New This Week – 10/20/17
Intense and deliciously homoerotic, ‘A Closer Walk With Thee‘ is an award-winning new thriller follows Jordan, a strange young Christian missionary who gets caught watching his handsome and equally young Pastor take a shower. Disturbed by these “sinful” urges, Pastor Eli becomes convinced that Jordan is under the influence of a demonic force. The two men get unusually close as an amateur, bizarrely erotic exorcism soon begins!
In the gay short film ‘The Morning After‘, Harry’s world is turned upside down when,after a drunken night out he awakens to discover a naked man in his bed.
From director Michael J. Saul, the prolific filmmaker behind ‘The Surface‘, ‘True Love’ and ‘Go Go Reject‘ comes ‘The Daydreamer’s Notebook‘, an anthology of seven short, experimental works. These visually inventive short films reflect the filmmaker’s obsession with daydreaming in the work he’s created over the past 40 years.
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Coming next week: An erotic an luxurious feast for the eyes.
DEKKOO DISPATCH 040 – ‘A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE’
Title – ‘A Closer Walk With Thee‘
Director – John C. Clark, Brie Williams
Starring – Aj Knight, Gregory Shelby, Kelsey Boze, Megan Hensley
Release Date – 2017
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Lordy, lordy look what just turned 40! The Dekkoo Dispatch! We’re officially into daddy territory now and couldn’t be happier… We’re still butt deep in Halloween season so it’s time for another blood-curdling gay horror film to spice up your week courtesy of your friends at Dekkoo 😉
Last week we took you to Spain and into the minds of queer killers with ‘In A Glass Cage‘. This week we’re heading to Los Angeles where four Evangelical missionaries live together and work to convert the agnostic (that means they’re heathens sweetie) neighborhood they’ve set up shop in. Dubbed as a ‘Homoerotic Evangelical Exorcism Film’ – ‘A Closer Walk With Thee‘ is a devious piece of low-budget horror filmmaking with some great acting and some very lusty set pieces.
Aj Knight stars as Jordan, a simple missionary trying to do God’s work, but unfortunately gets distracted by Eli, the handsome pastor leading the mission. When Jordan is caught masturbating to Eli’s naked self in the shower the group gradually starts exploring the theory that his homosexual urges could be the work of a demon possessing his body and soul. The movie is full of awesome sexual awkwardness between the two and once it gets to the exorcism scenes you’ll definitely be enjoying yourself.
The directors (a gay and a lesbian! super awesome!) explain why they made the film: “We began ‘A Closer Walk With Thee‘ with a basic idea: a religious horror film depicting ‘gay-conversion’ exorcisms, a fringe practice within the Evangelical community that has been growing steadily in recent years. We wanted to take the already emotionally charged experience of coming out of the closet and place it in an even more heightened environment — amidst a group of fundamentalist young people living together in a house church performing exorcisms on their fledgling congregation.
As the story began to take shape, it became the story of one character, Jordan, experiencing a struggle that so many people face: being in a deadlocked battle between desire and religious conviction. The journey of the film is his journey — at first quietly uncomfortable, increasingly disorienting, guilt drenched, and ultimately madness-inducing. What started off as an idea to make a fun, weird religious horror had developed into a more complex drama/genre film, and it was one that we were excited to explore.”
Whenever I can invite a guest analyst to take a more academic approach to a film on Dekkoo I make sure to and this week I managed to snag one of the biggest contributors (both in filmmaking and with wild appreciation) to the world of Queer Horror, Michael Varrati who has this take on the film: “Amid lingering shots of male physicality and heightened sequences of youthful lust, ‘A Closer Walk With Thee‘ expertly threads an ever encroaching sense of unease throughout its narrative. By showcasing the schism caused when rigid ideology and primal desire clash under the same roof, the film exponentially magnifies that sense of unease felt by queer individuals forced into situations wherein they are not able to be their true and authentic selves.
