Filmed in Pakistan in a matter-of-fact style, Aadat is a bracing 13-minute short from writer-director Iqran Rasheed.
Aadat tells the story of a deeply closeted young man from a conservative Muslim family. Gripped with unrealized desires, he dares to hire an attractive young sex worker. The two spend time together alone in a room, cautiously getting closer while fully aware of the risks involved.
A devastating film about one perfectly normal young man who is looking to explore his sexuality in a forbidding Islamic country, Aadat is a sobering and heartbreaking reminder of the basic freedoms that are still not afforded to gay men in many parts of the world today.
Watch a short trailer for Aadat below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.
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.
If you could go back in time and change one of your life’s biggest regrets, would you? Could you? More importantly, should you?
The binge-worthy new series Trending Yesterday explores that very question. This independently-produced show follows a close-knit group of gay men who have all been friends since the late 1980s. Though they came of age during a more turbulent time, the group built a strong sense of community and survived society’s ups-and-downs together.
The series begins in the present day, but takes an unexpected turn when, after a celebratory night, Eric, the show’s narrator, wakes up to discover that he has somehow been transported back to 1988. He then sets out on a mission to change the things he wasn’t able to the first time around.
Employing a dual timeline, this clever, critically-acclaimed series examines the many strides we have made over the past three decades as well as the challenges that still exist within the LGBTQ community.
Taking place in two alternating time periods – the 1970s and modern day – You Are My Sunshine follows long-term partners Tom and Joe (played as younger men by Steve Salt and Jack Knight and as older men by Ernest Vernon and Charles O’Neill).
Joe, a shy young man living with his conservative father and his sister in Britain, meets the playful and charismatic Tom through work in the 1970s. There is an instant connection between the two young men. Tom’s confident personality helps Joe to come out of his shell. Meanwhile, the sudden visibility of queer rights activists starts to disturb Joe’s family. Even in the present day, though Joe and Tom have been together for decades, Joe’s sister still harbors major resentments when it comes to her brother’s sexuality.
As the younger versions of Joe and Tom worry about their love being discovered, the older versions are dealing with health issues and family strife. Through two powerful characters, writer-director David Hastings offers a message of how love and acceptance can change even the hardest of hearts.
In 1981, love was forbidden. In 1999, starting a family seemed impossible. By 2013, everything had changed.
From French filmmaker Philippe Faucon, the award-winning director behind Fatima, this amazing new three-part cinematic event takes us through each of these years.
Proud tells the stories of Charles (Frédéric Pierrot), Victor (Samuel Theis) and Diego (Julien Lopez), three generations of men, all from the same family, who represent the seismic social changes that took place within the LGBTQ community over the course of just three decades.
A three-part episodic cinema event, Proud offers up a chronology of tolerance and a portrait of one family through changing times. Cahiers du Cinema called it “one of the most exciting series of the year.” Le Parisien called it “A series that defends the fundamental rights of gay people.”
Watch the trailer for Proud below. All three installments are available now on Dekkoo.
A feature-length documentary from Israel-based British director Jake Witzenfeld, Oriented follows the lives of three gay Palestinian friends as they confront their national and sexual identities in modern Tel Aviv.
Khader is an “It Boy” and provocateur from a prominent Muslim mafia family in Tel Aviv’s neighboring Arab suburb of Jaffa. An aspiring journalist and producer, he lived for many years in the heart of Tel Aviv with his “Jew-ish” boyfriend David.
Fadi left his Christian community in northern Israel to pursue his dream of becoming a nurse. He feels that his new freedom is marred by the guilt of his nation’s tragedy. His passionate nationalism is challenged when he falls in love with an American Jew fighting in the Israeli Defense Forces.
Naeem describes himself as a Palestinian, vegetarian and feminist. Like Fadi, he comes from a Christian family in northern Israel. His time in Yafo inspired him to confront his family’s expectations and be honest with his loved ones about his sexual identity.
Determined to change their reality, the three friends form a non-violent, cultural resistance group to advocate for sexual and national equality. Meanwhile, a war is brewing that may jeopardize their best laid plans.
A stirring film which has sparked active engagement at community screenings, Oriented has inspired a great deal of discourse about LGBTQ rights, the perception of “the other” in conflict zones and the role of grassroots social activism all around the world.
Watch the trailer for Oriented below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.
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