‘Brothers of the Night’ arrives on Dekkoo this month!
Category: International Film
DEKKOO DISPATCH 042 – ‘PYOTR495′
Title – ‘Pyotr495‘
Director – Blake Mawson
Starring – Alex Ozerov, Alanna Bale, Juliana Semenova, Max Rositsan
Release Date – 2016
______________________
How was everyone’s Halloween festivities last night? Did you have to take the day off work to recover? Over here at Dekkoo we’re still clinging onto the vapors of October with this week’s short film that really packs a wallop: ‘Pyotr495‘.
The beginning of ‘Pyotr’ starts out simple enough, a really really cute guy named Pyotr (played by Alex Ozerov) is cruising on Grindr one night and is invited over to an older muscle stud’s apartment (decorated in terrible/amazing Russian fashion), but since this is a horror film he of course runs into some trouble, namely a few anti-gay Russian Nationalists that believe that it’s their responsibility to rid Russia of ‘degenerates’ like the gays. A twist towards the end makes the short film extremely enjoyable 😉
There are lots of reasons why this short film has played all over the world: great direction, fantastic cinematography, a great horror twist, and a really cute lead to name more than a few, but it’s the films social commentary about LGBTQ bullying that really ties everything together. The films starts with a message, stylized like the beginning of a Disney fairy tale: “Russia, 2014 – The country’s military has been ordered to invade the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, while the newly-instated LGBT Propaganda Law makes it illegal to present gay life in Russia as normal. President Vladamir Putin’s approval rating is at a six-year high.”
This film paints a reality for many LGBTQ people living in Russia. They don’t feel safe in the same spaces that most of us in the U.S. feel safe in. The wrong hookup can lead to devastating consequences. Charlie David from Border2Border (who helped bring Pyotr to a wider audience online) interviewed the director Blake Mawson and asked a question about why the film is so important in this day and age:
With what we’ve seen is happening in Chechnya with the anti-gay purge and concentration camps for gay men, these human rights abuses by Chechen authorities where journalists covering the story are receiving death threats and being forced to flee the country – this is obviously a very clear sign that things are not getting any better and are in fact worsening in many parts of the globe. While I’m not claiming that our short film is solving any of world problems, I do think it is important that we use our voice as artists and as people in any way possible to draw attention to these injustices and continue to raise awareness.
I think if I can use genre-type film to put an audience in the shoes of the people who are experiencing this type of terror and hatred, make them uncomfortable and have them realize that this is actually not so make-believe in the end, that this type of horror is real – then we can begin to open people’s eyes and reach an audience in unexpected ways.
Check out ‘Pyotr495‘ tonight and do your part in kicking the asses of Russian bigots!!
____________________________
Watch it with: Your horror buddies.
Mix it with: Russian Vodka of course!
____________________________
DEKKOO DISPATCH 041 – ‘FURIOUS DESIRES’
Title – ‘Furious Desires‘
Directors – Simone Bozzelli, Denisse Quintero, Ricky Mastro, Rodrigo Alvarez Flores, Fabio Leal
Starring – Edilson Silva, Carlos Eduardo Ferraz, Gregorio Musatti, Jose Pescina, Hoze Melendez, Fabio Leal
Release Date – 2017
______________________
Just one more week until Halloween!! Do you have your costume picked out yet for that gay rager? Since I’m a bit of a movie nerd I think my Halloween celebrations will be quite classical and consist of pumpkin carving, movie watching, and scaring as many trick-or-treaters as possible with a ‘Goodnight Mommy’ mask I have somewhere in my closet.
This week on the dispatch I’m diving into the year’s sexiest collection of short films: ‘Furious Desires‘. The collection covers the gamut from first love to the perils of immigration to Mexican coming-of-age rituals. There are five in total. I’ll break ’em down below and I guess I’ll give them a rating too, why not!
