Category: Short Film

Short Film Spotlight: Vermont

Desires shift after a trip to the mountains in the kaleidoscopic 20-minute short Vermont.

Ryan McDermott, making his acting debut, stars as a young man who, having recently returned from a winter trip to the mountains, drifts through New York City – contemplating an unseen landscape and exploring liaisons with various men.

The film also features a number of other non-actors who make up an ever-shifting ensemble cast of mostly queer men.

Shot on 16mm by cinematographer Robert Orlowski and set to a piano and flute score composed by Cody Boyce, Vermont is heavy on style and atmosphere. It feels like a mysterious and contemplative lost indie from the 1970s heyday of underground New York cinema. We can’t wait to see what writer-director Joseph Barglowski gets up to next.

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

Short Film Spotlight: Before You Go

The 14-minute short Before You Go follows Daniel (Nícola Vilander) and his best friend Franco (Joaquín Batarce), who are on a camping trip together at a remote lake in Patagonia.

When their backpack and tent fall down a cliff, they’re forced to seek shelter during a storm. Finding an unoccupied cabin, they decide to break a window and trespass inside.

Alone together in the house, they begin to celebrate their last days together before going their separate ways for college. Daniel is yet to come clean about his feelings for Franco, but as their time together comes to a close and their trip takes more than a few harrowing turns, the true nature of their feelings will be brought to the fore.

Beautifully crafted by co-directors Vicente del Río Laya and Hans von Marées Pededeand and packed with subtle emotion and sexual tension, Before You Go is a bittersweet coming-of-age short about the early romantic infatuations that linger.

Watch a short teaser for Before You Go below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Incomplete

From talented actor, writer, director and dancer Sasha Korbut, the new 15-minute short Incomplete examines feelings of loneliness in a crowded world that’s simultaneously connected and apart.

A young man, alone in a phone booth on a New York City street corner, holds a hand-written letter that expresses his longing and desire for a man he’s yet to meet. As we hear the letter read aloud, we’re invited to watch his fantasies of connection in quick bits of dance with random men – pairings that instantly come and go, never quite right.

Each of the three main dances in the film explore different aspects of connection – intellectual, physical and spiritual. Finally, in a crowded square, the young man begins to dance on his own. His movements become a scream of desperation, a way to be seen and heard. Soon, he finds an inner peace that he never imagined and learns that he’s not really as alone as he thought.

A heady experimental film with gorgeous production values, Incomplete asks the question: do we need another person in our lives to feel complete, or are we really missing a connection within ourselves?

Watch a short trailer for Incomplete below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: The Letter Men

Between the years 1938 and 1941, a British man named Gordon Bowsher wrote over 200 love letters to his sweetheart, Gilbert Bradley, while he was off in combat during World War II.

Surviving records of queer relationships from that time period are rare. Presumably, most letters would have been destroyed out of fear of discovery. But luckily, Gordon’s letters have survived. Gilbert kept them safe until his death in 2007 – and they were eventually discovered by museum curators in 2015.

Now, more than 80 years after they were first written, the letters represent the largest known collection of LGBTQ+ love notes from the era. With exceptional production values and a fleet 8-minute runtime, director Andy Vallentine manages to craft an epic depiction of one gay love story that was almost lost to time.

Using Gordon’s own words, The Letter Men transports us back to that era, showing us not only the battlefields and the air raid shelters, but the deepest recesses of the human heart.

Featuring truly swoon-worthy lead performances from actors Matthew Postlethwaite and Garrett Clayton, the film offers a unique window into the untold true story of two gay men who were desperately in love, torn apart by war and unknowingly fated to live on in queer history.

Watch a short trailer for The Letter Men below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: The Oddity in the Blue Crayfish

The Oddity in the Blue Crayfish follows Edo (Alessandro Cantalini), an eighteen-year-old who is suffering from premature hair loss – and he’s not happy about it.

To make matters worse, his boyfriend, Federico, is about to return home to Italy after spending a year abroad in school.

Edo becomes determined to find a cure for his sudden balding before the man he loves arrives. With some perhaps misguided encouragement from his mother, Alessandra, and his best friend, Luigi, he decides to start using some experimental drops to help with his problem.

Unfortunately, though his hair grows back, the drops prove to have some horrific side effects. On top of that, once Federico arrives home, it becomes apparent that he’s been experiencing some changes of his own.

From Simone Marino, an Italian short filmmaker who got his start working under director Paolo Sorrentino on the acclaimed HBO series ‘The New Pope,’ The Oddity in the Blue Crayfish is a 16-minute parable about how transformation is not only possible, but sometimes inevitable.

Watch a short trailer for The Oddity in the Blue Crayfish below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Family Affair

From writer-producer Ernest Anemone and director Julio Dowansingh, Family Affair is a heartwarming 15-minute queer comedy short about the secrets we keep, the friendships we make and, as the title would suggest, the families we’re born into.

Bear D’Angelo stars as Tanner, a high school senior who seems to have everything going for him. He’s smart, he’s athletic and he’s popular… but there’s something – or rather someone – taking up his time lately. And Tanner feels that, at all costs, he must keep it a secret from his mother.

We don’t want to give away any more of the plot because there are some delightful surprises in store for viewers who aren’t sure where the story is going.

Created by a cast and crew mostly consisting of queer and BIPOC creatives, Family Affair tells an uplifting story about one mother-son relationship while aiming to normalize and destigmatize queer identities across the board.

Watch a short teaser trailer for Family Affair below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.