More so, the film never goes out of its way to directly condemn the actions of the missionaries, and a gruesome, supernatural third act lends itself to a morally gray read of the movie overall. Perhaps though, this is A Closer Walk With Thee’s greatest strength as a horror film. Rather than visit the terror onto one individual, none are entirely absolved from the evil inhabiting their world. Shocking, thoughtful, and subversively sexy, ‘A Closer Walk With Thee‘ is the kind of movie that makes you want to free yourself from sin…if only so you may sin again.”
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Watch it with: Friends that love sexy men and scary movies
Mix it with: Sacramental wine blessed by your local sexy priest
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‘Mother Knows Best’ wins 2017 Iris Prize! Stream it now on Dekkoo!
The Iris Prize is an international LGBT short film award open to any short film which is by, for, about or of interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex audiences. It is awarded at the end of an annual festival held in Cardiff, Wales that includes screenings of the 30 competing short films along with screenings of several feature films and panel sessions with visiting film makers. In addition to the coveted Iris Prize, the winner receives £30,000 to make their next short film.
The 2017 Iris Prize was awarded to ‘Mother Knows Best‘ from Swedish director Mikael Bundsen.
Iris Prize jury chair Brian Robinson said of the short: “Mother Knows Best is a brilliantly scripted and intense short film which uses a great economy of shots to tell a powerful and beautifully acted, universal story in which the realities of a young gay man’s different relationships with his parents are played out.”
Dekkoo is proud to feature ‘Mother Knows Best‘ as part of the Dekkoo streaming library so, if you haven’t yet, be sure to check it out!
New This Week – 10/13/17
A hilarious dark comedy about the deep, loving bond that exists between brothers…even ones who despise one another. ‘Elijah’s Ashes‘ follows Lawrence, a somewhat lost gay man, who embarks on an unexpected family road trip with his gruff, homophobic older brother to scatter their father’s ashes.
An apartment renter lusts after his doorman, a father comes to realize that his son is attracted to other boys, two horny men find themselves literally just beyond one another’s reach, a guy declares his attraction to his best friend and two young lovers go to great length to prove their affection in this stunning and supremely sexy new collection – featuring five award-winning short films that deals with the topic of desire in various forms. Watch ‘Furious Desires’ now on Dekkoo!
In the aftermath of WWII, a former Nazi doctor and child molester finds himself confined to an iron lung following a failed suicide attempt. Things get even worse when a mysterious, handsome young man, hired to be his caretaker, is discovered to be hellbent on revenge. An uncompromising psychosexual drama that’s erotic, painful and terrifying in equal measure, ‘In a Glass Cage‘ is a highly controversial classic.
When Andreas’ close friend Samuel meets Philippe, a highly respected colleague, Andreas finds himself in the awkward and uncomfortable position of watching his best friend fall in love…again. Watch ‘Alle Werden’ now on Dekkoo.com!
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Coming next week: A homoerotic Evangelical exorcism film. Need we say more?
DEKKOO DISPATCH 039 – ‘IN A GLASS CAGE’
Title – ‘In a Glass Cage‘
Director – Agustí Villaronga
Starring – Günter Meisner, David Sust, Marisa Paredes, Gisèle Echevarría
Release Date – 1986
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Darkness. A house containing evil and secrets. Innocence lost. A desire for revenge and murder. ‘In a Glass Cage‘ takes no prisoners and instead marches onwards through its self-made carnage towards a delicate balancing of art-house sensibilities and an exploration of twisted humanity. In fact this film is so disturbing that even John Waters said, “I’m too scared to show it to my friends!”
Agustí Villaronga made the harrowing film in 1985 and partially based it on Gilles de Rais, a companion to Joan of Arc and a notorious and self-confessed murderer of children (supposedly in the hundreds!). Like Pasolini’s ‘Salo’, Villaronga decided to set his tale at the end of WWII and utilizes a Nazi as the twisted figure at the center of the film. The film starts without remorse with Klaus (our resident evil dude) taking photos of a boy hanging from a rope. He’s naked and bears the marks of repeated tortures (I never said this was an easy movie to watch!!). After dealing the killing blow to the young boy Klaus seems to have some sort of revelation and immediately runs up to the roof of the house and jumps. Meanwhile someone was watching the proceedings and steals Klaus’ scrapbook/diary of his evils.
