Discover great gay stories.

An interview and GORGEOUS photo shoot with Miles Szanto, star of ‘Teenage Kicks’

‘Teenage Kicks’ is the gutsy coming of age feature film debut from director Craig Boreham that has earned him the accolade of being a compelling new voice in Australian queer cinema.

The film stars Miles Szanto as Mik, a young man with an explosive burgeoning sexuality as he navigates a minefield of adolescence and his growing attraction to his best friend Dan. Miles received the Best Actor Award for the role at the prestigious Iris Prize in Wales with the festival jury saying “Miles Szanto’s performance was amazing. The juxtaposition between physical strength and emotional vulnerability was mesmerizing.”

‘Teenage Kicks’ is available on Dekkoo so we caught up with Miles who is now based in Los Angeles to hear about making the movie.

You’ve been acting since you were really young. Tell us a bit about your work up to now.

I’ve been doing this thing for a long time. I realized not long ago that my first professional acting gig was 18 years ago this year. I was incredibly timid and shy as a kid and started acting classes as a way to speak up a little. When I was pretending to be somebody else I had a confidence I never felt as myself. I was obsessed with the idea of storytelling and saw that as an actor I got to bring the story to life and be a vehicle for the message of that story. I recognized how powerful it was as a medium quite young.

‘Teenage Kicks’ is a very dark and sexy film. It’s a different direction from your previous work. What drew you to it?

Dark and sexy is a good summary of the film. I first encountered the film in it’s early incarnation as the short film version ‘Drowning’. I think I was 16 at the time, and up to that point I didn’t feel like the work I had been doing or the representations of adolescence on screen generally were really authentic. It mostly seemed to step past the agony and that fear that young people often experience. Every decision you make has this weight that feels like the effects will be permanent when you are figuring out who you are and who you want to be in the world. When I read ‘Drowning’ it felt honest and raw and spoke to a lot of the feelings I couldn’t quite articulate just yet. It felt like an important story to tell. There’s something magical about seeing a film and having that feeling of “me too” and that’s what excited me about ‘Drowning’ and ultimately ‘Teenage Kicks’. The opportunity of telling that story and giving voice to young people who had that feeling and maybe hadn’t felt represented before.

We see an awful lot of you in ‘Teenage Kicks’ and there’s some pretty racy sex scenes? What was it like shooting them?

Honestly, when it comes to the sexy stuff in this film it is treated the same as any other scene. What’s great about the moments of sexual intimacy (or lack there-of) in the film are they all serve a purpose to the narrative. I only really get uncomfortable with those kind of scenes if it feels like the only purpose is to titillate. So long as it’s connected to the story and arc it feels important and organic. Also important to mention that there are moments of full-frontal nudity in this film. Which I would have no problem with, if it wasn’t for the fact that we shot this film in the dead of winter. People don’t realize how cold Sydney get’s in the winter. I didn’t have the luxury of warmth to make sure every inch of me was picture ready… if you know what I mean…

‘Teenage Kicks’ is a pretty dark movie. Were there any lighter moments on set?

There were a few in retrospect. Although at the time because of the seriousness of the film we didn’t realize the hilarity of the moments… We shot a lot of scenes around this gorgeous pool at a mansion on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Which in theory is a fantastic location. But it had sat there unheated, chilled by the ocean breeze all winter. The pool was unimaginably cold. And considering I’d lost almost 20lbs for the role, I was chilled to the bone… We could only really be in the pool for thirty second intervals… Daniel Webber played my best friend and the object of my teen desire, Dan, and he and I would jump in, pulling happy faces trying to look all summery as our bodies were being frozen like ice blocks and then bolt to a warm shower until we had to jump in again. After about the third time of this sadistic torture method by Director Craig Boreham, we were on the floor of the shower, spooning in our underwear for body warmth, tears in our eyes, asking why we’d chosen this career path and if it was really worth it… Haha!

‘Teenage Kicks’ is available to stream exclusively on Dekkoo!

New This Week – 5/4/18

Prepare yourself for an open and honest conversation between fathers, their sons, and the boy next door. Binge the gay series ‘Honest Men’ now available on Dekkoo!

