Kohei, a swimmer with a wife and child, is shocked when, one day, his wife asks him to sign divorce papers. Drowning his sorrows in alcohol, he finds himself venturing into Tokyo’s gay neighborhood, where a fateful meeting awaits with Yutaka, an alluring younger man.
Yutaka makes his living in adult entertainment, but his dream is to become an anime creator. Both men are in strange places in their lives and find themselves increasingly needing one another to get through to the next day.
Sexy and emotionally gripping, Japanese writer-director Oe Takamasa’s debut feature Athlete has been a hit at LGBTQ film festivals around the globe.
Watch the trailer for Athlete below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.
Ramin is a young gay man in his 30s who fled the repression in Iran and arrived to Veracruz after traveling clandestinely on a boat from Turkey. While coping with the distance that he has taken with his loved-ones, he begins to discover a freer life here, far from Iran. Watch ‘Fireflies’ exclusively on Dekkoo!
The critically acclaimed ‘Mala Mala’ explores the intimate moments, performances, friendships and activism of trans identifying people, drag queens and others who defy typical gender identities in Puerto Rico. ‘Mala Mala’ is available now on Dekkoo!
Randy has a huge crush on hunky co-worker Jack, but Ray can’t figure out if Jack is gay – until Jack discovers a GAYDAR gun that could change everything. Watch ‘Gaydar’ now on Dekkoo!
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Coming next week:ANOTHER brand new gay film arrives exclusively on Dekkoo!
Set in present day New York City, the new twelve-minute short film Walk for Me is a contemporary coming out story that packs an emotional punch.
A conflicted teenager (newcomer Aaliyah King) is torn between their devotion to their mother and their desire to be their authentic self.
When their mother (“The Chi” and “The Get Down” star Yolanda Ross) finds women’s underwear and a flyer to a Gay Ball in their bedroom, she decides to track down her child and confront them. Arriving at the ball, the mother is shocked to find that her child has been taken under the wing of an adoptive Ball mother, Paris Continental (Brenda Holder), and assumed the identity of Hanna.
The mother is confronted by a choice: deny her child or accept her for who she really is.
Winner of the 2017 Mexico International Film Festival Gold Palm Award, Walk for Me has earned stellar reviews. Emilie Friedlander of Thump said “Walk For Me isn’t just a ballroom story. It’s also a story about motherhood, and the complexities of family life for queer teens like Hanna. Through a delicate choreography of loaded glances and small hand gestures, it captures Hanna’s struggle for acceptance from her biological mother, as well as her discovery of a second support system.”
In Shadow and Act, writer Aramide A. Tinubu said “Director Elegance Bratton highlights one of the most pivotal moments in a young trans person’s life… It is the exact instant that will either lead to final rejection or acceptance from her mother.”
Real Boy is the coming-of-age story of Bennett Wallace, a transgender teenager finding his voice – as a musician, a friend, a son, and a man.
Directed by Shaleece Haas, the film follows Bennett over the first three and a half years of his transition – as he grapples with issues of identity, sobriety, and connection to the people he loves. And the person he loves most is his mom, Suzy, who struggles to accept and understand his decision to transition.
As Suzy works to overcome her misgivings, Bennett finds support in the people who understand him best – his musical hero Joe Stevens, a celebrated transgender musician fighting his own demons; and his best friend Dylan, another trans teen on a similar path to young manhood.
At its heart, Real Boy is a story about growing up. It’s a story about the meaning of family, given and chosen. And it’s a story about how our search for identity isn’t just personal, but involves those closest to us.
One of our Pride Month selections, Real Boy is now available on Dekkoo. You can watch the trailer below.
Part documentary, part narrative feature film, The Circle is a moving tribute to a life-long relationship that overcame intense obstacles and an insightful look at an important chapter in gay history.
Winner of the prestigious Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival, The Circle tells the true story of Ernst Ostertag and Röbi Rapp, a schoolteacher and a drag entertainer, who met through their participation in a social network of gay men that developed in Zurich in the 1940s and 1950s. The two began romantic relationship. Interviews with them and other survivors and experts on the era are interspersed with documentary film and photographs as well as a scripted dramatic enactment of the story.
Founded in the early ’40s, the network around the magazine ‘Der Kreis’ (‘The Circle’) was the only gay organisation to survive the Nazi regime. It blossomed during the post-war years into an internationally renowned underground club.
Legendary masked balls at the Theater am Neumarkt in Zurich provided visitors from all over Europe with a secret and safe space to act out their ‘otherness’ in a self-determined way. It is there that timid teacher Ostertag falls in love with drag star Rapp. Ernst searches for a way to fight for his gayness to be accepted as normal outside the boundaries of ‘The Circle’ network without losing his employment as a teacher. Röbi champions the joint fruition of their love.