Fast-forward a few years and we’ve found that Klaus, while still alive, is now living inside a large iron lung. A device that controls his breathing. Without it he dies. His wife (played by Almodovar regular Marisa Paredes) and young daughter have been taking care of him in a country house in Catalonia where they try and avoid the Nazi witch hunt taking place in the rest of the world that would surely condemn them. Suddenly an invader boldly infiltrates the house and locks the door where Klaus is kept. When the wife demands to be let in she finds Angelo, a brooding young man petitioning to become Klaus’ nurse. Much to her dismay Klaus insists that Angelo stay to be his nurse and we eventually find out that it’s because Angelo is the one that knows all of Klaus’ secrets.
What follows is a dangerous lesson in power dynamics and the nature of evil itself. The beginning is dramatic, the middle is disturbing, and the end of the film is incredibly hypnotic and moving.
Besides the fantastic acting and writing, the cinematography is really what stands out to me in this film. Jaume Peracaula has lensed almost all of Agustí Villaronga’s films and he manages to find a perfect balance between light and dark and most of all the color blue which I’m sure has some symbolic meaning that I can’t quite figure out (I’m being honest at least!). The transfer that we’ve brought to Dekkoo is the latest High Definition remaster which really is miles better than the old DVD that used to exist where you could barely make out what was happening in half of the film.
While the themes are difficult to handle I truly love this movie. Top 25 for sure! To me it seems like ‘Salo’ as directed by Dario Argento and Pedro Almodovar and I’m crazy excited that it’s finally here on Dekkoo where you can challenge yourself to Agustí Villaronga’s masterpiece.
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Watch it with: Probably just yourself.
Mix it with: Water.
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‘I’m Fine’ To Screen At NewFest 2017!
We are absolutely tickled pink to announce the Dekkoo-original series ‘I’m Fine‘ will screen as part of NewFest 2017. Founded in 1988, NewFest is one of the most comprehensive forums of national and international LGBTfilm/video in the world.
‘I’m Fine‘ will screen as part of the For The Boys Episodic Showcase on Saturday October 21 at 2:00 pm. Tickets for the event are available here! Click here to check out the Facebook Event Page.
As we mentioned before the second season of ‘I’m Fine’ is currently in post-production and will debut on Dekkoo in early 2018.
Check out the NewFest 2017 trailer below!
Are you in the Los Angeles area? Attend a very special Dekkoo event!
We are thrilled to announce that Dekkoo has teamed up with the good people at Comedy Dynamics to produce an upcoming special that will debut on Dekkoo in the near future.
Comedy Dynamics is one of the largest independent comedy production and distribution companies in the world. They’ve produced hundreds of comedy specials and have worked with a wide range of established and emerging comedic talent including Kevin Hart, Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari, Jim Gaffigan, Katt Williams and many more.
While we can’t give away the specifics just yet, we would like to invite those of you living in the Los Angeles area to the filming of this very special Dekkoo event.
The shoot will be in Burbank on Saturday October 28 and Sunday October 29 at 6PM and 8PM on each day. If you would like to attend, please email casting@wyldsidemedia.com and include your name and the date and time of the filming you would like to attend. If space is available, you will be provided details.
Space is limited so it will be first come first served!
For those of you not in the Los Angeles area – keep your eyes peeled for more details in the coming weeks!
New This Week – 10/6/17
Julian, a 13-year-old seminarian will endure a hard spiritual journey to reach ‘Perfect Obedience‘. The order’s founding father, captivated by his fragility and innocence, will take him to live together with him in his private home for a year. In that time Julian will wander the most intense and contradictory phase of his life while his mentor guides him to complete psychological and physical surrender. (subtitled)
In the award winning short film ‘Welcome to New York‘, five young New Yorkers visit the a therapist to work through their crazy first experiences in the Big Apple.