Two young men – one sighted, one blind – see the world and their bodies in different ways. Unexpectedly, they find a connection beyond the visual in the collision of taste, touch and sound. The connection is sensual, and within it they each find something new. Watch the gay short film ‘Neon Skin’ on Dekkoo!

Two young men spend the night together after meeting the previous evening in a notorious gay club. The next day, however, the host wakes to find the boy he picked up bewildered and confused, unable to remember his name or anything about his past. Lacking any type of identification or obvious clues, the boys begin to search for the truth among fragments of memories that may or may not prove reliable. Watch ‘Boy Undone’ weeks before it’s release on DVD only on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A brand new Dekkoo-original series!

DEKKOO DISPATCH 069 – ‘FINDING NEIGHBORS’

Title – ‘Finding Neighbors‘

Director – Ron Judkins

Starring – Michael O’Keefe, Catherine Dent, Blake Bashoff, Julie Mond

Release Date – 2013

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Welcome to dispatch number sixty-nine! I welcome you to please insert your favorite sixty-nine related joke/snortle here… Today we’re taking a look at a lovely feel-good mumblecore film shot in Los Angeles about the struggles of an aging marriage and the trials of struggling creatively. It’s true this film does come from a straight perspective, but a lot of the film’s focus comes from a gay next-door neighbor who has his own gay marriage problems.

Meet Sam, he was once a successful graphic novelist, but lately he’s hit a massive creative crisis which is taking a toll on every aspect of his personal life. His last book was a failure and now he’s in trouble with his publisher because he’s late on his new one. One day while procrastinating at a cafe he meets Jeff, a fellow “househusband” who’s acclimating to the “wonders” of married life (aka boredom). Technically it isn’t their first meeting, but their first pleasant meeting as the previous one was a middle-of-the-night misunderstanding wherein Jeff thought Sam was spying on him. It turns out that Jeff is a big fan of Sam’s early works and they strike up an easy friendship. Sam’s wife is a therapist so as you can imagine she’s constantly trying to analyze his current mid-life crisis. She suspects he’s sleeping with this really cute girl next door and has no clue that he’s really just spending all his time with Jeff.

I thought this movie was pretty darn cute. It definitely has a rough “indie” feel, but you can really tell that a lot of love went into this film. The pressure to constantly be a creative force in your professional life is something a lot of people can relate to and the character of Sam does a great job of relaying that to the audience. I do wish they’d dressed Jeff in clothes that actual gay men would wear and not those horrid button down dress shirts, but hey, straight people can’t do fashion as well as the gays! There are a lot of fun actors in these roles: Sam is played by Michael O’Keefe who was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting work in ‘The Great Santini”. Mary, his wife is played by Catherine Dent who you probably will know from ‘The Shield’. And in the role of Jeff’s husband Paul you’ll definitely recognize the hunky Sean Patrick Thomas from ‘Save the Last Dance’ and ‘Cruel Intentions’.

I’ll leave you today with the director’s statement on the film which will give you a bit more of an idea behind his inspiration for the film:

How does someone remain “relevant” in a youth-obsessed culture? How do people nourish intimate relationships long after the honeymoon is over? Is there a difference in the nature of love in gay vs. straight relationships? How do we maintain a sense of humor and grace while negotiating many of life’s setbacks?
The character of Sam in the story is any one of us who wonders if the creative edge that he once took for granted will still serve him. Mary is any one of us who as the dutiful spouse is forced to question whether the trust in her marriage is well founded. Jeff is any young man whose fixation on his past immobilizes him. Sherrie is any woman reveling in the heady powers of her sexuality, but yearning for more substantial relationships. These characters are people that I know.
I don’t see many filmmakers addressing these questions. But I know that the audience is there. I am the audience.
I’m smack dab in mid-life. Some of my peers are retiring, some “passing by the wayside,” and more than a few are feeling that modern culture has somehow passed them by. And in a large sense it has. But I consider this a great opportunity, because I am a member of one of the greatest underserved film audiences of all time: the aging baby boomers.
The studios produce very little content for this generation. Independent producers provide even less. And all the while, millions of us go to the theaters, rent DVDs and download to our flat screens, week in and week out.
But when I began writing Finding Neighbors, I wasn’t thinking about audiences or targeting markets. That’s really not my forte. I merely wanted to write and create something to which I could relate, something that concerned itself with issues that are close to me.

