Category: Pride

‘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.

A young gay couple faces paternity issues in the touching Thai family drama ‘Fathers’

Fathers follows Phoon and Yuke (Utt Uttsada Panichkul and Nat Sakdatorn), a young, happily partnered gay couple from Thailand who live in a sleek modern apartment that has all the trappings that come with success.

The pair even have an adorable seven-year old son named Butr (Arituch Pipattangkul), whom Phoon adopted at birth from an orphanage after he was abandoned by his mother. The trio are now waiting for the Thai Government to pass a law to allow same-sex marriage so that they can put their whole family on a more legal and secure footing.

Things get more complicated, however, when Butr starts school and is bullied for having two dads. When a social worker from the Children’s Rights Protection Organization gets involved, she begins questioning the idea of Butr growing up in a family without a feminine presence, and even tracks down his biological mother… who suddenly wishes to be a part of his life.

A sobering and deeply sincere drama from Thai director Palatpol Mingpornpichit, Fathers tells an emotional story about gay parenting in Southeast Asia, covering a complicated situation from every possible angle.

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

Gregg Araki’s New Queer Cinema classic ‘The Living End’ is now available on Dekkoo!

One of the most electrifying films of the New Queer Cinema movement, The Living End left viewers stunned when it premiered at the now-infamous 1992 Sundance Film Festival. Brazenly transgressive, it may be even more shocking by today’s standards. Credited as ‘An Irresponsible Movie by Gregg Araki,’ the film’s take-no-prisoners story follows two HIV-positive men with nothing to lose.

Luke (Mike Dytri), a mischievous and reckless drifter, and Jon (Craig Gilmore), an initially uptight film critic, meet, unconventionally, after Luke has a run-in with a trio of gay-bashers.

A passionate affair – and a whole lot of trouble – soon ensue as the pair embark on a nihilistic road trip – fueled by whiskey, a gun and Luke’s motto of ‘fuck everything.’

Though it was referred to, at the time, as ‘the gay Thelma & Louise,’ The Living End has far more in common with the groundbreaking work of Andy Warhol, John Waters, Derek Jarman and Jean-Luc Godard, iconoclast filmmakers who are all paid some level homage throughout the film.

On a budget of just $20,000, Gregg Araki crafted this ultra-violent Gen-X classic as a primal scream in the face of the mounting AIDS crisis and its accompanying cultural stigma.

More than thirty years later, The Living End has lost none of it’s power or political charge. Now audiences new and old can experience it once again, in all it’s digitally-remastered glory, on Dekkoo. Check out the original trailer below.