New This Week – 8/10/18

The gay movie "Priest" is now available on Dekkoo.com!

A homosexual Catholic priest finds out during confessional that a young girl is being sexually abused by her father, and has to decide how to deal with both that secret and his own. ‘Priest’ is now available to stream on Dekkoo!

The gay short film "Call Your Father" is available to stream on Dekkoo.com

On Josh and Greg’s first date, they quickly realize that the generational divide between them is the least of their worries. The gay short film ‘Call Your Father’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

The documentary 'Married and Counting' is available to stream on Dekkoo.com

Two gay men celebrate their 25th anniversary by traveling across the country to get married in every state that will let them. The documentary ‘Married and Counting’ is now available to stream on Dekkoo!

____________________________

Coming next week – Matthias lives in Berlin. Matthias likes techno. Matthew likes Matthias. Matthew wants Matthias. Matthew wants to be Matthias.

Get ‘Woke’ on Dekkoo!

Winner of the “Best Web Series” award at the La Rochelle Fiction Festival in 2017 and the “Best LGBT Series” award at the UK Web Fest that same year, the gay drama series Woke (originally titled Les Engages) is now available to watch on Dekkoo!

Mehdi Meskar and Eric Pucheu in Woke: Season One (Les Engages) – now streaming on Dekkoo

The show follows Hicham (Mehdi Meskar), who runs away from his home and comes to Lyon looking for Thibaut (Eric Pucheu), an attractive young man who had tried to kiss him just a few years before… and left a lasting impression.

Mehdi Meskar and Eric Pucheu in Woke: Season One (Les Engages) – now streaming on Dekkoo

Thibaut is an activist at the local LGBT Community Center. Hicham soon discovers his world. As his process of self-discovery unfolds, Hicham’s initial apprehension soon turns to enthusiasm. However, he soon comes to find that Thibaut isn’t exactly the person he appears to be.

Mehdi Meskar and Eric Pucheu in Woke: Season One (Les Engages) – now streaming on Dekkoo

Check out the trailer below and catch up on all the action on Dekkoo – where all ten episodes of the first season are now streaming.

Film Comment Magazine touts Dekkoo!

Founded in 1962, Film Comment magazine features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world.

In the July-August 2018 issue, Michael Koresky (the director of editorial and creative strategy at Film Society of Lincoln Center; the co-founder and co-editor of Reverse Shot; a frequent contributor to the Criterion Collection; and the author of the book Terence Davies, published by University of Illinois Press) calls Dekkoo a, “…a welcome addition to the lineup of niche platforms, such as FilmStruck and Shudder, that truly seem to care about who’s watching and why…”

READ KORESKY’S ARTICLE “HOME MOVIES: A VERY NATURAL SELECTION” HERE!

Get lost in the beauty of ‘Malila: The Farewell Flower’

Former gay lovers Shane and Pitch reunite after years apart and try to heal the wounds of their past. Shane is haunted by the tragic death of his daughter, while Pitch suffers a grave illness, rejecting medical treatment as painful and ineffective. Pitch creates beautiful structures of flowers and banana leaves as a way to cope. Meanwhile, Shane trains to become a Buddhist monk, to build karma for Pitch to either keep him alive or to help in his afterlife. A remarkably beautiful, spiritual film, Malila: The Farewell Flower is as close to transcendent as cinema gets.

Anuchit Sapanpong and Sukollawat Kanarot in Malila: The Farewell Flower

Born in Nakhon Phanom, north-eastern Province of Thailand, in 1981, writer-director Anucha Boonyawatana heads up one of the largest video production companies in Thailand. Her student film, Down the River, which, like much of her work, combines Buddhist philosophy, Thai art and a gay love story, won numerous awards and was even given a release in the United States. She followed that up with her debut feature The Blue Hour, which screened in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015.

Anuchit Sapanpong and Sukollawat Kanarot in Malila: The Farewell Flower

Malila: The Farewell Flower, Boonyawatana’s second full-length feature, might also be her most gorgeous, haunting and heady. It’s streaming right now on Dekkoo. Check out the trailer below.

New This Week – 7/27/18

This is the art for the gay series, 'About Us'

Ayden and Brent work together to maintain a healthy relationship as two gay men in a society where they are setup to fail. Binge-watch the entire first season of ‘About Us’.

This is the art for the gay short film, 'Like Father'

A Jewish New Yorker is bedridden patriarch dying of lung cancer, confesses for the first time to son that he was always attracted to men. Despite his long-lasting marriage and faithfulness to wife. Watch the gay short film ‘Like Father’ now on Dekkoo!


This is the art for the gay film 'Off Beat'

Mischa, a rap producer, is in a secret relationship with Lukas, a young performer, who is spiraling out of control on drugs and the fear that he is past his prime. When Lukas’ younger brother begins to capture Mischa’s attention the siblings begin to compete for the spotlight and Mischa. Watch ‘Off Beat’ now on Dekkoo!

______________________

Coming next week: A brand new gay film that has an eye for natural splendor and a feel for humanity’s existential fears.

Just added: ‘Off Beat’

Off Beat follows 26-year-old Lukas (Hans-Jakob Mühlethaler), who is not so much living as floating.

