Game Face is an inspiring film about the coming out process of LGBTQ athletes

Day by day athletes are becoming more comfortable with their sexuality as sports associations begin to take proactive steps to accepting lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender players in their respective teams or clubs. Yet surprisingly, a lot of homophobia remains in the world of professional and collegiate sports—making it extremely difficult to come out before their careers end. Some are forced to stay closeted by their entourage while others have been kicked off their team; bullied into secrecy; struggle in their careers while battling with self-identity; and tragically some commit suicide.

Some people still feel uncomfortable about having LGBT athletes in sports, and this is the perfect opportunity to finally break all stereotypes. With the documentary Game Face, director Michiel Thomas sheds light on the masses by debunking the myths and misgivings of the LGBT community and athletes. The important details to remember are found in the fact that these are people who have a passion and love for their respective sport, everything else is irrelevant. This film tells different stories from various athletes in their sport, covering a wide spectrum of issues.

Featuring figures such as transgender mixed-martial-arts fighter Fallon Fox and basketball hopeful Terrence Clemens, Game Face offers up an inspiring film about the coming out process of professional and college athletes.

Watch the trailer for Game Face below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Now Available: Bridegroom

Released originally in 2013, the emotional documentary Bridegroom follows the journey of Shane Bitney Crone and Tom Bridegroom, two young men in a loving and committed relationship – a relationship that was cut tragically short by a misstep off the side of a roof.

The story of what happened after this accidental death, before marriage equality, tells of how people without the legal protections of marriage found themselves completely shut out and ostracized. The film is poignant, enraging and opened a window onto the issue of marriage equality like no speech or lecture ever could.

On May 7, 2012, the anniversary of Tom’s death, Shane made a video tribute to his greatest love entitled “It Could Happen To You.” This film, posted on YouTube, earned over 2.7 million hits and inspired over 50 thousand e-mails and comments on YouTube and Facebook. The impact of Shane’s original film, and the raw nerve it touched, told an important story that needed to be brought to the world stage.

Watch the trailer for Bridegroom below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 8/21/20

Dekkoo Films presents, ‘THE LAWYER‘. Life drifts by for gay corporate lawyer Marius, his time spent teasing friends and chasing young lovers. One day, Marius’ estranged father dies. Mourning turns to love as the lawyer finds an unanticipated connection with a sex-cam worker Ali – a Syrian refugee stuck in Belgrade. ‘The Lawyer’ is available exclusively on Dekkoo!

In an underground parking garage in Iran, a car thief stumbles upon two discreet male lovers sharing a moment of intimacy. ‘Parking’ is available now, exclusively on Dekkoo!

A couple in love from Baja California Mexico are in the middle of the preparations for a huge wedding, the only problem is that their marriage is not legal, since they are both male. ‘No Dress Code Required’ is now streaming on Dekkoo!

Dream House tells a delayed-coming-of-age story about becoming one’s true self

In Dream House, the skillfully-made new 31-minute short from director Jeff Bemiss, flashbacks chronicle the life of the O’Brien family – starting in the 1960s when they reigned as an ideal neighborhood family, through to the 1990s… when things have taken a turn.

Elderly matriarch Ginnie (Carol Lambert) lives in seclusion with her gay son, Mark (Ryan Farley). It’s a bit of a Grey Gardens situation. While their idealized family home is falling apart, Mark finds himself trapped in limbo, waiting for his adult life to begin. Ginnie just can’t seem to let go of the past and Mark, a dutiful, caring son, can’t let go of her.

The pair are visited periodically by Mark’s younger brother Dickie (Sean Harris). Now in his thirties, Dickie is an extremely successful businessman who seems to have a model family of his own. There are, however, big cracks in the foundation of the life that he’s built. Like Mark and his mother, Dickie will have to revisit the past in order to move forward into his future.

Mark also finds himself increasingly torn between his dreamlike past and an uncertain future when Ginnie hires Ted (Lance A. Williams), an “on the cheap” handyman, to start fixing up the house. As Ted befriends Mark and the romantic chemistry between them becomes apparent, he starts seeing a new life for himself beyond what he ever considered possible.

Co-written by Kevin Commins and David Lally, based on Lally’s stage play of the same name, Dream House features a terrific ensemble cast comprised mostly of accomplished stage actors making their film debut. The story they come together to tell packs an emotional punch.

Watch an extended trailer for Dream House below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Now Available: Bitter Years

One of the founders of the Italian Homosexual Liberation Movement, created at the beginning of the 1970s, Mario Mieli was an activist, intellectual, writer, performer and a key figure on the Italian cultural scene.

Though he committed suicide at the age of thirty, he lived a busy and full life, leaving an impression on LGBTQ culture in Italy together with his friends like architect Corrado Levi, painter Piero Fassoni, singer Ivan Cattaneo, activist Angelo Pezzana, writer Fernanda Pivano and poet Milo De Angelis.

Starring Nicola Di Benedetto in the lead role, Bitter Years traces the ups and downs of Mieli’s short, but influential life. According to Andrea Adriatico, the film’s director, “He liked to provoke and to be an innovator but, today, his thought has been completely forgotten.”

