Category: Gay Rights

An all-star cast brings Martin Sherman’s award-winning stage play ‘Bent’ to the screen

Clive Owen, Mick Jagger, Ian McKellen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz and Paul Bettany star in Bent, a gut-wrenching adaptation of the award-winning stage play by Martin Sherman.

Originally released in 1997, the film is set in 1930s Berlin. We follow Max (Owen), a promiscuous gay man who sleeps with a German SA officer, only to see him killed by his fellow Nazis the next morning.

Refusing an offer of new papers for fear of leaving his boyfriend behind, he’s found by the Gestapo and soon bound for Dachau. Once there, Max makes friends with a fellow gay man, who shows him that dignity lies in acknowledging one’s true nature. As the pair become lovers through dialog and the power of their imagination, they reckon with identity and struggle to maintain their dignity in the face of unspeakable persecution.

The original play, which premiered in London in 1979 before opening on Broadway the following year, was revived many times, most significantly by Sean Mathias, who directed this film adaptation as well.

Though much time had passed between the play’s debut and this film’s release, much was still not known about the experiences of LGBTQ+ victims of the Nazi regime. By the time of the film’s release in 1997, it was the first feature to tackle the subject head on. Today, Bent remains a riveting and important record of our understanding of this terrible history, a valuable preservation of a significant work of theater and a deeply moving cinematic work in its own right.

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

Alan Cumming is exceptional in the thought-provoking generational drama ‘After Louie’

An award-winning gay drama featuring a knockout lead performance by Alan Cumming, After Louie explores the contradictions of modern gay life and history through Sam, a man desperate to understand how he and his community got to where they are today.

As an AIDS activist and member of ACT UP in the ’80s and ’90s, Sam witnessed the deaths of far too many close friends and lovers. Battle-wounded and struggling with survivor’s guilt, Sam now resents the complacency of his former comrades and derides what he sees as the younger generation’s indifference to the politics of sex and death.

When he meets Braeden, a seductive young man played by Zachary Booth, during a late-night outing at the bar, he quickly is able to lower Sam’s guard. As the pair become increasingly intimate, an intergenerational relationship blossoms between them – one capable of reawakening Sam’s artistic soul and reviving his wilted heart.

Through this unconventional romance, Sam is finally forced to deal with the trauma that informs his past, his present and the pair’s unknown future.

Watch the trailer for After Louie below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘This is Ballroom’ takes a backstage look at the Brazilian drag and queer performance scene

Conceived in New York during the 1960s, when two Black queens left the white-dominated pageant contests behind to create their own scene, ballroom culture has long been a space of freedom, expression, and transgression.

Some fifty years later, the ballroom scene in Brazil is thriving, with houses across the country teaching the art of shade.

Directed by queer Brazilian artists Juru and Vitã, This Is Ballroom stages a real-life ball in a city warehouse. Riotously soundtracked, the film only pauses for breath to illuminate the lives of its trans-led cast. Away from the glitz of the dance floor, these interviews reveal simmering racial and gender tensions.

Capturing the spirit of a new, emerging generation, This Is Ballroom celebrates this energetic subculture as a bounteous and transformative space for queer people of color.

Watch the trailer for This is Ballroom below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Never Too Old

Directed by Morgan Martini and written by Rolando Zee, the 17-minute short Never Too Old is a life affirming testament to love

Florio and Jesse (Gregory Niebel and screenwriter Rolando Zee) have lived together as lovers for over 45 years. Florio had expressed a desire to get married once same-sex marriage had been legalized, but Jesse held firm to his decision never to tie the knot.

Jesse’s mind starts to change when the law does, however, and he proposes. A small, intimate wedding follows. In their married life they will, of course, face the challenges that come with old age, but they will do so as a committed couple.

Entering marriage in their eighties, the two men offer up a testament to hope and a statement of courage and love.

Watch the trailer for Never Too Old below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Studio One Forever’ takes a deep dive into a unique time and place in queer history

From 1974 to 1993, Studio One and its adjoining live music venue, The Backlot, became symbols of hope and community for gay men during tumultuous times.

Amidst the rise of gay rights, disco’s heyday and the devastating AIDS crisis, the club offered sanctuary from rampant homophobia and police oppression. Studio One was where legends like Chita Rivera and Eartha Kitt performed, and rising stars like Roseanne Barr and Rosie O’Donnell ignited their careers.

Through personal accounts, the new documentary Studio One Forever delves into the nightclub’s history, examining how the backdrop of a progressing gay liberation clashed with 1980s conservatism and the escalating AIDS nightmare.

A testament to an important era, this unique and insightful new doc from director Marc Saltarelli immortalizes the club’s legacy for future generations.

Watch the trailer for Studio One Forever below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Avant-Drag!’ gets intimate with a tight-knit group of Athens-based drag performers

With police brutality and homophobic violence against LGBTQ+ individuals in Greece on the rise, the new documentary Avant-Drag! offers an exhilarating look at ten Athenian drag performers who deconstruct gender, nationalism, belonging, and identity while facing transphobia and racism.

As entertaining as it is thought-provoking, this new film from Greek director Fil Ieropoulos challenges societal norms and reshapes perceptions about LGBTQ+ culture by capturing the intimate lives of a tightly-knit group of drag performers, proving that being ‘othered’ has never felt so familiar.

The film captures the vibrancy of Athens’ underground drag scene and its role in pushing boundaries and expressing dissident identities. It goes beyond the mainstream representations of drag, focusing on more radical, explicitly political, and raw performances.

Juxtaposing magical realism, political commentary, and outrageous performances, Avant-Drag! is a love letter to Athens – a city that can be as oppressive as it can be a refuge for art freaks and a hot-bed for creativity.

Watch the trailer for Avant-Drag! below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Born for You’ tells the incredibly moving true story of Italy’s first adoptive gay parent

From Italian director Fabio Mollo, Born for You tells the beautiful and touching true story of Luca (Pierluigi Gigante), a gay, single, Catholic man who, in 2017, adopted Alba, a child with Down syndrome who had been left in hospital shortly after being born.

Thirty heterosexual families rejected her before the court decided to entrust her to Luca. With this new precedent set, the legal foster care register for single gay men was inaugurated in Italy.

Luca may have been the first single gay parent in Italy to successfully adopt a daughter, but this was not a charitable gesture or a fight against the system… he simply wanted to start a family.

Beautifully shot and powerfully acted, the film weaves between Luca’s present-day struggles and flashbacks to his youth, creating a deeply intimate portrait of love, loss and the fight for equality and acceptance.

Born for You is a profound reflection on the transformative and triumphant power of love and the potential of LGBTQ+ families everywhere.

Watch the trailer for Born for You below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.