.
Priest is streaming now on Dekkoo.
New This Week – 8/10/18
A homosexual Catholic priest finds out during confessional that a young girl is being sexually abused by her father, and has to decide how to deal with both that secret and his own. ‘Priest’ is now available to stream on Dekkoo!
On Josh and Greg’s first date, they quickly realize that the generational divide between them is the least of their worries. The gay short film ‘Call Your Father’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!
Two gay men celebrate their 25th anniversary by traveling across the country to get married in every state that will let them. The documentary ‘Married and Counting’ is now available to stream on Dekkoo!
____________________________
Coming next week – Matthias lives in Berlin. Matthias likes techno. Matthew likes Matthias. Matthew wants Matthias. Matthew wants to be Matthias.
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!
______________________
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!
___________________
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.
Discover great gay stories. 