The short film Lavender is gaining praise for its depiction of a gay throuple.
Matthew Puccini’s Lavender premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival back in January. The film was named one of Indiewire’s 10 must-see short films at Sundance. In addition, it received Vimeo’s award for Best U.S. Fiction.
Now more recently, Lavender was released online by Fox Searchlight. The 10-minute film, which you can watch below, follows a young gay man named Andy (played by Michael Hsu Rosen). Andy is seduced by married couple Arther (Michael Urie) and Lucas (Ken Barnett) and flirts with the idea of having sex with them. That then evolves into an intimate and dynamic polygamous relationship.
25-year-old Puccini is building a career of depicting LGBTQ life through is work.
“I love the idea of seeing more LGBTQ characters and stories being told in the genre space,” he says. “I’m personally craving a big-budget, super queer rom-com, and would love to see some horror films starring queer characters, too.”
He released a film in 2017 called The Mess he Made about the stress of getting tested for HIV. And he recently spoke to the Huffington Post about his desire to express more LGBTQ stories.
“I think a lot of people still have the misconception that any relationship with more than two people involved isn’t sustainable or legitimate,” he told HuffPost. “I liked the idea of putting one onscreen that emphasized how meaningful and intimate it can be, rather than just the usual narrative of jealously or pure kink … it’s still sexy and still has challenges, but I think we captured something more nuanced and tender, too.”
Puccini is now working on a new short film titled Dirty and his first full feature film. We look forward to seeing both projects.