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Watch it with: Your hus-bear!

Mix it with: Some chardonnay – the perfect suburban drink.

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One Great Gay Shot – ‘Boy Undone’ (2017)

‘Boy Undone’ is available now to stream only on Dekkoo!

New This Week – 4/27/18

Set against the background of a broken U.S. immigration system, ‘A Place to Be’ is a love story between two young men, Abel & Diego. When tragedy strikes and Diego’s immigration status is revealed, Abel and Diego discover the power of love during uncertain times. From the Award Winning filmmaker Tadeo Garcia comes a love story for our time. Watch ‘A Place to Be’ now on Dekkoo one month before DVD!

The story of the only heterosexual flamingo and his desperate attempt to find love. Watch the wonderful animated short, ‘Flamingo Pride’ on Dekkoo!

David, the host of a local gay radio show in Buffalo, New York, struggles with self-doubt when his single sister asks him to be the father figure for her soon to be adopted Brazilian child. Stream ‘The David Dance’ now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A brand new chilling homoerotic thriller.

DEKKOO DISPATCH 068 – ‘ANOTHER GAY SEQUEL’

Title – ‘Another Gay Sequel‘

Director – Todd Stephens

Starring – Jonah Blechman, Jake Mosser, Jimmy Clabots, Aaron Michael Davies

Release Date – 2008

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In the spirit of the Avengers sequel (times 5!?!) coming out this weekend I wanted to touch on a sequel the gay community was graced with back in 2008. ‘Another Gay Sequel’ is the follow-up to the 2006 smash success ‘Another Gay Movie‘ which I profiled way back in Dekkoo Dispatch #20. I’m a big Todd Stephens fan so it was really incredible to hear that he was heading up the sequel. Too many times sequels are usually handed to someone else with the original director either uninterested in the project or just excited to move onto a fresh story. But Todd was eager to thrust us back into the lives of Andy, Nico, Griff, and Jarrod.

We last left our awkward protagonists in a state of pure orgasmic bliss. They’d just fulfilled a group promise to all lose their virginity over the course of a summer after high school graduation. Griff and Jarrod became boyfriends, Nico found an older daddy, and Andy ended up getting double penetrated by Griff and Jarrod’s ex-dates. Not bad for first times! The sequel starts with a ‘gag’ dream where Griff, Jarrod, and Andy all ‘die’ horrible lubed up deaths. Nico wakes with a start in a his bed and realizes it was all a dream… or was it? Because in fact we quickly realize that the actors that played the three hunky guys in the original look a little… different. Welcome to an industry where agents tell their actors that, “if you play two gay movies in a row people might think you’re actually gay”. Nico writes off the change of actors as a good thing, “Actually, they’re a lot cuter than I remember” and everyone immediately gets excited about SPRING BREAK IN FORT LAUDERDALE!!!!

That’s the focus of our gay sequel folks. A rowdy, dirty, and wild trip to sunny Ft. Lauderdale, Florida during spring break where the boys are shirtless all the time and the drinks flow until daybreak. Just like the original our sequel packs in the antics AND the cameos. We’ve got RuPaul, Perez Hilton, Lady Bunny, Brent Corrigan, Amanda Lepore, Colton Ford, Jim Verraros, & Michael Lucas just to name a fair few! The boys first stop after their ‘Snakes on a Plane’ moment on TransAmerica airlines is their adorable retro hotel filled with fellow gays on spring break. There they meet RuPaul or as she’s known in the film, Tyrell Tyrelle, who lets it be known that they’ve stumbled upon a grand event simply known as ‘Gays Gone Wild!’. The objective of the game is to rack up as many ‘fuckstamps’ as possible during the week by, ya know, fucking. Unfortunately there are complications. For one Griff & Jarrod as a couple have to figure out if they can participate, also there’s the Jaspers. The three Jaspers (Jasper and his two cronies: Jasper Chan and Jasper Pledge) are the reigning champions of the competition and won’t give up their title so easily.

