Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo have revolutionised the way many gay movies are now funded and have helped to more closely connect audiences and filmmakers. That Gay Movie aims to harness some of that crowd muscle, not to raise coin, but to raise awareness. Simply put: the more people who follow, repost or ‘like’ this blog, the more likely we are to get our movie made.

The film will be developed as an ‘open content’ project, using a Creative Commons license, which means any company or moviemaker will be able to use, distribute or rehash the idea and even keep any profit they make from it.

‘Untitled Gay Movie 2012′ will take shape on this site and we hope to bring you news of collaborations and remixes as they happen.

(Dir. William Clift. US, 2011. 118 mins).

The title to this recommended new gay movie release might suggest a fluffy rom-com, but what you get is a smart, stylish and highly original ‘Proposition 8′ dramedy with another stand-out performance from Matthew Montgomery.

He stars as lonely, awkward, obsessive advertising exec Paul Roll. It’s at his friends’ gay wedding that he meets handsome, charming activist Jim and starts to hear wedding bells, but first he must clear the hurdle of his shy, self-doubting nature. Not helping the situation are Paul’s rich, bickering parents and a new advertising contract with an ultra right wing, pro-Prop 8 organisation – something he’s keen to hide from Jim and his circle of friends.

Baby Jane? writer/director William Clift provides us with a fresh, aslant take on a momentous event in recent LGBT history and fills it with delicious humour, passionate sentiment and great characters. Clift is a scene-crafter in the vein of filmmakers like Greg Arakki, creating great moments rather than treating scenes as points from Plot A to Plot B – a fun side-story sees Paul’s shambolic mum marooned in the desert with a wise, enigmatic drag queen as she journeys to see her son.

It’s one of the best made gay movies of 2011: the cast are excellent and cinematographer John Lore makes the whole thing look retro gorgeous. It’s also another notch up for Montgomery who clearly relishes playing such an unflattering, idiosyncratic character.

(Dir. Dan Lantz. US, 2011. 82 mins).

This above average gay movie thriller maintains the creeping tension until the end and creates a satisfyingly original menace for these three city gays who go into the woods…

Dan Lantz’s taught, bloody retribution story has an energy, touch of style and central idea which elevates it above its low-budget video status. It has elements of the classic Western as a trio of travelling friends, each battling his own demons, wander off track and into a small, dusty town where it’s best to keep your head down and your business to yourself. Of course that’s never going to happen, especially with loud, sexed up, trouble making Johnny (Jesse Archer) on hand to grab the local’s attention.

The guys check into a motel and serious, lovelorn Michael and naive rich boy Ted are persuaded by horny Johnny to hit the local, neon-crowned bar, unaware that Johnny has arranged an anonymous hook-up using phone cruising app ‘Bendr’ ( – geddit?). Johnny gets his encounter all right, but it’s not exactly what he was expecting and it turns into one Hell of a night for all three men.

Lantz successfully uses flash-forwards and dream sequences to flag up the movie’s dark and violent conclusion. The big reveal falls nicely between plausibility and fantasy, making it gritty enough to be disturbing and far-out enough to be escapism.

If Archer’s character is better developed below the waist, then Make Me a Supermodel’s Ronnie Kroell does fine as emotionally wrecked Michael. Pornster Jake Steel’s famous tool also makes a brief appearance in a fun petrol station sequence.

Into The Lion’s Den is now available on DVD in the US.

(Dir. Wade McDonald. US, 2011. 97 mins).

A gay wedding is the backdrop to this lighthearted, love-tangle drama. When lonely lawyer Aiden receives an invite to his ex’s wedding and can’t scare up a date to take along to the big event, things seem bad enough, especially as he still has feelings for his former lover, but then Max asks him to be Best Man too, which means staying at Max and his fiancee’s lakehouse for the weekend. In a desperate attempt to save face, Aiden takes along his roommate’s annoying twink colleague as his pretend boyfriend, with sharp-tongued roommate in tow, and everybody gets more than they bargained for by the end of the weekend.

Wade McDonald’s first feature film takes a while to get going and stretches a pretty flimsy story to over 90 minutes. The acting is not always good and the characters sometimes obnoxious. On the plus side, there are some nicely awkward and comic scenes, especially the ones with twinky Lance, who benefits from a more interesting storyline. If the relationship between Aiden and Max seems a little drab at times, Aleisha Force as roommate Janice provides the movie with some much needed sparkle. And top marks for creating some rounded, less stereotyped characters, Lance’s bitching and flapping notwithstanding.

(Dirs. Darren Flaxstone & Christian Martin. UK, 2011. 80 mins).

A young, gay couple turn to the bedroom to beat the recession and the makers of hit, Brit, grit movie Shank find their funny bone in this breezy sex comedy.

Aaron has been hiding from his boyfriend, Seb, the fact he’s lost his job and when the bank threatens to repossess their home, he turns to desperate measures – in short, secretly filming him and Seb in the sack and uploading the movie to an amateur, pay-to-view website. Seb – no stranger to unwanted media attention – finds out and is shocked at Aaron’s betrayal, but when the view count skyrockets and the cash starts rolling in, he soon comes round to the idea and agrees to more x-rated instalments.

