Category: Performing Arts

A budding young writer attempts to shake off the torment of lost love in the Canadian drama ‘Seek’

A homegrown feature film from Canadian first-time director Eric Henry, Seek centers around Evan (Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski), a shy young journalist with two dreams: to become a staff writer at a newspaper and to reconnect with the hunky model he can’t get out of his head.

Evan’s big break comes when the editor of Toronto’s leading newspaper hires him to write a feature story about the characters that populate the town’s nightlife. Enter Hunter (Ryan Fisher), the city’s top gay party promoter, who agrees to give Evan a behind-the-scenes look at the world of lights, music, sexy guys and talented drag performers.

But as Evan moves closer to his dreams, he is unable to see Hunter’s true motivation for helping Evan with his story.

Featuring an alluring local Toronto cast, Seek explores the diversity of desire and the mistake people make when they don’t see the beauty standing right in front of them.

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

A closeted A-list actor has a secret affair in the sexy, underseen gem ‘I Am Syd Stone’

Syd Stone (Travis Nelson), the title character of the feature film I Am Syd Stone, is a hunky former A-List actor whose once-promising career has hit a major slump.

Syd now finds himself in a small town, reluctantly shooting a B-movie. While getting drunk in a hotel bar, he forms an almost instant connection with Matt (Benjamin Charles Watson), a young lawyer on the verge of his biggest case yet.

Despite pressure from his representatives to hide his sexuality for the sake of his career, Syd and Matt soon become more than just friends. An intense affair ensues, putting Syd’s personal life and career in jeopardy.

Originally created as a six-episode web series and based on an acclaimed 2014 short film of the same name, I Am Syd Stone has been edited into a stellar feature by director Denis Theriault.

A sexy and thoughtful coming-out romance featuring moving performances from handsome lead actors Travis Nelson and Benjamin Charles Watson, the film offers up a heartfelt exploration of two troubled souls finding comfort in one another and, together, finally learning to live authentically.

Watch the trailer for I Am Syd Stone below. The feature film edit is now available to stream on Dekkoo.

A tragic incident alters the life of a young dancer in the powerful gay drama ‘Why Not You’

Thomas Prenn stars in the stirring drama Why Not You as Mario, a sensitive young dancer who finds difficulty in the day-to-day life of his small Italian village. At a local festival, he reunites with Lenz (Noah Saavedra), a former childhood friend who left town long ago.

Mario quickly becomes fixated on Lenz, who is now living out his dreams as an actor in Rome. Inspired, Mario decides to follow his friend to the Italian capital. When they meet in a gay bar, the night takes a tragic turn. Escaping unharmed, Mario’s life will be forever altered by the incident and the loss that follows.

The debut feature of writer-director Evi Romen, Why Not You is a challenging character drama, following a disoriented young man who senses that he must find a place for himself in an often violent and unforgiving world.

Watch the trailer for Why Not You below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A mother and her gay son seek out a better life in the comedy ‘Potato Dreams of America’

Obsessed with old Hollywood movies and concerned for her son’s future in 1980s USSR, Lena becomes a mail-order bride and moves to the United States.

Though she hopes to give her son, Potato, a better life, things veer off course when his burgeoning sexuality and love of New Queer Cinema clash with his new father’s political and religious points of view.

Stylized and deliriously campy, Potato Dreams of America conjures a portrayal of the American dream that is as hopeful and hilarious as it is dizzying.

Featuring a star-studded LGBTQ+ cast – including Lea DeLaria and Jonathan Bennett – this autobiographical crowd-pleaser from writer/director Wes Hurley, a major hit with audiences at film festivals all around the world, is designed to make you laugh and spark some whimsical wonder along the way.

Watch the trailer for Potato Dreams of America below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Two ex-boyfriends end up in quarantine together in the acclaimed romantic comedy ‘F.L.Y.’

Up-and-coming actors and filmmakers Trent Kendrick and Rafael Albarrán wrote, directed and star in the winning romantic comedy/drama F.L.Y. as Max and Rafael, two exes who have not seen each other in five years.

The pair are unexpectedly reunited when the COVID-19 pandemic forces them into quarantine together. Max, now a freelance writer in Los Angeles, has built a new life with his fitness instructor boyfriend, Hunter. Meanwhile, Rafael has embraced their non-binary identity and is pursuing a passion for performing, aspiring to become the next drag superstar.

As the two men navigate the challenges of lockdown, Max and Rafael rediscover their connection and learn to celebrate living their truth while embracing the unpredictable journey of self-discovery and love.

