Category: Pride

Take a sexy trip through São Paulo with the winning workplace comedy ‘Body Electric’

Body Electric is a warm-hearted, understated debut feature from Brazilian writer-director Marcelo Caetano. The film follows Elias (Kelner Macêdo), a carefree young man who migrated from Northeastern Brazil to São Paulo, works as an assistant designer in a clothing factory.

Elias’s daily life is divided between his job and the ephemeral encounters he shares with men. With the arrival of Fernando, an African immigrant, he starts to look at the production line with a sudden renewed interest.

With the holiday season approaching, work intensifies, and he finds himself increasingly trapped within the factory. As the distance between his professional and personal life closes in, he starts to explore his desires, invigorated by the freedom offered through his companions.

Against the warnings of his superiors, Elias takes to socializing into the night and sleeping with his co-workers.

An erotic tale of identity and sexuality, Body Electric captures the beauty and delicate excitement of sexual awakening, as seen through the intense color and vibrancy of modern-day São Paulo.

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

A gay artist tries turning tragedy into opportunity in the moving Polish drama ‘All Our Fears’

Triggered by an unexpected tragedy, a religious artist and gay activist tries to get his local community to grieve together in the emotional drama All Our Fears.

Dawid Ogrodnik stars in the film as Daniel, a well-respected young artist from the Polish countryside who finds himself torn between small-town values, urban art galleries, the Catholic church, and his gay identity.

When a queer friend commits suicide after suffering a homophobic attack, he becomes determined to redeem his community with the ultimate work of art – a deeply personal interpretation of ‘The Stations of the Cross.’

All the while, he’s slowly, carefully, and secretly building a relationship with Olek (Oskar Rybaczek), a younger local lover who is not yet ready to embrace his sexual identity.

Based on real events, All Our Fears tells the moving story of one brave man, raised in the countryside and engaged in the activities of the Catholic Church, who attempts to peacefully merge the important aspects of his life while refusing to accept hate and intolerance.

Watch the trailer for All Our Fears below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘The Sons of Tennessee Williams’ charts the evolution of the Mardi Gras drag scene

Paying homage to monumental queer documentaries like The Queen and Paris is Burning, director Tim Wolff’s film The Sons of Tennessee Williams interweaves archival footage with contemporary interviews to chart the evolution of drag and politics in the gay Mardi Gras scene.

Having come of age in New Orleans in the 1940s and ’50s, gay krewe members reminisce fondly of being inspired by the opulence of the Mardi Gras festivities, a hotbed for decadence and dress-up.

Seven years before the first rock was thrown at Stonewall, the gay krewes began throwing lavish balls as a sendup of their straight society counterparts and have since become a powerful force in city politics.

Members, many of them now in their seventies and eighties, discuss the importance of creating safe spaces at a time of police crackdowns in gay clubs, gaining a seat at the political table, the toll of AIDS and Hurricane Katrina on the community, and the importance of passing on the torch to a younger generation.

With oversized wigs and lavish costumes, these unlikely political activists strut their stuff with style, grace, and an eye toward the future.

Watch the trailer for The Sons of Tennessee Williams below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Two Hawaiian schoolboys fall in love in the heartwarming new romance ‘My Partner’

Two high school boys from seemingly different worlds fall in love in My Partner, a charming and colorful new gay romance from Hawaii.

Directed by Kanaka Maoli filmmaker Keli’i Grace and based on an original story by Lance D. Collins, the film explores the relationship between Edmar (played by Jayron Munoz), a high-achieving Filipino student, and Pili (played by Kaipo Dudoit), a Native Hawaiian student-athlete.

As they navigate budding young love and self-growth in Hawaii, their journey reflects the complexities of the area’s evolving cultural landscape.

Sexy, heartwarming and deeply romantic, My Partner breaks some new ground, offering up a unique take on love and identity and marking the first time that the wildly popular ‘Boys Love’ subgenre has been portrayed through a modern Hawaiian story.

Check out the poster for My Partner below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A legendary entertainer and pioneer gets her due in the documentary ‘Miwa: A Japanese Icon’

Male actor Akihiro Miwa came to prominence in Japan back in 1968 while playing the glamorous heroine of the film Black Lizard.

A legendary entertainer and a pioneer of gay activism, Miwa popularized androgyny as a fashion statement, fusing the masculine and the feminine into a new generation of aesthetics. This evolved into performing as a woman and living off-stage as a man.

With glitter, wit, evening gowns and enchanting storytelling, Miwa: A Japanese Icon, the celebrated new documentary from director Pascal-Alex Vincent, looks back over a 50-year career and a fascinating life in Japanese music, film and television.

Having sold millions of records, Miwa continues to fight for gay rights, among other issues. Miwa: A Japanese Icon reveals the life story of this wonderful performer and unapologetic social critic.

Watch the trailer for Miwa: A Japanese Icon below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

An Australian teen discovers his sexuality in the tender coming-of-age drama ‘Sunflower’

Set in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Sunflower follows Leo (Liam Mollica), a seventeen-year-old who leads a seemingly typical life.

