Category: Pride

Alexandra Billings stars in the endearing and inspiring comedy-drama ‘Queen Tut’

‘Transparent’ actress Alexandra Billings stars in the endearing comedy-drama Queen Tut as a trans stage veteran who takes an aspiring seamstress and drag queen under her wings.

Following the death of his mother, Egyptian-raised teen Nabil (Ryan Ali) reluctantly moves to Toronto to live with his traditionally-minded father. There he meets Malibu (Billings) who is on her own crusade to protect Mandy’s, her drag nightclub and queer haven, from demolition.

The shy Nabil, wanting to learn how to sew like his late seamstress mother, finds a drag mentor in the exuberant Malibu, who makes all her own dresses.

As the boy begins to find his true self, the local community’s fight to save their favorite nightclub quickly escalates, pitting Nabil against his architect father and drag queens and queers against the gentrification-minded establishment.

Funny, inspiring and packed with memorable performances, Queen Tut is a rousingly entertaining and insightful coming-out drag tale which has left audiences cheering at film festivals all around the globe.

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

Two men’s marriage plans cause a media firestorm in the romantic drama ‘Mysterious Ways’

From Paul Oremland, the New Zealand-based filmmaker behind 100 Men, Surveillance 24/7 and Like It Is, Mysterious Ways tells the powerful and courageous story of two men who become torn between their faith, their families and their love for one another.

Anglican priest Peter (played by British actor Richard Short, from The Tragedy of Macbeth and the Canadian TV series ‘Mary Kills People’) and boyfriend Jason (played by newcomer Nick Afoa) want to get married.

For Anglicans, this is not allowed – and homosexuality itself is still taboo in Samoan culture. Samoan-Kiwi Jason has to deal with his family’s strict cultural beliefs while Peter clashes with the Anglican Church hierarchy.

When news of their marriage plans make headlines, it scandalizes the devout local community and unleashes a media storm that pushes the couple’s relationship to the limit.

A searing critique of the church’s attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community, Mysterious Ways is an impassioned and moving drama.

In the words of director Oremland, “Most religions still see being gay as sinful. This does huge harm to millions of people in terms of self-esteem, family rejection and legitimizing hatred. A love story where God is on our side is a powerful statement that is needed now more than ever.”

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

Short Film Spotlight: Life In Love with Nick and Kaiden

Meet new couple Nick and Kaiden. They’re navigating an unconventional work life and the politics of London’s queer community, as well as their blossoming partnership. Will their relationship, first built on sexual desire and lust, turn into the year’s sweetest love story?

Love should be a safe space, and Nick and Kaiden have spent the first few weeks of their relationship crafting that intimate, personal enclave. Shaving one another’s butts, talking about the complexities of sex work, and clubbing at queer parties in Leeds – it’s all there.

As we find out, their tentative first steps together reflect how important it is to stay raw and playful with each other.

Filmed as part of a docudrama series exploring Gen Z’s relationships, trysts and every encounter in between, Life in Love with Nick and Kaiden has been released as a stand-alone short film offering a glimpse into the most intimate moments of one young couple’s blossoming love affair.

Watch the trailer for Life in Love with Nick and Kaiden below. The short documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Paper Airplanes

A teen boy’s spiritual and sexual awakenings coincide in the poetic 17-minute short Paper Airplanes.

Santiago Cabrera stars in the film at Mateo, a young man who is living with his casually overbearing aunt while grappling with the loss of his mother.

In this vulnerable state, he finds himself unexpectedly connecting with the spiritual realm. Suddenly he’s being followed by the ghost of Enrique (Alex Orellana), a recently deceased classmate, who is rumored to have killed himself after his parents discovered that he was gay.

Comforted by Enrique’s spectral presence, the two grow increasingly closer. But is Mateo really experiencing supernatural visions – or is this his mind’s way of dealing with his own grief and repressed desires?

A meditative film from Ecuadorian writer-director Rob Mendoza, Paper Airplanes is a thoughtful and romantic queer ghost story, as well as a coming-of-age fable about growing into your own skin and learning to say goodbye.

Watch the trailer for Paper Airplanes below. The full short film is now available on Dekkoo.

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.