Category: Pride

It’s time for your next check-up! ‘Metro Sexual’ returns with a hilarious new season!

Metro Sexual, Australia’s first sitcom led by LGBTQ+ characters, is back with a brand-new season.

Filmed in a mockumentary style, the series stars Riley Nottingham and Geraldine Hickey as Langdon and Steph, two Melbourne-based sexual health doctors who have their work cut out for them.

In Metro Sexual: Season Two, their lives are turned upside down when a new dating app causes an explosion of sexually transmitted infections across the state.

While the first season featured a collection of short 10-minute episodes, Season Two has been expanded to become a proper half-hour sitcom. The longer episode format allowed the creators to tell more complex stories, add more main characters and write more nuanced season-long arcs, all while continuing their commitment to use the show to destigmatize sexual health issues.

Watch the trailer for the new season below. Both seasons of Metro Sexual are now available on Dekkoo!

‘The Schoolmaster Games’ is a wildly original and deeply homoerotic high school melodrama

Based on a novel by Swedish author Kristofer Folkhammar and inspired by both American high school movies and gay porn, the unusual genre hybrid The Schoolmaster Games brings to life a vibrant alternate reality where sexuality is freely expressed, but manipulative power games are always at play just beneath the surface.

Desires are running wild at Saint Sebastian, a high school populated entirely by gay men. At this school, everyone is completely free to express their sexuality however they choose.

At the start of the year, much-desired heartthrob Charles (Christian Arnold) enters into a secret sexual power game orchestrated by the strict schoolmaster (Johan Ehn) – who is tortured by memories of his own repression during a time before the erotic acceptance that currently prevails at the school.

When the competition for the prestigious “Winter Procession” tightens, friendships crack and their whole utopian existence begins to fall apart piece by piece.

From Swedish director Ylva Forner, The Schoolmaster Games is a colorful, original and thrillingly homoerotic high school melodrama like no film ever before.

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

Ten men deliver ten different ‘Confessions’ in this intimate, genre-hopping anthology film

What secrets are to be found beneath the surface of the average gay man? Taking a peak behind numerous curtains, writer-director Mark Bessenger’s Confessions, aims to answer that very question.

An anthology film, featuring ten different disclosures from ten different men, Confessions goes deep inside the recesses of the gay male psyche.

We meet a young man who has to find the bravery to tell his parents that he’s a puppet, despite the fact they think that puppets are disgusting and abnormal. We meet another man who slowly undresses while revealing that he may have kidnapped someone and is holding him hostage in his basement.

In another segment, a hot young guy talks about what he’s really looking for as he lies in the arms of another man. And in perhaps the most interesting of all the vignettes, a man slowly shaves off his beard, changing his appearance and finding a new persona that allows him to explore the fact that, despite being with a woman, he has strong desires for men.

Spanning themes that are dark, sexy, intense, funny, romantic and shocking, Confessions turns a spotlight on characters you don’t often get to see – but will not want to turn away from.

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

Get ready to go ‘Deep in Vogue’ with this documentary about the Manchester ICONS Ball

Over the course of one year, British documentary filmmakers Dennis Keighron-Foster and Amy Watson developed relationships with the house mothers and members of the local Manchester drag community – charting the buildup to the wild and wonderful ‘Manchester ICONS Vogue Ball.’

Deep in Vogue celebrates the colorful, emotional, political and deeply queer stories of the vogue scene in the United Kingdom and the many talented people involved in the community.

Synonymous with the gay ballrooms of ‘80s New York, this documentary asks why we need Vogue in Manchester now more than ever. While focusing their cameras around the Manchester ICONS Vogue Ball, the filmmakers examine important themes – like the disenfranchisement of black youth and the often reductive ways in which gay subcultures become commercialized.

Offering a deep and candid look at one welcoming community, Deep in Vogue is ultimately about people coming to love and accept themselves while finding a new family – and putting on a hell of a show in the process.

Watch the trailer for Deep in Vogue below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A personal video sparks a media firestorm in the acclaimed Singaporean drama ‘#LookatMe’

When twin brothers Sean and Ricky are invited to attend church with Sean’s girlfriend, they are treated to an Evangelical rock concert capped by a searing anti-gay sermon.

Incensed by what he’s seen, Sean, a Youtuber, decides to drop an outrageous video lampooning the megachurch’s pastor, but soon finds himself widely condemned – and even prosecuted – for flouting Singapore’s strict laws on public expression.

As Sean descends into near-madness in prison, Ricky gains prominence as an LGBTQ+ activist. Both find themselves at the heart of a culture war that spills out from social media into the real world.

Featuring an impressive lead performance by Yao (sometimes credited as Thomas Pang), an up-and-coming Singaporean actor who plays both brothers, #LookatMe blends together a wide variety of moods and genres, veering from deadly serious to colorfully camp without ever losing sight of its humanity.

Banned from screening in Singapore during a particularly ironic moment of life imitating art, director Ken Kwek’s acclaimed film tells a morally essential fable about social media celebrity, cancel culture and the erosion of basic human rights.

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

‘Jump, Darling’ showcases a knockout performance by the late, great Cloris Leachman

The late, great Cloris Leachman delivers one of her finest late-career film roles in the moving, critically-acclaimed comedy-drama Jump, Darling.