While he’s hanging out with his friends, bickering with his Italian family at the dinner table, going to school or making out with his new girlfriend Monique (Olivia Fildes), he’s also guarding a secret he’s been too afraid to confront – a hidden truth buried deep within.

As Leo grapples with his inner turmoil, he finds himself unexpectedly drawn to his best friend Boof (Luke J. Morgan) and a quiet, introverted boy at school named Tom (Daniel Halmarick). These newfound feelings force Leo to confront his true desires and bring him closer to accepting his identity.

Everything changes after a high school gathering when rumors about Leo’s sexuality begin to circulate – shattering his once stable world. Faced with the fear of rejection from those closest to him, Leo must navigate the uncertain waters of acceptance and love.

A masterfully-crafted feature-length debut from Australian writer-director Gabriel Carrubba, Sunflower is a vibrant, sexy and deeply affecting portrait of one young man who finds hope – and himself – in the face of adversity.

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

‘Seed Money’ looks into the life of legendary gay porn producer and philanthropist Chuck Holmes

As the head of Falcon Studios, Chuck Holmes became one of the most influential gay figures of the 20th century, his work viewed by millions of men at a time when most cinematic representations of gay life were either blatantly homophobic or strictly relegated the art house.

Starting in the early 1970s, Chuck revolutionized the newly legal gay porn industry, assertive in his belief gay men deserved positive representations – and that quality gay films would help them change their sense of self.

He fought legal battles and personal demons, surfacing in the late ’80s as a major contributor to the growing gay rights movement — only to find that the community he helped create now thought of him as a liability.

Through extensive use of film footage, archival material and interviews with Chuck’s friends, lovers, activists and fellow adult filmmakers, the groundbreaking feature-length documentary Seed Money follows the sensational story of Chuck’s incredible rise, his cultural and philanthropic contributions to gay culture and his struggle to achieve respect – even in death.

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

A filmmaker shares the final years of his elderly gay uncle in the moving documentary ‘Much Ado About Dying’

When filmmaker Simon Chambers receives a call from his elderly gay uncle – who states, gravely, that he thinks he may be dying – he takes it as a summons.

As it turns out, eccentric Uncle David, a retired, Shakespeare-obsessed actor living alone in a cluttered, mouse-infested house in London, is being dramatic… sort of.

For the next five years, Chambers both cares for and documents him, through all of his performative exuberance, anarchic charisma and mood swings, as various people, including a sexy young hustler, possibly try to take advantage of the precarious situation.

As their lives become encumbered by hospital visits, a house fire and Britain’s inadequate eldercare system, the young filmmaker – also single and queer – reflects with aching honesty on what may await him in the years to come.

A must-see documentary by turns both joyously funny and achingly sad, Much Ado About Dying is a thought-provoking study of what it means to live – and die – with dignity.

Watch the trailer for Much Ado About Dying below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Lead actors Nick Ferrucci and Benjamin Farmer return for the final entry in ‘The Falls Trilogy’

Brace yourself for the emotional final entry of director Jon Garcia’s The Falls Trilogy. The original film, about two Mormon missionaries who fall in love, was released in 2012 to such great acclaim that it spawned two unexpected, but wholly welcome sequels.

In The Falls: Covenant of Grace, the third installment, lead actors Nick Ferrucci and Benjamin Farmer reprise their roles as R.J. and Chris, two men who seem destined to be together despite overwhelming obstacles.

Now finally together, the pair are struggling to make their relationship work amid conflicts with their families and their faith. Determined to put the past behind them, the two men set in motion a quest for unconditional love that ultimately leads them to the very top of the Latter Day Saints leadership.

Handling controversial topics with great sensitivity, this final trilogy entry has resonated with LGBTQ+ audiences around the world.

Don’t miss this exquisitely moving third chapter – and make sure to check out The Falls and the first sequel The Falls: Testament of Love, both of which are also streaming right now on Dekkoo.

Mormon lovers R.J. and Chris reunite in the bittersweet second entry of ‘The Falls Trilogy’

The second entry in the romantic trilogy from writer-director Jon Garcia, The Falls: Testament of Love reunites lead actors Benjamin Farmer and Nick Ferrucci as former Mormon missionaries and doomed lovers R.J. and Chris.

Picking up five years after the events of The Falls, we learn that the young men’s lives have taken radically different paths. Just as they are beginning to put the past behind them and establish their adult lives, the death of a mutual friend brings them unexpectedly back together.

As old feelings of affection and regret are rekindled, R.J. and Chris must once again confront their seemingly impossible love. Will their reunion prove that the two are fated to be together… or will reality come crashing down on them once again?

Farmer and Ferrucci deliver remarkably natural performances once again in this bittersweet romantic drama that has a lot to say about religion, familial obligations, sexual repression and first love.

Watch the trailer for The Falls: Testament of Love below. The film, along with the original in the trilogy, are now streaming on Dekkoo. The third entry, The Falls: Covenant of Grace, will be available later this month.