Category: New Release

A loving couple fights for their right to marry in No Dress Code Required

From director Cristina Herrera Borquez, the powerful documentary No Dress Code Required tells a simple story about one Mexican couple’s desire to get married… and all of the roadblocks that stand in their way.

Victor and Fernando, a devoted, unassuming couple from Mexicali, Mexico, find themselves in the center of a legal firestorm over their desire to get married. Weighing all of their options, the pair opt to stay in their hometown of Mexicali and fight for their legal rights.

With the help of two committed attorneys, Victor and Fernando withstand a seemingly interminable series of bizarre hurdles and bureaucratic nitpicking with grace and dignity.

No Dress Code Required is a rallying cry for equality, a testament to the power of ordinary people to become agents of change, and above all, an unforgettable love story that touches the heart and stirs the conscience.

Watch the trailer for No Dress Code Required below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Now Available: 15 Years

Yoav (Oded Leopold), a successful architect, has everything he’s ever wanted: Dan (Udi Persi), his lover of fifteen years – a younger lawyer who adores him; and his best friend, Alma (Ruti Asarsai) – a successful artist, who is like a mother and a sister to him.

However, when Alma announces she is pregnant, it ignites Dan’s desire to become a father himself. But Dan’s parental urges have the opposite effect on Yoav, who is haunted by long buried demons.

Yoav’s tight grasp on his life begins to come apart, leading to self-destructive behavior that threatens to destroy his life with Dan, unravel his friendship with Alma, and cost him everything.

Sexy and thoughtful with great acting and gorgeous cinematography, 15 Years is a thought-provoking drama from writer-director Yuval Hadadi, making his feature-length debut.

Watch the trailer for 15 Years below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Game Face is an inspiring film about the coming out process of LGBTQ athletes

Day by day athletes are becoming more comfortable with their sexuality as sports associations begin to take proactive steps to accepting lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender players in their respective teams or clubs. Yet surprisingly, a lot of homophobia remains in the world of professional and collegiate sports—making it extremely difficult to come out before their careers end. Some are forced to stay closeted by their entourage while others have been kicked off their team; bullied into secrecy; struggle in their careers while battling with self-identity; and tragically some commit suicide.

Some people still feel uncomfortable about having LGBT athletes in sports, and this is the perfect opportunity to finally break all stereotypes. With the documentary Game Face, director Michiel Thomas sheds light on the masses by debunking the myths and misgivings of the LGBT community and athletes. The important details to remember are found in the fact that these are people who have a passion and love for their respective sport, everything else is irrelevant. This film tells different stories from various athletes in their sport, covering a wide spectrum of issues.

Featuring figures such as transgender mixed-martial-arts fighter Fallon Fox and basketball hopeful Terrence Clemens, Game Face offers up an inspiring film about the coming out process of professional and college athletes.

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

Now Available: Bridegroom

Released originally in 2013, the emotional documentary Bridegroom follows the journey of Shane Bitney Crone and Tom Bridegroom, two young men in a loving and committed relationship – a relationship that was cut tragically short by a misstep off the side of a roof.

The story of what happened after this accidental death, before marriage equality, tells of how people without the legal protections of marriage found themselves completely shut out and ostracized. The film is poignant, enraging and opened a window onto the issue of marriage equality like no speech or lecture ever could.

On May 7, 2012, the anniversary of Tom’s death, Shane made a video tribute to his greatest love entitled “It Could Happen To You.” This film, posted on YouTube, earned over 2.7 million hits and inspired over 50 thousand e-mails and comments on YouTube and Facebook. The impact of Shane’s original film, and the raw nerve it touched, told an important story that needed to be brought to the world stage.

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

Dream House tells a delayed-coming-of-age story about becoming one’s true self

In Dream House, the skillfully-made new 31-minute short from director Jeff Bemiss, flashbacks chronicle the life of the O’Brien family – starting in the 1960s when they reigned as an ideal neighborhood family, through to the 1990s… when things have taken a turn.

Elderly matriarch Ginnie (Carol Lambert) lives in seclusion with her gay son, Mark (Ryan Farley). It’s a bit of a Grey Gardens situation. While their idealized family home is falling apart, Mark finds himself trapped in limbo, waiting for his adult life to begin. Ginnie just can’t seem to let go of the past and Mark, a dutiful, caring son, can’t let go of her.

The pair are visited periodically by Mark’s younger brother Dickie (Sean Harris). Now in his thirties, Dickie is an extremely successful businessman who seems to have a model family of his own. There are, however, big cracks in the foundation of the life that he’s built. Like Mark and his mother, Dickie will have to revisit the past in order to move forward into his future.

Mark also finds himself increasingly torn between his dreamlike past and an uncertain future when Ginnie hires Ted (Lance A. Williams), an “on the cheap” handyman, to start fixing up the house. As Ted befriends Mark and the romantic chemistry between them becomes apparent, he starts seeing a new life for himself beyond what he ever considered possible.

Co-written by Kevin Commins and David Lally, based on Lally’s stage play of the same name, Dream House features a terrific ensemble cast comprised mostly of accomplished stage actors making their film debut. The story they come together to tell packs an emotional punch.

Watch an extended trailer for Dream House below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Now Available: Bitter Years

One of the founders of the Italian Homosexual Liberation Movement, created at the beginning of the 1970s, Mario Mieli was an activist, intellectual, writer, performer and a key figure on the Italian cultural scene.