1. ‘Daytime Doorman’ – Well if you like nudity this is the short film for you! Marcelo is your typical constantly horny Brazilian guy who loves to hang out with friends and party. Marcio is a little more reserved and is the doorman of Marcelo’s building. When Marcelo invites the ‘straight’ Marcio out for a drink they end up hooking up which starts a string of hot (and sometimes sweet) encounters. I enjoyed all the sex, but I couldn’t really connect with the main character. He’s definitely painted as a bit ‘ditzy’ which did annoy me slightly. But like I said earlier – very sexy and tons of nudity!
3/5
2. ‘Xavier’ – This is a very sweet film about a father who while trying to understand why his son is being anti-social at school comes to the realization that he might be gay. The evidence presents itself to him as he spies his shy son suddenly smiling and opening up to an older boy, but his theory is confirmed when he invites family friends over who bring a boy that Xavier can’t keep his eyes off of. The father’s understanding and acceptance of his son’s feelings is really adorable and makes the short film a gem.
4/5
3. ‘The Other Side’ – Probably the highlight of the collection, ‘The Other Side’ covers a wealth of topics in its short run time including immigration, closeted relationships, and young love. Felipe & Claudio meet randomly while cruising on a bus and eventually fall in adorable puppy love. After shit goes down Felipe is forced to make the decision between staying home or following his love across the border to ‘The Other Side’.
5/5
4. ‘The Tigers Fight’ – I always enjoy films that feature a heavy dose of history and culture and this one does that by exploring the customs involving the transition from childhood to manhood and also pledging your romantic interests towards another. The story focuses on Nicolas as he prepares for his ‘Tiger Fight’, a custom that encourages young men to spar with each other in full costume which by doing so invigorates the spirits to provide water for crops. He gets help from his best friend Pablo who is still mourning the death of his father. The short film has a great balance of family life, village life, cultures, customs, and boys wrestling in the rain 😉
4/5
5. ‘Loris is Fine’ – I’m a sucker for gorgeous cinematography and gorgeous guys and this Italian short film has both! Sadly that’s about all it has in my opinion. The main character (while he is extremely hot) is self-absorbed like whoa and pretends to have a boyfriend (Or is he real? Can someone enlighten me??) who’s HIV positive, but can’t love him fully until he’s HIV positive as well which then leads to Loris inviting HIV positive men over so he can seroconvert. I don’t think it’s the worst thing ever, but I just didn’t understand a lot of what was going on. Oh well.
2/5
So there you have it! A nice strong collection of sexy short films that you should definitely binge tonight or this weekend.
____________________________
Watch it with: A bunch of friends that love short films
Mix it with: White wine all around!
____________________________
New This Week – 10/20/17
Intense and deliciously homoerotic, ‘A Closer Walk With Thee‘ is an award-winning new thriller follows Jordan, a strange young Christian missionary who gets caught watching his handsome and equally young Pastor take a shower. Disturbed by these “sinful” urges, Pastor Eli becomes convinced that Jordan is under the influence of a demonic force. The two men get unusually close as an amateur, bizarrely erotic exorcism soon begins!
In the gay short film ‘The Morning After‘, Harry’s world is turned upside down when,after a drunken night out he awakens to discover a naked man in his bed.
From director Michael J. Saul, the prolific filmmaker behind ‘The Surface‘, ‘True Love’ and ‘Go Go Reject‘ comes ‘The Daydreamer’s Notebook‘, an anthology of seven short, experimental works. These visually inventive short films reflect the filmmaker’s obsession with daydreaming in the work he’s created over the past 40 years.
___________________________
Coming next week: An erotic an luxurious feast for the eyes.
New This Week – 10/13/17
A hilarious dark comedy about the deep, loving bond that exists between brothers…even ones who despise one another. ‘Elijah’s Ashes‘ follows Lawrence, a somewhat lost gay man, who embarks on an unexpected family road trip with his gruff, homophobic older brother to scatter their father’s ashes.
An apartment renter lusts after his doorman, a father comes to realize that his son is attracted to other boys, two horny men find themselves literally just beyond one another’s reach, a guy declares his attraction to his best friend and two young lovers go to great length to prove their affection in this stunning and supremely sexy new collection – featuring five award-winning short films that deals with the topic of desire in various forms. Watch ‘Furious Desires’ now on Dekkoo!