His dream of making it as a musician is on the wane and his great passion – freestyle hip-hop – has also past its heyday. Lukas lives with his producer, 46-year-old Mischa (Domenico Pecoraio), in an old loft where they cultivate cannabis. They have been having a turbulent affair for years – but this is a closely guarded secret.

Hans-Jakob Mühlethaler in Off Beat - Now Streaming on Dekkoo

Lukas has grown cold inside and only really feels himself in moments of excess. Drunk and coked-up to the eyeballs, he toils his way through a gig in a small club. In the audience his sixteen-year-old brother Sämi (Manuel Neuburger), an ambitious rapper himself, feels nothing but shame for his brother’s embarrassing performance.

Mischa decides that he has had enough of Lukas’ escapades and suggests they ask Sämi to join the band. Sensing that he is about to be substituted, Lukas gets out of his head and starts to take back control of his life.

Jan Gassmann's Off Beat - Original Film Festival Poster Art

A gritty drama that shines a spotlight on a corner of closeted gay life not often seen on film, Swiss writer-director Jan Gassmann’s Off Beat is now streaming on Dekkoo. Check out the trailer below.

Watch the short (soon to be feature) film Breaking Fast

Well-received by critics, audiences and juries at film festivals all around the globe, writer-director Mike Mosallam‘s short film Breaking Fast is currently on the path to becoming a feature film. The original short is now available on Dekkoo!

Ryan P. Shrime and Tom Berklund in Breaking Fast

The 17-minute short follows Mo (Ryan P. Shrime), an Arab-American Muslim man dealing with heartbreak. Soon into the film, Mo meets Kal (Tom Berklund), a very sweet and attractive All-American dude. At first, Mo assumes that the two of them will have little to nothing in common. To his great surprise, however, Kal offers to break fast with him during the month of Ramadan. As the two men learn more and more about each other, they begin to fall in love.

Ryan P. Shrime in Breaking Fast

“My intention was to tell a story that my friends and I could see ourselves in – one that spoke to the nuances of daily life and treated identity: religious, sexual, gender and otherwise, as harmonious lenses by which individuals interact with the world around them,” said Mosallam during an interview with the Arab Film Festival, where he was selected as a juror. “When a friend asked what characters in modern cinema I felt best represented my journey, as a Muslim, I was at a complete loss to name one.”

Mosallam is working to change that in ways both big and small – and Breaking Fast is certainly a step in the right direction. Check out the trailer below and make sure to watch the film on Dekkoo.

Artist Paul Harfleet turns Pansies into Power

Watch Pansy now on Dekkoo!

Artist Paul Harfleet’s family had always accepted his sexuality, but it was a different story outside the home. Like many young gay people, he regularly faced abuse. So, like any artist worth his salt, he turned that trauma into something brilliant: The Pansy Project.

The Pansy Project; Pansy Documentary

Harfleet plants pansies at sites where some form of homophobic abuse has taken place. He’ll go to the location, find the nearest source of soil and (generally without civic permission – ssshhh!) plants one unmarked pansy. The flower is then photographed (beautifully, we might add), uploaded to his website, given a title inspired by the abuse. Titles like “Let’s kill the Bati-Man!” and “Fucking Faggot!” reveal a frequent reality of the gay experience, which often goes unreported to authorities and by the media in certain parts of the world.

Paul Harfleet's The Pansy Project; Pansy Documentary

This simple action operates as a gesture of quiet resistance. Some pansies flourish, while others wilt. The artist began by planting pansies to mark his own experience of homophobia on the streets of Manchester, but now he plants them for others both on an individual basis and as part of various festivals and events.

Harfleet has visited cities all over Europe. To date, he has planted almost 300 individual pansies. His photographs have been exhibited internationally in Berlin, Paris, London and his hometown of Manchester, where the project began.

Paul Harfleet's The Pansy Project; Pansy Documentary

Following Harfleet as he brings the project to France for the first time, the new documentary Pansy is now streaming on Dekkoo. From Paris to Marseille, via Lille, Strasbourg and Avignon, Harfleet goes searching for testimonies and exposes the prejudices and discrimination gay people still face.

Check out the trailer for Pansy below and make sure to watch the full film on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 7/20/18

This is the art for the gay series, 'Woke'

Hicham runs away from his home and comes to Lyon, looking for Thibaut, a young man who tried to kiss him a few years earlier. Thibaut is an activist at the ‘G-Spot’, a LGBT Center. Hicham enters his world, apprehensive but enthusiastic. However, as Hicham begins a journey to find his own identity, he comes to understand that Thibaut isn’t exactly who he appears to be. ‘Woke’ is available to binge-watch now on Dekkoo!

This is the art for the gay short, 'VGL-Hung!'

An average gay guy discovers a magic website that can change him into the fantasy man he desires, but there is a price to pay. ‘VGL-Hung!’ is available to stream now!

This is the art for the classic gay film, 'Come Undone'

Eighteen-year-old Mathieu vacations at the beach with his family when he meets local teen Cédric. After an extremely erotic kiss, the boys begin a passionate romance, complete with skinny-dipping at night, nude dancing on the beach and intense lovemaking in the dunes; yet, as Mathieu grapples with his sexuality and copes with his sick mother, absent father and annoying kid sister, his bond with Cédric grows stronger until it bursts. The gay classic film ‘Come Undone’ is available now on Dekkoo!

___________________

Coming next week: Two men of color work together to maintain a healthy relationship in a society where they are set up to fail.