Category: Performing Arts

A young actor is put in an uncomfortable position in the short film ‘Go Crazy with Crazy’

Struggling actors have to jump through all kinds of hoops in search of their big breaks. Too often, however, as the #MeToo movement proved, they’re asked to go to unreasonable lengths.

Based on a wild true story, director Ayana Barber’s 9-minute short Go Crazy with Crazy follows a young gay actor who is put in a deeply uncomfortable position.

Justin Garascia, who also wrote the screenplay, stars as the actor in question. After meeting and falling into bed with a promising young director named Joey (Jimmy Brooks), he’s closer than ever to landing the lead role of a meth-addicted gay porn star in a potentially groundbreaking indie film.

But when he’s asked to partake in a very unusual audition process, the young man takes to Google and discovers something fishy about the director. Not willing to compromise his integrity or his safety, he attends the audition ready for a fight – aiming to finally set the record straight and send an unforgettable message about the consequences of catfishing.

Watch a quick teaser trailer for Go Crazy with Crazy below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

The rock n’ roll romance ‘Throuple,’ a Dekkoo-original film, is coming soon to theaters!

After winning over audiences at film festivals all over the country, the colorful and sexy new ‘rock n’ roll love story’ Throuple is coming to theaters this March courtesy of Dekkoo Films!

Throuple follows Michael, a lonely, gay singer-songwriter played by Michael Doshier, who also wrote the film’s screenplay. Hopeless when it comes to dating and expressing himself, he has lost his way… and his voice. His social circle, consisting of his best friend Tristan (Tristan Carter-Jones), who leads a local rock band, and Abby (Jess Gabor), a successful DJ, are growing weary of his emotional needs.

One night, as Michael mans Tristan’s merch table, he catches the attention of Georgie and Connor (Stanton Plummer-Cambridge and Tommy Heleringer), a married couple looking for something – or someone – to do.

A nonchalant hookup turns into a night of vulnerability that none of them expected. With encouragement from Tristan and Abby, Michael pursues Georgie and Connor. The couple challenges him to open up about his feelings – and even write some new songs along the way. For his part, Michael ignites a flicker in their marriage – one they they feared may be long gone.

Michael’s world is soon thrown into chaos, however, when Georgie, Connor, Tristan and Abby all make life-altering decisions that leave him feeling abandoned. Ultimately, he must decide whether to finally express his feelings and go after what he wants – both in his music and his relationships – or watch them all slip away.

Directed by Greyson Horst, Throuple highlights queer folks’ ability to think outside the box and find new and exciting ways to live, love, express themselves and feel fulfilled.

Watch the official trailer for Throuple below. The film will be screening at New York City’s famed Quad Cinemas beginning March 14, and in Los Angeles beginning March 21, before receiving a wider VOD and release. It will also be available exclusively to Dekkoo subscribers later this year.

Muffy Blake Stephyns slays D.C. in the illuminating documentary ‘Queen of the Capital’

Bureaucrat by day and drag queen crusader by night, Muffy Blake Stephyns has high aspirations.

Muffy and her everyday persona, Daniel, must navigate her bureaucratic day job at the Department of Labor in Washington, DC, all while balancing her role in the Imperial Court of Washington DC, a philanthropic organization full of drag queens, drag kings and other vibrant performers.

Every year, the court elects an emperor and an empress. Drawing on experience as a former political consultant, Muffy spends a year campaigning for the title.

Documentary filmmaker Josh Davidsburg follows all of the action in the feature-length film Queen of the Capital, illuminating the thriving Washington D.C. drag scene and exploring the story of one individual on a colorful crusade for the community at large – who also finds time to be funny as hell along the way.

Watch the trailer for Queen of the Capital below. The full documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Thank You, Places

With numerous short films to their names, we have become big fans of collaborative filmmakers Jono Mitchell and Madison Hatfield. Their work is intelligent, heartfelt and unapologetically queer.

Thank You, Places, the latest short co-directed by Hatfield and Taylor Coriell and starring Mitchell, is a winning romantic comedy about a backstage breakup that comes at an inopportune time.

The 8-minute film follows actors Grant and Jimmy (Mitchell and Braian Rivera Jimenez), who fell for one another while working together on what they both admit is an absolutely dreadful community theater play.

Now that Grant has dumped Jimmy before the play’s run has ended, they have to find a way to make it through a performance without killing one another or potentially ruining their already terrible stage production further.

Thank You, Places is a love letter to theater, queer romance and the jaded and idealistic artists that are always at war inside each of us.

Watch a short teaser trailer for Thank You, Places below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

The queer classic ‘Saturday Night at the Baths’ comes to Dekkoo in a new 4K restoration

Newly restored in 4K, director David Buckley’s landmark excursion into bisexuality, 1970s relationship politics and the historical importance of gay bathhouse culture is celebrated in his 1975 film Saturday Night at the Baths.

When struggling pianist Michael (Robert Aberdeen) lands a job at the legendary Continental Baths in New York City, his wife Tracy (Ellen Sheppard) encourages him – and even emphasizes how special this institution is. Michael, however, struggles with his own homophobia, yet starts developing feelings for his confident and sexually free co-worker Scotti (Don Scotti).