In the aftermath of WWII, a former Nazi doctor and child molester finds himself confined to an iron lung following a failed suicide attempt. Things get even worse when a mysterious, handsome young man, hired to be his caretaker, is discovered to be hellbent on revenge. An uncompromising psychosexual drama that’s erotic, painful and terrifying in equal measure, ‘In a Glass Cage‘ is a highly controversial classic.
When Andreas’ close friend Samuel meets Philippe, a highly respected colleague, Andreas finds himself in the awkward and uncomfortable position of watching his best friend fall in love…again. Watch ‘Alle Werden’ now on Dekkoo.com!
_________________________________
Coming next week: A homoerotic Evangelical exorcism film. Need we say more?
DEKKOO DISPATCH 039 – ‘IN A GLASS CAGE’
Title – ‘In a Glass Cage‘
Director – Agustí Villaronga
Starring – Günter Meisner, David Sust, Marisa Paredes, Gisèle Echevarría
Release Date – 1986
______________________
Darkness. A house containing evil and secrets. Innocence lost. A desire for revenge and murder. ‘In a Glass Cage‘ takes no prisoners and instead marches onwards through its self-made carnage towards a delicate balancing of art-house sensibilities and an exploration of twisted humanity. In fact this film is so disturbing that even John Waters said, “I’m too scared to show it to my friends!”
Agustí Villaronga made the harrowing film in 1985 and partially based it on Gilles de Rais, a companion to Joan of Arc and a notorious and self-confessed murderer of children (supposedly in the hundreds!). Like Pasolini’s ‘Salo’, Villaronga decided to set his tale at the end of WWII and utilizes a Nazi as the twisted figure at the center of the film. The film starts without remorse with Klaus (our resident evil dude) taking photos of a boy hanging from a rope. He’s naked and bears the marks of repeated tortures (I never said this was an easy movie to watch!!). After dealing the killing blow to the young boy Klaus seems to have some sort of revelation and immediately runs up to the roof of the house and jumps. Meanwhile someone was watching the proceedings and steals Klaus’ scrapbook/diary of his evils.
Fast-forward a few years and we’ve found that Klaus, while still alive, is now living inside a large iron lung. A device that controls his breathing. Without it he dies. His wife (played by Almodovar regular Marisa Paredes) and young daughter have been taking care of him in a country house in Catalonia where they try and avoid the Nazi witch hunt taking place in the rest of the world that would surely condemn them. Suddenly an invader boldly infiltrates the house and locks the door where Klaus is kept. When the wife demands to be let in she finds Angelo, a brooding young man petitioning to become Klaus’ nurse. Much to her dismay Klaus insists that Angelo stay to be his nurse and we eventually find out that it’s because Angelo is the one that knows all of Klaus’ secrets.
What follows is a dangerous lesson in power dynamics and the nature of evil itself. The beginning is dramatic, the middle is disturbing, and the end of the film is incredibly hypnotic and moving.
Besides the fantastic acting and writing, the cinematography is really what stands out to me in this film. Jaume Peracaula has lensed almost all of Agustí Villaronga’s films and he manages to find a perfect balance between light and dark and most of all the color blue which I’m sure has some symbolic meaning that I can’t quite figure out (I’m being honest at least!). The transfer that we’ve brought to Dekkoo is the latest High Definition remaster which really is miles better than the old DVD that used to exist where you could barely make out what was happening in half of the film.
While the themes are difficult to handle I truly love this movie. Top 25 for sure! To me it seems like ‘Salo’ as directed by Dario Argento and Pedro Almodovar and I’m crazy excited that it’s finally here on Dekkoo where you can challenge yourself to Agustí Villaronga’s masterpiece.
____________________________
Watch it with: Probably just yourself.
Mix it with: Water.