‘Child of the ’70’s‘ is the story of gay Italian-American Carlo Perdente who ends up working as a personal assistant to his 1970’s TV idol, the neurotic and over-the-top KiKi Lawrence.
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Coming next week: A profoundly entertaining (and often arousing) collection of stellar short films from an array of staggeringly talented international filmmakers.
DEKKOO DISPATCH 038 – ‘UN CHANT D’AMOUR’
Title – ‘Un chant d’amour’
Director – Jean Genet
Starring – Lucien Sénémaud, Bravo
Release Date – 1950
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Today on Dekkoo we’re featuring an early masterpiece of silent Queer Cinema: ‘Un chant d’amour‘ directed by the notorious criminal-literary queer Jean Genet. The 25-minute film was one of the first cinematic depictions of explicit homosexual desire and sexuality which therefore made it ripe for censorship by many governments around the world. The movie exists as a highly entertaining piece of art-cinema, an autobiography of Jean Genet, and a harrowing portrait of homosexuality in prisons.
I feel an introduction to Jean Genet is needed in order to appreciate this film as much as possible. He was a social rebel, a criminal queer, a playwright, and a writer of literature. His novels ranged the gamut from autobiographical tales of his time in the Mettray Penal Colony lusting after fellow prisoners (“The Miracle of the Rose”) to fictionalized romancing of criminal queers (“Our Lady of the Flowers”) to tales of strong beautiful sailors who turn to criminal activities (“Querelle de Brest” – which Fassbinder later adapted into a movie in 1982 – his last movie before overdosing). His early life sounds like something out of a Christine Vachon-produced film. His mother was a prostitute who raised him for 7 months before dropping him off at an orphanage. While he grew up he excelled in getting into trouble and running away from home even though he had a supportive foster family. At 15 he got sent to a penal facility. At 18 he joined the army, but was later kicked out for getting caught having sex with men. After that his life consisted of wandering around Europe, getting into trouble and going to jail a bunch of times until he met Jean Cocteau who had taken a liking to his writings. When finally faced with life-in-prison due to being in prison 10 times – Jean Cocteau and other influential artists managed to convince the French President to pardon him. After that Jean Genet never went to prison again.
So let’s dig in to the film itself. ‘Un chant d’amour‘ is a silent film. Supposedly sponsored by wealthy French gays who wanted to add it to their porn collections the film starred Genet’s lover at the time, Lucien Sénémaud whose beauty he claimed, “harpooned me” and two other actors who we don’t know much about besides that one of them (the older prisoner) was a pimp named Bravo. The film has 3 central characters: A sexy 20-something prisoner with swagger, an older Arab prisoner in lust with his next-door neighbor, and a prison guard that acts as a jealous voyeur throughout the movie, constantly watching the prisoners interact. Of course because there’s a wall between the two would-be-lovers their interactions are limited to blowing smoke through a wall and swinging a bouquet of flowers outside their prison windows. Nothing stops them in their dreams though…
After it was screened in 1966 Sol Landau was indited by police in Berkeley, CA for screening an obscene piece of cinema. After fighting the case all the way up to the Supreme Court he ended up losing with a 5-4 ruling by the court. The Alamadea Superior Court claimed it, “explicitly and vividly revealed acts of masturbation, oral copulation, the infamous crime against nature [a euphemism for sodomy], voyeurism, nudity, sadism, masochism and sex…” and that it was “cheap pornography calculated to promote homosexuality, perversion and morbid sex practices”.
If you’re a self-proclaimed Queer Cinema nerd then ‘Un chant d’amour‘ is without a doubt a MUST-SEE. I’ll leave you with these words by Jim Clark who by my research has created the best article dedicated to ‘Un chant d’amour‘ out there, “Genet takes us places, invariably in the underworld of hustlers, thieves, murderers, and convicts, where most of us have never set foot; but even as he exposes their lives with excruciating fullness, he reveals – and celebrates – their/our common humanity.”
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Watch it with: One or two fellow film nerds.
Mix it with: A deep, dark, french wine.
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Discover great gay stories. 