Kendrick and Albarrán pack their debut feature with humor, music and heart, offering up a charming and sexy look at queer love, relationships and what it means to be a gay man in this current decade.

Watch the trailer for F.L.Y. below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

The controversial horror-comedy ‘Ticked Off Trannies with Knives’ comes to Dekkoo

Controversial even before it first screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010, where GLAAD condemned the film for what it perceived as a negative portrayal of transgender people, director Israel Luna’s Ticked Off Trannies with Knives has garnered a wild reputation befitting of its exploitation roots.

Fashioned in the style of a sleazy 1970s pulp film, this uproarious slasher/revenge saga features some seriously not-to-be-fucked with characters, finger-snapping one-liners, vicious straight male villains and enough beatings, stabbings and kung-fu style ass-kicking to satisfy even the sickest of viewers.

It all begins in a small Dallas nightclub where a group of performers and friends are assaulted and left for dead. Following these traumatic events, a trio of surviving trans women come together to exact revenge on the men who brutally attacked them.

Inspired by the exploitation genre as a whole, particularly I Spit on Your Grave and the 1984 Linda Blair vehicle Savage Streets, Ticked Off Trannies with Knives is not for the faint of heart and certainly not without its shocks and provocations, but we invite you to judge the film on its own merits.

Ticked Off Trannies with Knives is now streaming 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.

Mismatched roommates become unexpected allies in the sly British dramedy ‘Makeup’

When two people are brought together from completely different walks of life, it can make for awkward circumstances, especially when they both have their secrets.

Making his feature debut, writer-director Hugo Andre also stars in the film Makeup as Sacha, an introverted French food critic who travels to London. Moving into a rented room in a house belonging to Dan (Will Masheter), a well-respected stockbroker, they fall into a classic “Odd Couple” dynamic.

As time goes on, Dan attempts to hide his aspirations of becoming a burlesque dancer from those who perceive him as an alpha male. Despite their differences, Sacha and Dan soon become pillars of support in each other’s lives.

A winner of 15 different awards at film festivals around the globe – including ‘Directorial Debut by a Young Film Maker’ at the London International Film Festival – Makeup is a stirring drama about the unlikely friendship that forms between the hidden personalities of two distinct characters.

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

Short Film Spotlight: Many Happy Returns

André (Vitor Rocha) is about to turn twenty-five years old. Extremely worried about his future – and about the uncertainties of life in general – he’s not even able to celebrate.

At his birthday party, before blowing out the candles, he wishes for time to stop passing. To his great surprise, his wish comes true. The next morning – and over the next several – he finds that the day has repeated. It’s still, perhaps always, his twenty-fifth birthday once again.

Suddenly André finds that he has eternal youth, the absence of problems and the liberty to do just about anything he wants without the fear of consequences. When he learns, however, that time has stopped passing only for him, what seemed to be a dream come true morphs into a nightmare.

Now he must go back in time – one last time – and correct his past while learning how to enjoy the present without worrying too much about the future.

Taking obvious inspiration from Groundhog Day, Many Happy Returns is a clever short musical comedy about learning to appreciate the time you’re in – no matter how old you may be.

Watch the trailer for Many Happy Returns below. The short film is now available on Dekkoo.

Check out the short works of filmmaker Tristan Scott-Behrends this month on Dekkoo!

This month, we’re shining a much-deserved spotlight on the short film work of auteur writer/director Tristan Scott-Behrends.

His films – funny, eclectic and packed with bold visual style – have been making a splash on the queer film festival circuit since the debut of Curtain Down in 2017. A 25-minute short, he wrote, produced and stars alongside Margaret Cho in this love story from director Emett Casey. The film takes a surreal but tender look at gender, identity and aging as our lead character is forced to choose between art and love.

Only Trumpets, his directorial debut, following an outsider navigating love and sex in the digital age, made it’s world premiere at the 2018 Outfest Film Festival, where it was selected as ‘Best of the Fest.’

Our four-film collection also includes The Man of My Dreams, which follows two gorgeous, magnetic male lovers as they traipse around the streets of New York City enmeshed in a dreamy romance.

Finally, Lilac Lips, Dutchess County, a reimagining of Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus, stars Joey Hardy Gray as nymph-like protagonist, navigating the complexities of relationships in a maze of his own making.

Exploring themes of identity, gender, isolation and sexuality in the most delicious ways possible, Tristan Scott-Behrends is a filmmaker worth keeping an eye on. While he’s currently hard at work developing a script for a feature film version of Only Trumpets, you can now enjoy some of his most stylish and provocative shorts right here on Dekkoo.