back their DVD business and moving into streaming. The first thing that went was niche content and that is always alternative content, like LGBT cinema. When Netflix exploded into streaming, they grabbed up as much as possible, because they couldn’t get their hands on all the major, great stuff early on and as a small, niche content provider, you can amass a lot of titles easily. There was a great representation of content up until a couple years ago, when all the big players realized that they wanted to move into original content. Even after amassing their millions of custom- ers, they started to scale back on all their licensing deals. Similar to the DVD universe before, they’re not going to license alternative and niche content, because it speaks to a smaller audience. They need to license for the widest audience as possible. We started to talk about providing a streaming service that spoke specifically to the LGBT commu- nity and we started to get excited by the idea and the opportunities it presented. At that point, we decided to refocus our energies and make DEKKOO dedicated primarily to gay men. It’s a content that we know and we didn’t want to water it down with content we don’t necessarily have the expertise about, to provide a stronger streaming experience. We started to reach out to filmmakers and studios and bring content on board and within a few short months, we managed to amass more than Netflix. That happened, because even though many of the large streaming sites have a gay and lesbian page, they may only have 200 movies. In the end, it’s not the best representation of what is out there. Even better for us, those larger services are never going to acquire those amazing 15-minute short films that were a smash at, say at the Miami LGBT Film Festival. That is one of the things that pleased me about spending time on DEKKOO. The fact that you have so much content around independent filmmakers and so many short film titles. It’s rare to have access to them.


Absolutely. The reality is, for anyone who pays attention to queer cinema in general, there are so many filmmakers who have made great shorts. They of course, hoped someone might give them their “Big break,” but that doesn’t always happen. That doesn’t mean however, the short or the low budget film they made, shouldn’t be seen by a larger audience. The fact


that there was no home, no place to access that content, made us realize that we had stumbled on to something. It surprised me when I started research- ing this story, there wasn’t something that spoke to that concept already set up. Sort of a clearinghouse for LGBT independent filmmaking. Our commitment had always been, to be


Love is Blind


gay, stay gay and focus on gay. (Laughs) If we find something good that is a short five-minute film, we want it. We want it just as much as we want a great, new film from Strand. We don’t necessarily need the big “mainstream” gay releases, because people can get those on Netflix. What we want is to focus on the work you can’t find, those hidden treasures and bring them to people. That’s where the fun is for us. I did notice that you don’t focus on those major titles. Is that something you plan on picking up in the future? Not right now. We could focus attention


on content that is widely distributed, but what is the point? I’m certainly not going to steal market share for the 100 films that Netflix has in their library. But, for a film likeBuddy, a short film we just acquired and launched from overseas, you’re never going to see that anywhere else. We can provide that now on a streaming platform that is easily accessible and has apps for iTunes and Android, is available on Chromecast and on Samsung smart TVs. That is very exciting to us. I love that it opens an entirely new avenue for independent filmmakers and content creators. It can be difficult to get a film seen publicly, so creating a venue for that will help fuel demand for originality. It’s basic supply and demand economics. I just recently had a meeting with an independent filmmaker in L.A., who made a show, ten episodes, a very top-of-the-line production…He easily spent around $100,000 with a couple of investors. It has a big name, lesbian actor who has already done great shows and great movies. It’s a funny, episodic show and they had a production company in L.A. who shopped it around, but they couldn’t find a home for it. A small platform like ours can give it a home and show it to our subscribers. They


FEBRUARY 2017 | RAGE monthly 37


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