Shot on-location inside the famous Continental Baths and featuring an unforgettable 12-minute scene of the actual entertainment of the time, both musical and erotic alike, Saturday Night at the Baths is a sublime example of the compelling and sensual queer cinema of one of the most groundbreaking periods in gay and bisexual film history.

Watch the trailer for the new restoration of Saturday Night at the Baths below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution’ examines the 1980s LGBTQ+ punk scene

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.

With this frank and fascinating feature-length documentary, director Yony Leyser (the filmmaker behind Chokehole, Desire Will Set You Free and William S. Burroughs: A Man Within) chronicles the start of the pseudo-movement through to the widespread rise of pop artists who used queer identity to push back against gay assimilation and homophobic punk culture.

Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution is just what the title suggests: a ‘how-to-do-it’ guide for the next generation of queer radicals. The extensive participant list includes 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.

Watch the trailer for Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A father goes to great lengths to protect his son in the gripping drama ‘You’ll Never Be Alone’

Accomplished Chilean actor Sergio Hernández stars in You’ll Never Be Alone as Juan, the quiet, introverted manager of a mannequin factory who is hoping to be made partner after 25 years of devoted service.

At home, his 18-year-old son, Pablo (Andrew Bargsted), has dreams of stardom, studying dance at a respected art school. In addition to teaching neighborhood children choreographed dance numbers and clubbing with his best girlfriend on the weekends, Pablo’s life revolves around performing, auditioning and occasionally sneaking around to sleep with another boy from the neighborhood.

While Pablo and his widowed, hard-working dad don’t have a whole lot in common, neither seems to let that get in the way of caring for each other. Everything changes, however, when Pablo is brutally attacked by a group of homophobic kids.

With legal action and medical insurance proving costly, Juan makes the desperate decision to start seeking out his own form of justice.

Based on true events, this impressive debut film from musician Alex Anwandter tells a gripping story of betrayal and redemption. You’ll Never Be Alone is a stirring testament to a father’s love and a powerful treatise on Chile’s generational divide.

Watch the trailer for You’ll Never Be Alone below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Musician Mark Clennon delivers a stunning performance in the gripping gay drama ‘I Don’t Know Who You Are’

After suffering a sexual violation at the hands of a stranger, Toronto-based musician Benjamin (Mark Clennon) must pull together the money for HIV-preventive treatment in the event that he’s been exposed to the virus – while also trying to avoid the man he’s just started dating.

Short of cash and determined to solve the problem himself, Benjamin spends a frantic weekend trying to raise the necessary funds… and he only has 72 hours to do so.

In his first feature, writer-director M. H. Murray filters his own real-life experience through the character of Benjamin, whom he and lead actor Mark Clennon created in their 2020 short film Ghost.

Bracing and unapologetically provocative, I Don’t Know Who You Are is all about inner conflicts forcing themselves to the surface, with an additional level of commentary on how hard it is to simply exist in Toronto without money or status.

The film also features a powerhouse performance from Clennon, a Toronto artist and poet who also serves as the film’s producer and story editor, in addition to writing and performing all of Benjamin’s songs.

Watch the trailer for I Don’t Know Who You Are below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Casa de Bonecas

Supple young bodies fuse and ooze in the delirious audiovisual freak-out Casa de Bonecas.

Kind of like a mix of John Waters and David Lynch, this experimental – and experiential – 15-minute short from Brazilian writer-director George Pedrosa doesn’t tell a story so much as establish a deeply weird vibe.

This mind-melting film follows three scantly-clad queer performance artists as they descend into a trippy rabbit hole of madness – a dark, wet place where the grotesque and the sensual merge and anyone who enters is seduced by the pink secretions that lie within.

There is plenty of gross-out imagery in store as the film gleefully sashays through various genres – musical, comedy, sci-fi and horror, just to name a few – and our heroes transform into beautiful creatures who dance, devour and arouse.

A cross between your worst nightmares and your wildest wet dreams, Casa de Bonecas is thoroughly bonkers in the best possible way.

Watch a brief clip from Casa de Bonecas below. The full short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘In the Room Where He Waits’ comes to Dekkoo just in time for Halloween!

Set sometime during the earlier days of the pandemic, In the Room Where He Waits is a queer psychological horror film that uses isolation to its advantage.

Daniel Monks stars at Tobin Wade, an up-and-coming theatre actor who is about to have his first major break on Broadway in a production of ‘The Glass Menagerie.’ His plans change, however, when he learns of his father’s recent passing and is forced to return home to Australia for the funeral.

Stuck in a Brisbane hotel room while he waits out his two-week quarantine, Tobin begins to unravel. He’s not ready to confront a past he thought he’d long ago left behind. Things take an even darker turn when he begins to notice traces of another person in his room.

Soon, the hotel’s dark past and Tobin’s own repressions coalesce, manifesting in a malignant force that only grows stronger with each passing night.

The feature-length debut of short film director Timothy Despina Marshall, In the Room Where He Waits is a clever and stylishly-crafted exploration of grief, identity and the supernatural.

Watch the trailer for In the Room Where He Waits below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.