Category: International Film

Short Film Spotlight: Paper Airplanes

A teen boy’s spiritual and sexual awakenings coincide in the poetic 17-minute short Paper Airplanes.

Santiago Cabrera stars in the film at Mateo, a young man who is living with his casually overbearing aunt while grappling with the loss of his mother.

In this vulnerable state, he finds himself unexpectedly connecting with the spiritual realm. Suddenly he’s being followed by the ghost of Enrique (Alex Orellana), a recently deceased classmate, who is rumored to have killed himself after his parents discovered that he was gay.

Comforted by Enrique’s spectral presence, the two grow increasingly closer. But is Mateo really experiencing supernatural visions – or is this his mind’s way of dealing with his own grief and repressed desires?

A meditative film from Ecuadorian writer-director Rob Mendoza, Paper Airplanes is a thoughtful and romantic queer ghost story, as well as a coming-of-age fable about growing into your own skin and learning to say goodbye.

Watch the trailer for Paper Airplanes below. The full short film is now available on Dekkoo.

In ‘Drifter,’ a young gay man reinvents himself in the hedonistic party capital of Europe

Dreaming of a life of urban gay bliss, a 22-year-old moves to Berlin to be with his more cosmopolitan photographer boyfriend, but finds his life completely upended when he’s dumped shortly after arriving.

Drifter stars Lorenz Hochhuth as Moritz, the 22-year-old in question. Alone in a new city where he doesn’t know anyone – and with little more than a clarinet to his name – Moritz is pushed to reimagine his life as a single gay man in the hedonistic party capital of Europe.

Trading his small town appearance for a more gender-fluid/classic punk aesthetic, Moritz dives into the city’s vibrating techno world and learns to express his repressed desires, but he also starts to lose himself in drugs and emotional alienation.

With the help of his queer friends, he soon develops his own ideas of sexuality and masculinity, leading him a little closer to finding himself.

From first-time feature director Hannes Hirsch, Drifter is a riveting film that looks beneath the seductive surface of a hedonistic culture, revealing the actual people who live and thrive within.

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

‘The Schoolmaster Games’ is a wildly original and deeply homoerotic high school melodrama

Based on a novel by Swedish author Kristofer Folkhammar and inspired by both American high school movies and gay porn, the unusual genre hybrid The Schoolmaster Games brings to life a vibrant alternate reality where sexuality is freely expressed, but manipulative power games are always at play just beneath the surface.

Desires are running wild at Saint Sebastian, a high school populated entirely by gay men. At this school, everyone is completely free to express their sexuality however they choose.

At the start of the year, much-desired heartthrob Charles (Christian Arnold) enters into a secret sexual power game orchestrated by the strict schoolmaster (Johan Ehn) – who is tortured by memories of his own repression during a time before the erotic acceptance that currently prevails at the school.

When the competition for the prestigious “Winter Procession” tightens, friendships crack and their whole utopian existence begins to fall apart piece by piece.

From Swedish director Ylva Forner, The Schoolmaster Games is a colorful, original and thrillingly homoerotic high school melodrama like no film ever before.

Watch the trailer for The Schoolmaster Games below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Visionary director João Pedro Rodrigues returns with the stylish genre-hybrid ‘Will-O’-the-Wisp’

From visionary queer auteur João Pedro Rodrigues, the acclaimed Portuguese director behind the The Ornothologist and the provocative gay classic O Fantasma, comes a bold and wildly unpredictable new musical fantasia.

Beginning in the year 2069, Will-O’-the-Wisp follows Portugal’s fictional King Alfredo, who, on his deathbed, starts to recall the social activism and erotic exploits of his youth in the early years of the 21st century.

As a fresh-faced, curly-haired young prince played by Mauro Costa, Alfredo shocked his riotously wealthy royal family by deciding to become a volunteer firefighter –in part to serve his community, but also as an excuse to be surrounded by a bevy of hot, beefy fellow firemen.

When he meets Alfonso (André Cabral), an alluring young instructor, new possibilities open and the pair become deeply immersed in their desire for one another.

This sexually-frank new film – a heady mix of historical tableau, musical comedy, queer romance and post-colonial provocation – maintains a joyous energy while examining heavy themes. Rodrigues manages to confront the inherited ills of our modern day while also indulging in delightfully bawdy humor and plenty of song-and-dance flights of fancy.

Watch the trailer for Will-O’-the-Wisp below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Angelo

Twenty-something Angelo (Eduard Galiá) is suffering from a severe case of heartbreak after his longtime girlfriend leaves him for another man. Now he’s forced to find a new version of his life without her in an unfamiliar city.

Just when he thinks all hope is gone, he meets up with Marco (Sergio Pérez), an old school friend. When the two end up in bed together and a cautious, but passionate sexual encounter begins, it reawakens Angelo’s spirit and gets him to start questioning everything he thought he knew about himself.

Shot over only four days with a mix of both digital film and 16mm, this lovingly-crafted 27-minute short is both uplifting and incredibly sexy.

Writer-director Collen Demerez set out to make a film about the parts of discovering your sexuality that can be very healing, instead of destructive like we’ve seen a million times in movies before.

Watch a teaser trailer for Angelo below. The full short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Get ready to go ‘Deep in Vogue’ with this documentary about the Manchester ICONS Ball

Over the course of one year, British documentary filmmakers Dennis Keighron-Foster and Amy Watson developed relationships with the house mothers and members of the local Manchester drag community – charting the buildup to the wild and wonderful ‘Manchester ICONS Vogue Ball.’

Deep in Vogue celebrates the colorful, emotional, political and deeply queer stories of the vogue scene in the United Kingdom and the many talented people involved in the community.

Synonymous with the gay ballrooms of ‘80s New York, this documentary asks why we need Vogue in Manchester now more than ever. While focusing their cameras around the Manchester ICONS Vogue Ball, the filmmakers examine important themes – like the disenfranchisement of black youth and the often reductive ways in which gay subcultures become commercialized.

Offering a deep and candid look at one welcoming community, Deep in Vogue is ultimately about people coming to love and accept themselves while finding a new family – and putting on a hell of a show in the process.

Watch the trailer for Deep in Vogue below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.