Category: Pride

‘Avant-Drag!’ gets intimate with a tight-knit group of Athens-based drag performers

With police brutality and homophobic violence against LGBTQ+ individuals in Greece on the rise, the new documentary Avant-Drag! offers an exhilarating look at ten Athenian drag performers who deconstruct gender, nationalism, belonging, and identity while facing transphobia and racism.

As entertaining as it is thought-provoking, this new film from Greek director Fil Ieropoulos challenges societal norms and reshapes perceptions about LGBTQ+ culture by capturing the intimate lives of a tightly-knit group of drag performers, proving that being ‘othered’ has never felt so familiar.

The film captures the vibrancy of Athens’ underground drag scene and its role in pushing boundaries and expressing dissident identities. It goes beyond the mainstream representations of drag, focusing on more radical, explicitly political, and raw performances.

Juxtaposing magical realism, political commentary, and outrageous performances, Avant-Drag! is a love letter to Athens – a city that can be as oppressive as it can be a refuge for art freaks and a hot-bed for creativity.

Watch the trailer for Avant-Drag! below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Director Ray Yeung’s critically acclaimed ‘Twilight’s Kiss’ is now available on Dekkoo

From Ray Yeung, the accomplished filmmaker behind Front Cover, Cut Sleeve Boys and All Shall Be Well, Twilight’s Kiss tells a gut-wrenching tale of forbidden love between two married men in their golden years.

The film follows Pak (Tai Bo), a Hong Kong cab driver on the verge of hanging up his keys, and Hoi (Ben Yuen), a divorced retiree. The pair find themselves drawn into a secret affair, stealing moments of intimacy in the steam-shrouded sanctuary of the local gay bathhouse.

In a society where same-sex love is still very much taboo, the two men have to keep their trysts on the down-low. But when genuine feelings start to bubble up, their carefully compartmentalized lives threaten to boil over. As the Pak and Hoi navigate an increasingly intimate relationship, they begin to wonder whether they’ve aged out of the possibility of happily-ever-after.

Yeung, who crafted the screenplay from real-life stories, shines a light on the isolation and heartache faced by those who dare to love outside the lines, delivering a powerful and unforgettable portrait of a love that refuses to be denied.

Profoundly moving, Twilight’s Kiss is the kind of film that stays with you long after the end credits roll.

Watch the trailer for Twilight’s Kiss below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A musician’s spark is ignited by a young trans man in the Australian drama ‘Unsound’

When guitarist Noah (Reece Noi) finds himself growing disillusioned, he quits his band and returns to his mother’s home in Sydney, Australia.

Clashing with his mother over old wounds, Noah seeks solace elsewhere and soon finds himself swept up in the vibrant, passionate life and of a young trans-man named Finn (Yiana Pandelis), who runs a local center and nightclub for his deaf community.

Together, the pair traverse new ground, sharing their languages – Noah’s music and Finn’s sign language – with one another. They move carefully, as this is Finn’s first relationship while he is on the precipice of diving into his trans journey.

Noah offers to help aid the club any way he can, but as the two become closer, and with no shared language to fall back on, they risk hurting each other as they learn to be true to themselves.

From screenwriter Ally Burnham and director Ian Watson, Unsound is a thoughtful and romantic queer drama that takes great pride in its conversational awareness of both the LGBTQIA+ and deaf or hard of hearing communities.

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

The gay boxing drama ‘Punch’ tells a hard-hitting story about love, loyalty and liberation

Up-and-coming New Zealand actor Jordan Oosterhof stars in the gay sports drama Punch as Jim, a seventeen-year-old boxer from a small town. Something of a golden boy, Jim is preparing for a fight that will elevate him to an early professional status.

All bets are on his climb to success. But his father, Stan, a demanding coach and a notorious alcoholic played by Tim Roth, is treated like a joke. He has given everything to see his son gain professional status and escape the brutality of his small world.

As Jim begins to rethink why he is fighting in the first place, his life tangles with Whetu, a razor-tongued, gay Maori boy played by Conan Hayes, who spends his days in an old shack down by the beach.

Along with his dog, Whetu cobbles together a fragile glamour and dreams of leaving town to become a musician. As Jim stumbles towards discovering what it really means to be a gay man, he is forced to see that strength has little to do with heroism.

Gorgeously crafted, powerfully acted and deeply romantic, Punch tells a hard-hitting story about love, loyalty and liberation.

