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ALPHA KINGS | Now Streaming on The New Yorker and Vimeo Staff Picks



ALPHA KINGS

2023; TRT 15 min; Digital Video
Directed & Shot by Faye Tsakas & Enrique Pedraza Botero
Produced & Edited by Faye Tsakas & Enrqiue Pedraza Botero

Watch:

Now Streaming on The New Yorker
Now Streaming on Vimeo Staff Picks


A group of young men in Montgomery, Texas forgo college to support themselves as “Masters” in the world of online Financial Domination, where thousands of paying clients consent to relinquishing control over their finances. Through the course of one night, the film alternates between the online world and observational moments, weaving between vignettes of virtual, live-streamed sessions, and cam shows in which anonymous participants engage in consensual erotic labor. Alpha Kings explores the dichotomy between these “Masters” and their true private selves, drawing on themes of desire, masculinity, sexuality, power, and performance. In a current social-political climate in which the American Dream seems far-fetched, the film’s subjects grapple with uncertainty about the future, their place in society, and the value of their work.




SELECTIONS & AWARDS:

World Premiere: International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2023
North American Premiere: True/False Film Festival, 2023
Palm Spring ShortFest, 2023
Rooftop Films Summer Series, 2023
Camden International Film Festival, 2023
American Film Institute (AFI) Festival, 2023
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market Pick, 2023
Museum of the Moving Image, 2023 New Adventures in Non-Fiction
International Film Festival of Valladolid (Seminci), 2023
IndieLisboa International Competition, 2023
Athens International Film & Video Festival, 2023
Bogotá Short Film Festival (BOGOSHORTS), 2023
Cinemateca de Bogotá, Special Programs, 2023
Kurzfilm Hamburg Short Film Festival, 2023 
Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, 2023
Chicago Underground Film Festival, 2023,
Int. Kurzfilmtage Wintherhur, 2023
Tabor Film Festival, 2023
Syncro Buenos Aires, 2023
New/Next Fest Balimore, 2023
Roackaway Film Festival, 2023
Venice Film Week, 2023
Les Mains Gauches, 2023
Festival Nouveau Cinema, 2023
Nashville Film Festival, 2023
Kurzfilmfestival Köln, 2023
Film Fest Gent, 2023
Denver Film Fest, 2023
Drunken Film Festival Oakland, 2023,
New Filmmakers Los Angeles, 2023
New Filmmakers New York, 2023
London Short Film Festival, 2023
DC/Dox, 2023
FIPADOC, 2024
Pragueshorts Film Festival, 2024
Dizzy TV Screening Series, 2024


Kurzfilm Hamburg, Short Film Prize, 2023
AFI Fest, Special Jury Mention for Social Commentary, 2023
Venice Film Week, Best Documentary Short Film Award, 2023
Drunken Film Festival Oakland, Best Documentary Award, 2023
Chicago Undergraound Film Festival, Honorable Mention, 2023







Kurzfilm Hamburg Jury Statement: "We would like to give the main award ex aequo to a film that depicts emptiness without artifice in a very new contemporary setting. The filmmakers are bringing us into the world of online financial domination without judgment while maintaining a healthy and critical distance from their protagonists. Through online videos, live streams and hand-held camera moments, themes like sexuality, hyper masculinity, erotic labor, power dynamics and gender performativity are addressed in a very agile and delicate way. The Best Short Film of the competition goes to Alpha Kings : an observational film that skilfully presents the dichotomy between the Masters and their subs in their transactional relationship and the loneliness in the everyday life of some American teenagers."