____________________________
New This Week – 10/6/17
Julian, a 13-year-old seminarian will endure a hard spiritual journey to reach ‘Perfect Obedience‘. The order’s founding father, captivated by his fragility and innocence, will take him to live together with him in his private home for a year. In that time Julian will wander the most intense and contradictory phase of his life while his mentor guides him to complete psychological and physical surrender. (subtitled)
In the award winning short film ‘Welcome to New York‘, five young New Yorkers visit the a therapist to work through their crazy first experiences in the Big Apple.
‘Child of the ’70’s‘ is the story of gay Italian-American Carlo Perdente who ends up working as a personal assistant to his 1970’s TV idol, the neurotic and over-the-top KiKi Lawrence.
______________________________
Coming next week: A profoundly entertaining (and often arousing) collection of stellar short films from an array of staggeringly talented international filmmakers.
DEKKOO DISPATCH 038 – ‘UN CHANT D’AMOUR’
Title – ‘Un chant d’amour’
Director – Jean Genet
Starring – Lucien Sénémaud, Bravo
Release Date – 1950
______________________
Today on Dekkoo we’re featuring an early masterpiece of silent Queer Cinema: ‘Un chant d’amour‘ directed by the notorious criminal-literary queer Jean Genet. The 25-minute film was one of the first cinematic depictions of explicit homosexual desire and sexuality which therefore made it ripe for censorship by many governments around the world. The movie exists as a highly entertaining piece of art-cinema, an autobiography of Jean Genet, and a harrowing portrait of homosexuality in prisons.
I feel an introduction to Jean Genet is needed in order to appreciate this film as much as possible. He was a social rebel, a criminal queer, a playwright, and a writer of literature. His novels ranged the gamut from autobiographical tales of his time in the Mettray Penal Colony lusting after fellow prisoners (“The Miracle of the Rose”) to fictionalized romancing of criminal queers (“Our Lady of the Flowers”) to tales of strong beautiful sailors who turn to criminal activities (“Querelle de Brest” – which Fassbinder later adapted into a movie in 1982 – his last movie before overdosing). His early life sounds like something out of a Christine Vachon-produced film. His mother was a prostitute who raised him for 7 months before dropping him off at an orphanage. While he grew up he excelled in getting into trouble and running away from home even though he had a supportive foster family. At 15 he got sent to a penal facility. At 18 he joined the army, but was later kicked out for getting caught having sex with men. After that his life consisted of wandering around Europe, getting into trouble and going to jail a bunch of times until he met Jean Cocteau who had taken a liking to his writings. When finally faced with life-in-prison due to being in prison 10 times – Jean Cocteau and other influential artists managed to convince the French President to pardon him. After that Jean Genet never went to prison again.
So let’s dig in to the film itself. ‘Un chant d’amour‘ is a silent film. Supposedly sponsored by wealthy French gays who wanted to add it to their porn collections the film starred Genet’s lover at the time, Lucien Sénémaud whose beauty he claimed, “harpooned me” and two other actors who we don’t know much about besides that one of them (the older prisoner) was a pimp named Bravo. The film has 3 central characters: A sexy 20-something prisoner with swagger, an older Arab prisoner in lust with his next-door neighbor, and a prison guard that acts as a jealous voyeur throughout the movie, constantly watching the prisoners interact. Of course because there’s a wall between the two would-be-lovers their interactions are limited to blowing smoke through a wall and swinging a bouquet of flowers outside their prison windows. Nothing stops them in their dreams though…
After it was screened in 1966 Sol Landau was indited by police in Berkeley, CA for screening an obscene piece of cinema. After fighting the case all the way up to the Supreme Court he ended up losing with a 5-4 ruling by the court. The Alamadea Superior Court claimed it, “explicitly and vividly revealed acts of masturbation, oral copulation, the infamous crime against nature [a euphemism for sodomy], voyeurism, nudity, sadism, masochism and sex…” and that it was “cheap pornography calculated to promote homosexuality, perversion and morbid sex practices”.
