For Christopher Cunetto, Filmmaking is a Way “To Touch Someone’s Heart”

metroweekly.com:

Metro Weekly over the years.)During the pandemic, the Missouri native joined forces with producer Mauricio Pita and writer Eva von Schweinitz to devise the short film Safe Word.

It screens Saturday, Oct. 21, at 11 p.m. at Reel Affirmations, ahead of the 1970s French erotic film, Le Beau Mec.Starring Pita and Jonathan Adriel — both of whom give magnificent, deeply felt performances — and ravishingly photographed by Fernando Rocha, Safe Word boasts a story that is narratively surprising and psychologically probing.

It’s a gripping use of 15 minutes.“[You] find yourself on the edge of your seat,” wrote Will O’Bryan in his 5-star review of the film in last week’s issue. “Your imagination will immediately begin to autofill scenarios, but Safe Word will likely veer off course of whatever you’ve plotted.”“The things the film brings up are specific to the queer experience, the experience of gay men, of queer men,” says Cunetto. “One of the struggles that the character, Cesar, has is with his body.

He compares himself to the other character in the film, who’s just larger and muscular. There’s a lot of baggage in the gay community around bodies, just in general.