Thomas Duplessie stars in the film as Russell, a struggling actor who moonlights as a drag queen under the name of Fishy Falters. Finding himself at crossroads in both his career and personal life, he escapes to the country and into the arms of Margaret, his aging grandmother (played by Leachman).

The pair soon find themselves in a mutually beneficial arrangement. As Margaret fights to avoid being put in an assisted living facility, Russell decides to move in and help. He also takes to the stage once more, using a local bar to showcase his glamorous skills and strike up a new romance with an attractive young bartender.

Leachman’s unparalleled comic timing and grounded pathos are used to great effect in writer-director Phil Connell’s intimate, genuinely heartfelt story, which features show-stopping musical numbers and profound truths about family dynamics.

An award-winning crowd-pleaser with humor and heart to spare, Jump, Darling is a true must-see about love, family and maintaining your dignity – no matter what your age is.

Watch the trailer for Jump, Darling below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Logan Miller stars in the gripping gay indie family drama ‘Take Me to the River’

Writer-director Matt Sobel’s assured directorial debut Take Me to the River tells the story of an artsy, confident and proudly gay California teen who is reluctantly heading to Nebraska with his parents for a for a family reunion.

Logan Miller, the charismatic, scene-stealing young character actor from Love, Simon, Escape Room and countless indie gems, stars as Ryder, the gay teen in question. Though his parents are supportive, there is some question over how the rest of their extended family will react to his lifestyle.

After planning to come out to his conservative relatives, he agrees to hold off at his mother’s request. Nevertheless, he makes a showy entrance at the cookout with his short shorts and eye-catching shades.

No one seems particularly impressed – except for a 9-year old cousin named Molly (played by Ursulla Parker), who follows him around adoringly. When they go to the barn to look for birds in the rafters and she comes back screaming and inconsolable, Ryder comes under suspicion from the rest of the family. In the process of clearing his name, he learns that some family secrets are better left in the dark.

Co-starring Robin Weigert, Richard Schiff and Josh Hamilton, Take Me to the River is a gripping, thoughtfully layered and superbly well-acted drama about clashing cultures, buried secrets and the ties that bind us.

Watch the trailer for Take Me to the River below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Mikey’s Army

When you are facing a crisis, who goes to battle for you?

In a time when queer kids face unprecedented attacks and hostility from lawmakers, educators and even their own families, writer Eric Ulloa and director Andrew Keenan-Bolger set out to make a short film that puts the beauty – and even magic – of queerness at center stage.

Mikey’s Army stars Markie Aquirre as Mikey Alvarez, a 16-year-old who finds himself at a pivotal moment. He must decide whether or not to be open and honest about his sexuality.

Not quite ready to come out on his own, Mikey unwittingly conjures a trio of guides who appear in an explosion of glitter and glitz. Backed up by a drag queen, an international pop star and an action film heartthrob, he finally finds the courage and confidence he needs to be honest about his feelings.

Featuring a cast of Broadway-regulars like Claybourne Elder and Krystina Alabado – alongside ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ alum Shuga Cain – Mikey’s Army is a thoughtful and touching film that aims to remind us that our differences can be superpowers – and that we’re never alone on the battlefield.

Watch a short teaser trailer for Mikey’s Army below. The 10-minute film is now available on Dekkoo.

Three teen outcasts band together in the Italian coming-of-age drama ‘One Kiss’

Young actors Rimau Ritzberger Grillo, Valentina Romani and Leonardo Pazzagli star in One Kiss as Lorenzo, Blu and Antonio, high school sophomores living in a small city in the North of Italy.

All three teens are outcasts, albeit for different reasons. Antonio is a jock, but gets picked on for his speech impediment. Blu has an unfair reputation in town for being promiscuous due to one prior indiscretion. Lorenzo is not afraid to be open about his sexuality, despite rampant homophobia.

Though they come from different backgrounds, the three share a strong bond and soon band together to fight against their oppressors. However, when Lorenzo starts making evident his attraction to Antonio, petty jealousies threaten to tear the trio apart.

Directed by Ivan Cotroneo, the prolific writer behind Luca Guadagnino’s 2009 international hit I Am Love, One Kiss plays around with the expectations of your typical teen coming-of-age movie. This is a film about friendship and emerging sexuality that isn’t afraid to go deep and show both the brightest and darkest moments of adolescence.

Watch the trailer for One Kiss below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Jean Fell in Love

A pulse-pounding and ultimately heart-warming 20-minute short from French writer-director Romain Roellet, Jean Fell in Love follows events that take place during the final weeks of a heated rugby tournament.

Jean (Simon Rerolle), the star player of his team, is on the cusp of earning a much-coveted trophy. When he meets Ayoub (Tristan Zanchi), a newcomer from an opposing team, the spark between them is immediately apparent.

The pair make plans to get together for a walk through the park the following day. When Ayoub kisses Jean for the first time, however, they’re inconveniently spotted by Greg (Pierre Louis Laugérias), a less-then-supportive teammate whose over-the-top homophobia betrays a not-so thinly veiled jealousy.

News soon travels to the locker room, where Jean is forced out of the closet before he’s ready. Finally faced with the truth, he decides that it’s time to start winning on his own terms.

With terrific performances, a charming romance at its core and lots of hot athletic flesh on display, Jean Fell in Love is ready to make you swoon and break a sweat.

Watch a short trailer for Jean Fell in Love below. The film is now available to watch on Dekkoo.