The boys screw their way towards an agreed figure, but as the hits starts dropping off and they exhaust their local gay adult store of kinky ideas, they decide what’s needed is one last gig featuring a hot guest star, but will they be able to call “cut” on their new-found internet fame and will their strained relationship withstand a threeway?

Buffering will likely be marketed as a rude sex comedy, but it isn’t always as raunchy or funny as it could be – it’s more sweet than saucy – but there’s plenty here to enjoy and it has more heart than other films in a similar vein. It’s well made with a high-grade approach not often seen in gay movies and the likeable cast certainly aren’t coy, flashing plenty of flesh and throwing themselves into some wildly creative sex scenes!

Stealing scenes is regular cast member Bernie Hodges, last seen as a softly spoken psychopath in prison movie Release and here unrecognisable as a camp, latex-loving sex shop owner. There’s also some great scenes involving the boys’ hot, unfriendly neighbour Mitch. All in all, quite a tasty package.

Buffering is available now on DVD.

Smut Capital of America is an (NSFW) award-winning documentary short about the ‘sexual gold rush’ of late ’60s and early ’70s San Francisco after a landmark ruling from the state’s supreme court permitted the viewing of hardcore pornography in private, leading to the opening up of adult movie theaters.

It was boom-time for the porn biz, both gay and straight, and the film collects anecdotes from models, filmmakers and theater owners from the era, including John Waters.

Smut Capital’s director, Michael Stabile, along with partners Ben Leon and Jack Shamama, are currently finishing a feature-length doc telling the story of gay porn into the 80s and 90s, more specifically about Falcon Studio’s founder Chuck Holmes.

If you want someone to blame for the current craze of shaving and waxing in modern gay erotica, then Holmes is your man: he pioneered a certain smooth, boyish, preppy look in his movies. What’s less well known is his other legacy, millions of pounds gifted to the gay rights movement and HIV causes, money which wasn’t always welcomed.

Stabile himself knows a thing or two about adult movies, having been a screenwriter on hardcore gay soap Wet Palms and a correspondent on the subject for various publications, including the Huffington Post.

(Dir. Kim St. Leon. US, 2010. 97 mins).

This watchable, ambitious thriller provides something a little different in a gay movie market crammed with fluffy rom-coms and coming-out dramas.

Lost Everything takes as its starting point a closeted gay movie star and spins a tale of deceit, lust, ambition, surveillance and revenge. Brian Brecht (played by Mark Whittington) is a Hollywood star in the Tom Cruise mould: square-jaw handsome, publicly charming and desired by both men and women. He pitches up in Miami for some location shooting on his latest film and immediately clocks sexy, young hotel bartender David. All it takes is some cigar innuendo and a slip of Brian’s room number and David is there like a shot.

Across town, gallery owner Orlando is being investigated and tapped by shady private eye Jay, who inadvertently comes to the rescue of Orlando’s pretty business partner Alana. The two start seeing each other, which threatens to put Jay on the wrong side of his underworld contact Danielle, who gave him the assignment, and the person she’s secretly working for.

With Brian making nightly, clandestine trips to David’s house and getting hounded by a tabloid reporter who smells a celebrity scoop, his tough talking manager Helen enlists the services of Danielle to clean up the mess. The situation is further complicated when Danielle puts forward a wannabe, young actress (and friend of David) as a decoy love interest for Brian.

Lost Everything punches above its budget range with a large mix of characters, dense plotting and glamorous locations. This doesn’t always pay off and the film never convincingly portrays a mega-bucks movie lifestyle – where is Brian’s entourage, Armani suits and luxurious trappings?

Co-writer/director Kim St. Leon taps some current themes – ‘ex-gay’ therapy and closet A-listers – and creates a pair of memorable female characters, something which is often lacking in gay movies. Scenes and performances sometimes stall at daytime soap level, but the pay-off is an unpredictable ending.

Lost Everything is available now on DVD in the US

(Dir. Benjamin Cantu. Germany, 2011. 88 mins).

Harvest is a beautiful, raw tale of blossoming young love in the picturesque German countryside and a very strong feature debut from writer/director Benjamin Cantu.

Troubled teen Marko is trying to keep his head above water as he nears the end of a farming apprenticeship course which, if he passes, will secure him a job and a place to stay. Despite mixed feelings about a career on the farm and pressures from his course mates to drink and party, quiet Marko digs in and concentrates on work and passing his exams. His world is turned upside down, however, when more confident gay teen Jacob joins the course and is instantly attracted to brooding Marko.

Much like Andrew Haigh’s excellent Weekend, this film has a very understated, naturalistic approach which resists easy, overly dramatic story punches, giving more power and emphasis to the small, carefully observed moments between the two young men – a brief, homophobic outburst from a passing stranger who clocks Jacob’s lingering glance is enough to underline the boys’ fears and dangers without the need for any violence.

The rich soil that the boys learn to plough and harvest is deeply ingrained within the film – we watch them rearing calves and Jacob struggling to irrigate the fields – and this respect for the land dictates the leisurely pace of the story. Rather than sexing things up with some early fumbling in the hay shed, the movie allows their attraction to simmer and develop in a believably slow, awkward, confused teenage way – in fact it’s nearly 60 minutes in before there’s any physical contact, but this makes the whole thing more tender.

Harvest is out now on DVD