Andy, who now brags about his sluttiness with gusto, gets to work almost immediately on collecting his fuckstamps. Nico on the other hand runs into an ‘unlucky tiki’ and thus is out of the game so to speak. Griff & Jarrod start to experiment with being in an open relationship which causes frictions within the group, but also creates an opening for a fantastic 3way cameo with Colton Ford. Sooo funny! Other fun problems include Perez Hilton running around the place trying to convince people to NOT have sex (he was hit over the head with a buttplug) and Andy’ dad (played by the incomparable Scott Thompson) trying to keep up with the boys in the competition. The whole movie is a hoot and while it might not be quite as fantastic as the first which was hilarious and compassionate in equal measures it still does an admirable job at making you laugh and squirm in equal measures. And the hot naked guys are an added plus for sure!

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Watch it with: All of your gay friends!

Mix it with: Mimosas, Martinis, whatever it takes!

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One Perfect Gay Shot – ‘Al Berto’ (2017)

‘Al Berto’ is now available to stream on Dekkoo.com months before its release on DVD!

Playing Gay for Pay: An Interview with John Suazo of ‘Coffee House Chronicles: The Movie’

We sat down in late February to talk with John Suazo, who plays the heteroflexible porn star and escort Kip in ‘Coffee House Chronicles: The Movie’, on Dekkoo. We wondered what it was like for a straight guy to be playing gay and bi in various film productions and web series the way he has.

Suazo’s first LGBT role was the J.C. Calciano-directed web series ‘Steam Room Stories’, also on Dekkoo, which was produced by fellow actor Nicholas Downs from ‘Coffee House Chronicles: The Movie’. Suazo said the producers asked, “‘Are you okay with twerking on camera?’ I said, ‘I’ll try.’” A legend was born.

Before he was modeling and acting, Suazo was in the Navy, and he was there when the infamously restrictive Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was repealed. Suazo says, “I had a couple of gay friends in the Navy. After the repeal a couple more came out. But as far as being accepting, I really hadn’t had gay friends until the military. And even though it is a very macho atmosphere, you work so hard and you sweat and bleed next to these people, and it really kind of opens your eyes to the fact that it doesn’t matter. Nobody’s trying to peek at me in the shower or try anything. They’re just people, and good guys.”

When Suazo moved to Los Angeles, before he turned to acting, he found that a number of photographers wanted him to model for them, and demand rose for Suazo as an underwear model. Almost all of the photographers were terrific to work with, Suazo says, and he met a number of gay men who welcomed him into their broader artistic community.

Given the revelations of the #MeToo movement, did Suazo have any experiences with photographers taking liberties during that time? He says, “Any shady experiences I’ve had were very few, and they were when I was brand new to L.A.” But a few times, Suazo admits, he had to say, “That’s not a legitimate project!” Suazo even walked out on one name photographer who was acting inappropriately.

Fortunately Suazo had a number of colleagues and collaborators, gay and straight, who could keep him working with strong professional photographers, and that’s one of the things that contributed to his acting career.

And his LGBT roles have continued. In fact, at press time, Suazo was up for another gay role in a pilot. We asked him whether he senses straight actors having any trepidation taking on gay roles like they may have had in decades past. He replies with a wink, “Not real actors!” Then he adds, “I have met one or two out there that don’t want to take on a gay role or wouldn’t feel comfortable doing a scene where they have to be in love with a man. But every role you take on its not you, it’s not your real life. You’re playing somebody else.”

Suazo recalls that one straight actor was accused of being gay on social media. “An interviewer asked him ‘If you’re straight, why haven’t you defended yourself?’ And he said ‘I don’t see the need to defend myself against something that’s not offensive.’”

And how about actors outing themselves as LGBTQI in today’s Hollywood? Suazo says, “Actors are far more comfortable being out.” He adds, “I come from Arizona and, growing up in a red state, it was not quite as accepting of different lifestyles. I could see the difference in California and Los Angeles where I’m surrounded by artists, and the culture and the atmosphere here is based on people expressing themselves. So I think it’s wonderful we’re very comfortable being who we are.”

And now Suazo has numerous productions under his belt, including multiple LGBT ones. And in case it isn’t clear, he loves his gay fans! Suazo gets recognized from his various productions, especially in his neighborhood of West Hollywood. Do those fans ever overidentify with his gay or bi characters and get flirtatious? Well, Suazo admits sometimes he has to resort to saying he has a girlfriend. That way, he says, he positions it as “It’s not you, it’s me.”