If you’re a self-proclaimed Queer Cinema nerd then ‘Un chant d’amour‘ is without a doubt a MUST-SEE. I’ll leave you with these words by Jim Clark who by my research has created the best article dedicated to ‘Un chant d’amour‘ out there, “Genet takes us places, invariably in the underworld of hustlers, thieves, murderers, and convicts, where most of us have never set foot; but even as he exposes their lives with excruciating fullness, he reveals – and celebrates – their/our common humanity.”
____________________________
Watch it with: One or two fellow film nerds.
Mix it with: A deep, dark, french wine.
____________________________
New This Week – 9/29/17
A heartwarming coming-of-age romance, ‘Center of My World‘ follows Phil, a gay teen looking for excuses to avoid his quirky family. When he sets his sites on Nicholas, the mysterious new kid at school, he finds the perfect new distraction. Smitten, Phil watched Nicholas run track after school… and is thrilled to learn that his affections are reciprocated.
Two prisoners in complete isolation, separated by the thick brick walls, and desperately in need of human contact, devise a most unusual kind of communication. ‘Un Chant D’Amour‘ is a voyeuristic, confrontational and poetic masterpiece. It is the only film made by French novelist Jean Genet. Forbidden in France upon its release, and only available in the United States in censored form through underground distribution, we are proud to present it in its complete version. Please be aware, this is a silent film!
‘If You Could Only Be You‘ is a coming-of-age story that identifies the relationship between a father and son who are both at crossroads with their true identities.
DEKKOO DISPATCH 037 – ‘CENTER OF MY WORLD’
Title – ‘Center of My World’
Director – Jakob M. Erwa
Starring – Louis Hofmann, Jannik Schümann, Svenja Jung, Sabine Timoteo
Release Date – 2016
______________________
It’s officially Fall now, but it feels like Spring over at Dekkoo because we’re in LOVEEEE!! ‘Center of My World‘ has officially arrived to Dekkoo hot off of its festival tour around the globe where it captivated the hearts and souls of thousands of people who got off their butts and went to their local LGBTQ Film Festival. But if you were lazy (or if you happened to be in South Dakota at the time) now exclusively on Dekkoo you can finally watch it a month before DVD!
The reason we’re so excited about this film here at Dekkoo is because it’s very rare in the realm of cinema to encounter a big budget, high-quality gay romance film. In fact we probably only get 2-4 per year if we’re lucky! ‘Center of My World‘ is exactly that.
Based on the 1998 novel of the same name ‘Center of My World‘ follows Phil – your average out-of-the-closet German High School student (it’s 2016 don’t forget!) who’s just survived a summer of French Language Camp and wants nothing more than to horse around with his best friend Kat and his sister/twin Dianne until school starts back up. But after arriving home he finds his house/mansion (dubbed ‘Visible’) in disarray. A huge storm trashed his town and Glass (Phil’s mom refuses to be called ‘Mom’) and Dianne aren’t speaking to each other. Normally this is where Phil would figure out what the heck is going on, but thennnnn…
Yeah. This guy shows up on the first day of school. Hey you’d be incredibly distracted too! Thus Phil gets flung into a fling with the man-of-his-dreams (and the rest of ours…) named Nicolas. Nicolas is everything Phil wants, tall, gorgeous, muscular, outgoing, and most importantly: a top! But seriously these two guys have the most amazing chemistry together. I can’t remember the last time I watched a gay film where the leads seemed this flawlessly attractive. It’s mildly distracting sometimes. I’ve seen it three times and sometimes I just get lost in their eyes……. Damn I’m doing it again!
The film doesn’t solely focus on the romantic angle the whole time and does circle back around to the family dynamic between Phil, Dianne, and Glass. There’s a lot of hurt in the family paired with an avoidance of truth especially on Glass’ part which makes for great cinema.
If you like the film (we think you’ll LOVE it) please tell your friends about it and let them know that Dekkoo is the only place to see it online. Next month it will also be available to own on DVD and Blu-ray.
Danke and good night!
____________________________
Watch it with: Everyone! Your friends, your neighbors, your mom!
Mix it with: Wine all around! Maybe a German Riesling perhaps?
____________________________
Discover great gay stories. 