The creators of popular gay web series Drama Queenz are gearing up for the theatrical and digital release of their gay thriller.
Novo Novus Productions released the trailer for The Breeding back in April, but they are just now getting ready for the theater debut of the film.
The movie follows Thomas (played by Broadway dancer Marcus Bellamy), an artist with a kink for BDSM. He meets a man named Lee (Joe MacDougal) at an art gallery. While the two initially engage in consensual race play, their relationship soon takes a much darker turn.
According to Meaww, the theme of the film focuses on race relations in the LGBTQ community, and how civility among humans is fickle in the wake of our primal desires.
"The idea for The Breeding came from an art piece on Harmen van den Bogaert, a slave master in the pre-Civil War era, accused of sodomy with his slave,” explained film writer and production company co-founder Dane Joseph.. “The crime was punishable by death so master and slave fled and later died on the run, falling through a frozen lake. The artist envisioned their plight as a forbidden love story. I felt it to be a problematic interpretation and so I began research on master-slave relationships. It led to my discovering BDSM, where racially charged situations and language are used during cross-cultural sexual encounters. My mind began to wonder how people of color could reconcile that sort of behavior, considering the horrific past from which the practice stems."
Another interesting, ironic, and horrifying note is that lead star Marcus Bellamy is currently facing real-life murder and manslaughter charges for the alleged killing of his boyfriend.
The film was shot a few months before Bellamy admitted to committing the crime in 2016, according to Raynbowaffair.
“Never could any of us have imagined that something like this would happen,” said director Daniel Armando. “Dane and Marcus went to high school together. Dane introduced Marcus to Manhattan when Marcus first started at Juilliard.”
“It’s been an emotional rollercoaster for Dane and everyone in the cast, reconciling what our friend has done and sending prayers to the family affected by the tragedy. We’re still piecing it all together and, more than anything, want to send positive love and light to everyone impacted.”
Despite this unfortunate event, the film has continued its distribution. This includes appearing in a few film festivals such as the HBO NY Latino Film Festival and the 2018 Harlem International Film Festival, where it won the “Best Feature” award.
Now, The Breeding will have a limited theatrical run starting on September 7 in Los Angeles. Afterwards, it will release on DVD and digitally on September 11.
h/t: Meaww, Raynbowaffair