“A son of the upper middle class and second to last of seven children, he spent an entire life having a complicated relationship with his parents, Water and Liderica, and the last years of his life were spent with his lover Umberto Pasti, in a very difficult and intense love story.”

Watch the trailer for Bitter Years below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

New To Dekkoo – 8/13/20

Yoav’s demons start haunting him after his best friend becomes pregnant without telling him, and after his boyfriend of 15 years starts talking about children too. His life unravels, and self-destruction seems inevitable. ’15 Years’ is available now exclusively on Dekkoo!

Saul is a deeply insecure young man who can barely grasp the concept of an active sex life. Orlando is a confident university gymnast who does not allow his HIV-positive status to define him. When these two opposites meet by accident, their differing personalities offer them a completely new way of seeing life, one without fear or judgement. Dekkoo Films presents, ‘The Day Began Yesterday’ – exclusively on Dekkoo!

‘Game Face’ sheds light on coming out journeys of LGBTQ+ athetes. This award-winning documentary tells the parallel stories of Fallon Fox, the first female transgender pro MMA fighter, and Terrence Clemens, a college basketball player in Oklahoma, who happens to be gay. ‘Game Face’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: Dekkoo Films presents ‘The Lawyer’.

The award-winning short film Alaska is a Drag tells a fish out of water story… literally

The short film Alaska is a Drag, now available on Dekkoo, is a fish out of water story… literally. The film’s hero, Leo (Martin L. Washington Jr.), is an aspiring superstar stuck working in a fish cannery in Alaska. Leo sees disco balls in the scales of the fish he slices. Everyone who slices fish all day, daydreams – Leo’s are just more glamtastic.

Most of the time, Leo and his twin sister Tristen (Maya Washington) are left to fend for themselves. To escape the monotony of fist fights and fish guts, they create their own magic, the Northern Lights follow them as they vogue down a woodsy path.

They hang out at the one gay bar in a hundred miles, owned by their surly surrogate mom – Jan (Margaret Cho).

Their real mom (Nia Peeples) left years ago and their dad George (Kevin Daniels) preaches on the side of the road. After years of getting beat up by his former best friend, Kyle (Christopher O’Shea), Leo has learned to fight back – his skills catch the eye of his cannery boss, an amateur boxer (Jason Scott Lee) who offers to train him to be a fighter.

And when the new kid in town, Declan (Matt Dallas), wants to be his sparring partner – Leo’s worlds begin to collide, Tristen enters Leo in a drag competition – he’s never performed for anyone but her – the drag audition falls on the same day as the qualifying round for boxing and Leo has to face the real reason he’s afraid to leave Alaska.

Watch the trailer for Alaska is a Drag below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

 

Short Film Spotlight: Engaged

Engaged is a short romantic comedy that follows Darren (Daniel K. Isaac), who keeps trying – and failing – topropose to his boyfriend Elliot (Ryan Jamaal Swain).

When their relationship is put into an uncomfortable spotlight during a friend’s outrageous engagement party, Darren realizes he actually might be self–sabotaging himself… due to unresolved insecurities about his sexuality.

Engaged is a 17-minute short film written and directed by Dave Scala, a second-generation Filipino-American filmmaker and playwright who received his BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts film school. His four previous short films have screened and won top awards at over 40 film festivals in the US and abroad. His previous LGBT short film Grotto (released in 2013) won the Outstanding Emerging Talent award at FilmOUT San Diego, and screened at over 30 festivals, including the Palm Springs International ShortFest. Engaged has also won numerous awards at film festivals around the country.

Watch the trailer for Engaged below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

 

Watch the trailer for the new Dekkoo Original Film Variações: Guardian Angel

Born in the small village of Amares, in the north of Portugal, António Variações was a unique man. At an early age, unhappy with his life working at a local factory, he came to Lisbon to stay with some relatives. But he was different and he wanted more. He wanted to travel and see the world and he emigrated, starting to work as a barber.

But his love for music and performance soon became so strong that he came back so he could sing in his own language. His looks and outfits, however, led him to become a victim of prejudice. He managed to persevere. Even without knowing anything about music he fought for his right to do it the way he believed it was best.

A stylish new biopic, Variações: Guardian Angel, a new Dekkoo Films Original, tells a story about music and about fighting for what we believe.

Watch the trailer for Variações: Guardian Angel below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 8/7/20

Arrate is an elderly woman who receives a phone call from the hospital: her son Koldo is in a critical condition. She arrives to the hospital and finds him on a coma. During her stay at the hospital she will soon begin to realize that she knows nothing about his son’s life. ‘Puntu Koma’ is available now on Dekkoo!

Shane Bitney Crone’s plans to marry Tom Bridegroom in California after the same-sex marriage law is passed takes a tragic turn when his partner of six years accidentally dies and Tom’s family refuses Shane from attending the funeral. Watch ‘Bridegroom’ now on Dekkoo!

Flashbacks chronicle the O’Brien family from the 1960s when they reign as Suffield’s ideal family, through the 1990s when elderly matriarch Ginnie lives in seclusion with her gay son, Mark. ‘Dream House’ is available now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A gay Israeli architect in a committed relationship is undone when the specter of parenthood is raised.