Though he committed suicide at the age of thirty, he lived a busy and full life, leaving an impression on LGBTQ culture in Italy together with his friends like architect Corrado Levi, painter Piero Fassoni, singer Ivan Cattaneo, activist Angelo Pezzana, writer Fernanda Pivano and poet Milo De Angelis.

Starring Nicola Di Benedetto in the lead role, Bitter Years traces the ups and downs of Mieli’s short, but influential life. According to Andrea Adriatico, the film’s director, “He liked to provoke and to be an innovator but, today, his thought has been completely forgotten.”

“A son of the upper middle class and second to last of seven children, he spent an entire life having a complicated relationship with his parents, Water and Liderica, and the last years of his life were spent with his lover Umberto Pasti, in a very difficult and intense love story.”

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

The award-winning short film Alaska is a Drag tells a fish out of water story… literally

The short film Alaska is a Drag, now available on Dekkoo, is a fish out of water story… literally. The film’s hero, Leo (Martin L. Washington Jr.), is an aspiring superstar stuck working in a fish cannery in Alaska. Leo sees disco balls in the scales of the fish he slices. Everyone who slices fish all day, daydreams – Leo’s are just more glamtastic.

Most of the time, Leo and his twin sister Tristen (Maya Washington) are left to fend for themselves. To escape the monotony of fist fights and fish guts, they create their own magic, the Northern Lights follow them as they vogue down a woodsy path.

They hang out at the one gay bar in a hundred miles, owned by their surly surrogate mom – Jan (Margaret Cho).

Their real mom (Nia Peeples) left years ago and their dad George (Kevin Daniels) preaches on the side of the road. After years of getting beat up by his former best friend, Kyle (Christopher O’Shea), Leo has learned to fight back – his skills catch the eye of his cannery boss, an amateur boxer (Jason Scott Lee) who offers to train him to be a fighter.

And when the new kid in town, Declan (Matt Dallas), wants to be his sparring partner – Leo’s worlds begin to collide, Tristen enters Leo in a drag competition – he’s never performed for anyone but her – the drag audition falls on the same day as the qualifying round for boxing and Leo has to face the real reason he’s afraid to leave Alaska.

Watch the trailer for Alaska is a Drag below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

 

Short Film Spotlight: Engaged

Engaged is a short romantic comedy that follows Darren (Daniel K. Isaac), who keeps trying – and failing – topropose to his boyfriend Elliot (Ryan Jamaal Swain).

When their relationship is put into an uncomfortable spotlight during a friend’s outrageous engagement party, Darren realizes he actually might be self–sabotaging himself… due to unresolved insecurities about his sexuality.

Engaged is a 17-minute short film written and directed by Dave Scala, a second-generation Filipino-American filmmaker and playwright who received his BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts film school. His four previous short films have screened and won top awards at over 40 film festivals in the US and abroad. His previous LGBT short film Grotto (released in 2013) won the Outstanding Emerging Talent award at FilmOUT San Diego, and screened at over 30 festivals, including the Palm Springs International ShortFest. Engaged has also won numerous awards at film festivals around the country.

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

 

Watch the trailer for the new Dekkoo Original Film Variações: Guardian Angel

Born in the small village of Amares, in the north of Portugal, António Variações was a unique man. At an early age, unhappy with his life working at a local factory, he came to Lisbon to stay with some relatives. But he was different and he wanted more. He wanted to travel and see the world and he emigrated, starting to work as a barber.

But his love for music and performance soon became so strong that he came back so he could sing in his own language. His looks and outfits, however, led him to become a victim of prejudice. He managed to persevere. Even without knowing anything about music he fought for his right to do it the way he believed it was best.

A stylish new biopic, Variações: Guardian Angel, a new Dekkoo Films Original, tells a story about music and about fighting for what we believe.

Watch the trailer for Variações: Guardian Angel below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Jeremiah is a well-crafted nine-minute coming-out horror story

“When I was little, my mom used to read these stories to me and my brother, like these old folk tales. One of them was about this man who was so alone, so angry that he turned himself into a monster.”

A chilling allegory about repression, loneliness and coming out, writer-director Kenya Gillespie’s Jeremiah packs some serious suspense into its short nine-minute running time.

At the start of the film, we meet the title character, Jeremiah (Alan Trong), sitting alone on the bleechers, surrounded by both a literal and figurative darkness that threatens to engulf him. An attractive high school football player, he’s reeling from an unfortunate and unexplained encounter with his coach. His equally cute friend and teammate seeks to console him, but there is a mysterious masked figure lurking in the background which forces Jeremiah to look deeper at the true cause of his fears.

Jeremiah is Kenya Gillespie’s narrative short film debut and it shows incredible promise. With spare, careful cinematography and a string-heavy soundtrack that sends chills down your spine, you can easily imagine him expanding Jeremiah into an “elevated horror” feature on par with Hereditary or It Follows.

The film received its international premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival where it was nominated for the short film Queer Palm. Gillespie was also nominated for the 2019 Kodak Excellence in the Craft of Filmmaking Award. His documentary short The Crystal City and narrative short Pray for Dottie were winners of the 2018 and 2019 RTF Longhorn Denius Student Showcase at SXSW.

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