Suazo has been working on honing his already sharp comedy skills since his ‘Coffee House Chronicles’ shoot. He says, “You hit your beats better when you are taking it very seriously. And when you have some very funny writing behind you.” High praise to his shows’ writers!

As we wrapped up our conversation, we found out one last detail: that John Suazo has stunt driving experience. And he even went to stunt-driving school briefly. Now we wish there had been a chase scene in ‘Coffee House Chronicles: The Movie’.

Watch ‘Coffee House Chronicles: The Movie’ on Dekkoo!

New This Week – 4/20/18

It’s the summer of ’75 in Sines, Portugal. Al Berto, the writer, embodies an entire moving generation. He and his friends exude youth, eccentricity and hope for the future – but right after the fall of Portugal’s dictatorship system, the country is not yet ready for his love story. ‘Al Berto’ is now available on Dekkoo two months before DVD!

A funny, sincere, slice of life about a couple just trying to figure it out. Mateo and Will invite their friends over for Will’s 30th birthday. After a few surprise visitors, they get through the day, but realize that doubting your partner isn’t nearly as scary as doubting yourself. Stream ‘Turtle Hill, Brooklyn’ now on Dekkoo!

A small-town loner’s fascination with the new kid in town leads him into something much more sinister than he could ever have imagined. Watch the gay short film, ‘Bugcrush’ now on Dekkoo.

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Coming next week: From the Award Winning filmmaker Tadeo Garcia comes a love story for our time.

Dekkoo Delivers Diverse, Queer, and Magical Dramedy Series “Paper Boys” May 10

(New York, NY) April 20, 2018–On May 10, Dekkoo.com, the global streaming media service catering to queer men, will launch the six-episode first season of “Paper Boys,” a romantic San Francisco-based dramedy about discovering who you are–and, with a newfound magical power–becoming who you want to be.

Watch the official trailer for ‘Paper Boys’ at Dekkoo.com!

“Paper Boys” tells the story of Cole, who, in a brash decision, secretly moves to San Francisco under the guise of his straight best friend’s engagement party to escape a dead-end career and the memories of a passionate summer fling with a boy in New York.

But when he arrives, he runs into the former fling and old feelings resurface. And after his friend, Daren, reveals his engagement was an accident, Cole uses the mysterious powers of a re-discovered sketchbook to try to put their lives back on track, whatever the consequences.

About the Creators
“Paper Boys” was created by Curtis Casella and Kyle Cabral. Casella writes, directs, and edits, and Cabral directed the first two episodes and plays Cole.The two initially met when they both lived in New York City, and became friends when they realized they shared a passion for storytelling.

Casella and Cabral (above with cinematographer Dan Chen) self-funded the first two episodes out of their own pockets and funded episodes 3 & 4 with Kickstarter. They had shot and released the first two episodes when Dekkoo stepped in to finance, expand and release “Paper Boys” as their fourth original series. Previous Dekkoo original series include “Feral,” “Love is Blind” and “I’m Fine.”

Cabral describes the somewhat-autobiographical “Paper Boys” as “the story of a young, gay Asian-American artist who moves from New York to San Francisco looking to jump-start his career and relationships, and discovers he has a magical power that allows him to reshape his life through his art.”

In real life, Cabral is a director, producer, illustrator, and animator who has created cinematics for video games (The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones) as well as his own queer art.

Three-quarters of cast, crew Asian-American, African-American, Latino, trans
In addition to being that rare queer series centered around a gay-straight male friendship and the struggles of millennial friends at disparate stages of their careers, diversity was also important for the creators, so nearly three-quarters of the cast and crew is Asian-American, African-American, Latino, or trans.

“There isn’t much media out there that explores these issues from the point of view of a queer person of color, or even a person of color,” says Cabral, who is Filipino-America. “One of the things that is really important to us is that ‘Paper Boys’ isn’t seen as just a series with gay people of color, but a series with gay people of color with a story and characters audiences like and want to see more of.”

When asked if they planned to expand the show to appeal to straight audiences, Casella says, “I don’t really care about that, to be honest. Straight people have literally every other show on TV that represents the varying experiences of being a straight person in today’s world. I think Kyle and I are proud for people to think of ‘Paper Boys’ as a ‘gay series’. There should be a lot more gay media!”

Watch the official trailer for ‘Paper Boys’ at Dekkoo.com!