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

‘Born for You’ tells the incredibly moving true story of Italy’s first adoptive gay parent

From Italian director Fabio Mollo, Born for You tells the beautiful and touching true story of Luca (Pierluigi Gigante), a gay, single, Catholic man who, in 2017, adopted Alba, a child with Down syndrome who had been left in hospital shortly after being born.

Thirty heterosexual families rejected her before the court decided to entrust her to Luca. With this new precedent set, the legal foster care register for single gay men was inaugurated in Italy.

Luca may have been the first single gay parent in Italy to successfully adopt a daughter, but this was not a charitable gesture or a fight against the system… he simply wanted to start a family.

Beautifully shot and powerfully acted, the film weaves between Luca’s present-day struggles and flashbacks to his youth, creating a deeply intimate portrait of love, loss and the fight for equality and acceptance.

Born for You is a profound reflection on the transformative and triumphant power of love and the potential of LGBTQ+ families everywhere.

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

‘Small Town Gay Bar’ director Malcolm Ingram heads back down South for ‘Southern Pride’

Director Malcolm Ingram first explored Mississippi gay bars on film with his award-winning 2006 documentary Small Town Gay Bar. In 2017, after the first election of Donald Trump emboldened anti-LGBTQ hatred in the region, he returned for the moving follow-up Southern Pride.

Following Lynn and Shawn, two different bar owners in Biloxi and Hattiesburg, the film shows what it takes to fight for equality while trying to keep the bills paid and the drinks flowing.

The film’s subjects decide to hold each of their respective cities’ first official Pride celebrations as a rebuke to the Trump administration. They’re soon faced with homophobia, racism, and fundraising fiascos. But the power of community should never be underestimated – and when everyone comes together to make things happen, they manage to show the rest of the state what Southern Pride truly means.

Watch the trailer for Southern Pride below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: (Il)legal Asterisk

Are we defined by how we see ourselves or how we’re perceived by the outside world?

An experimental, uniquely philosophical short from director Fabrizio Bancale, the 20-minute film (Il)legal Asterisk (originally titled Asterisco (Il)legale) employs three Italian actors (Bruno Petrosino, Orazio Rotolo Schifone and Mauro Toscanelli) to examine that very question.

Pulling from stories both personal and historical, the film playfully jumps around, introducing different settings and characters whose inherent queerness – and their ability to express themselves – has been either discouraged or outright destroyed by societal forces beyond their control.

Handling heavy topics with a light, charismatic touch, the film explores how expressing oneself, coming out and/or living life according to one’s own choices can cost dearly when the law of the land does not offers adequate protection.

With the fight for true freedom being far from over, (Il)legal Asterisk investigates our shared past while shedding a light on our present.

Watch the trailer for (Il)legal Asterisk below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

The landmark documentary ‘Before Stonewall’ is now available on Dekkoo

In 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village, leading to three nights of rioting by the city’s LGBTQ+ community. With this outpouring of courage and unity, the gay liberation movement had begun.

Made in 1984 and released to great acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival in 1985, during the harrowing early years of the AIDS crisis, the landmark documentary Before Stonewall pried open the closet door – shining a spotlight on the experiences of queer Americans throughout the 20th century and setting free dramatic untold stories of survival, love, persecution and resistance.

Revealing and often humorous, this celebrated film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today’s gay rights movement, from the events that led to the fevered 1969 riots to many other milestones in the brave fight for acceptance.

Experience the fascinating and unforgettable, decade-by-decade history of gay life in America through eye-opening historical footage and amazing interviews with those who lived – and fought – through an often brutal closeted history.

Watch the trailer for Before Stonewall. The documentary is now available on Dekkoo.

‘Queendom’ follows a talented queer artist who literally risks her life on the streets of Moscow

Both inspiring and nail-biting, the new documentary Queendom shines a much-deserved spotlight on Gena Marvin, a young queer artist from a small town in Russia who dazzles in the otherworldly costumes she crafts from tape and found materials.

As Putin’s government increasingly encroaches on the rights of LGBTQ+ communities, Gena takes to the streets of Moscow, staging provocative performances that challenge the status quo.

All she wants to do change people’s perception of beauty and queerness and bring attention to the harassment of the LGBTQ+ community. But her artistic activism comes at a price as political tensions in Russia escalate, jeopardizing her own personal freedom.

An Oscar-shortlisted doc from director Agniia Galdanova, Queendom is not so much a portrait as it is a direct cinematic extension of Gena’s inner universe, delving into her extravagant subconscious creations and her search for free expression while illustrating how unleashing one’s inner world can create ripples of positive change.

Watch the trailer for Queendom below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.