Following a murder in the gay community, violent repression against gay people also endangers ‘The Circle’ network. Stefan Haupt’s riveting film uncovers the fascinating universe of one of the first gay liberation communities. Enriched by impressive conversational records with Ernst Ostertag and Röbi Rapp, the film depicts a decades-long love story – made taboo by society – and reveals the couple’s inspiring self-knowledge and courage.
Watch the trailer for The Circle below. It’s now available on Dekkoo.
At the suggestion of a straight friend, gay man Leo joins a men’s group, where he causes some upsets by declaring his attraction to one of its members. Watch ‘Bedrooms & Hallways’ now on Dekkoo!
This colorful and sexy feel-good musical comedy follows Paul and Eddie, two hot young actors staring in a stage play that adds a healthy dose of homo-eroticism to the story of Genesis. As the two young performers dive deeper into their roles, their love lives start to mirror the themes they’re dealing with in the play. Watch ‘The Big Gay Musical’ now on Dekkoo!
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Coming next week: Required viewing for anyone who believes in equal rights for all. – The Apollo Guide
This third and final film of the Falls trilogy revisits former Mormon missionaries Chris and RJ, six years after they first fell in love and were disciplined for it, as they formulate a plan to be together at long last. Stream ‘The Falls: Covenant of Grace’ now on Dekkoo!
Dekkoo Films presents a short film that is one part work of ethereal realism and one part dance film. This contemporary-set film follows a young man facing the probability of an HIV+ diagnosis. ‘Writhing’ is available now to stream on Dekkoo!
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Coming next week: After his date takes a shocking turn, a man is plunged into a surreal interrogation of just who and what he is.
From a tender age Scott Townsend’s life is ruled by his slippery gender.
Growing up a girly-boy in the projects of Cambridge, Massachusetts, under the watch of Doris (Deirdre Lovejoy), his dysfunctional, single mom, Scott (played by Townsend himself) is prey to bullying and assault.
Already a talented singer and performer, Scott grows up to be revered drag queen Thirsty Burlington and delights club goers in Provincetown with his spot on impersonation of Cher. But even in this gay mecca, being Thirsty comes at a price.
Inspired by Scott/Thirsty’s real life, Thirsty spotlights the power of gender identity to both endanger and work its magic. The journey moves through dramatic, fantasy and musical sequences coming full circle when Scott realizes what he wants most in life, “To be safe and comfortable in all his skins,” and loved for all that he is.
Watch the trailer for Thirsty below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.
Started in the 1980s as a fabricated movement intended to ‘punk’ the punk scene, ‘Queercore’ quickly became a real-life cultural community of LGBTQ music and movie-making revolutionaries.
From the start of the pseudo-movement to the widespread rise of pop artists who used queer identity to push back against gay assimilation and homophobic punk culture, the poignant new documentary Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution is just that: a how-to-do-it guide for the next generation of queer radicals.
Directed by Yony Leyser, this doc features an impressively extensive participant list Included are Bruce LaBruce, G.B. Jones, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, John Waters, Justin Vivian Bond, Lynn Breedlove, Silas Howard, Pansy Division, Penny Arcade, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Gordon, Deke Elash, Tom Jennings, Team Dresch, and many, many more.
Produced and directed by prolific writer/director/actor/author Charlie David, Drag Heals is a terrific new documentary series that follows men who have never worn heels or make-up but have always dreamed of letting their inner drag queen out to play.
These men, and aspiring queens, enter Canada’s first-ever drag class to explore how to create a compelling drag persona based around their own personalities and life experiences. Deeply persona and raw, these queens tackle prickly issues like gender identity, mental illness, heartbreak and feminism to better understand themselves and their queer experience in an otherwise straight world.
RuPaul brought “Drag Race” into the homes of millions and made the once-taboo art form mainstream. This newfound renaissance has inspired a new generation to explore the art of drag and challenge the constructs of gender.
While “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is a competition, Drag Heals is much more of a journey. For most of the participants, this experience is akin to a second coming out process – and the workshops end with a public performance where they each have to face down their fears of stepping into the limelight.
The show gives viewers unparalleled access to the creation of a performance that is more than just your average lip sync. The classes are structured so that the men must reveal their true selves in preparation for their public performance. In order to do it, they must be brave and vulnerable. As performance time draws near, the urgency to create a compelling piece forces them to face down their nerves and personal demons in order to deliver a quality performance for people who have shelled out money to see just that.
The full first season of Drag Heals is now available on Dekkoo! Watch the trailer below.
Discover great gay stories. 