Seated at a cafe, across from the Marche Forville, I sat down with director and writer Nate Gualtieri to discuss his film Queerbait. The film debuted at the American Pavillion and was made with the Proof of Concept Fellowship, supported by Netflix and Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films.
Queerbait is the story of a young man who goes to the home of his older professor for dinner. When his older professor’s sexual intentions become clear, the student must find a way out before it’s too late. Combining cabin aesthetics with a growing sense of dread, the short film exists in a delightfully dark erotic thriller space.
When asked about what inspired the film, Gualtieri explained that “Being desired feels so flattering, especially when you’re trans, when the world is telling you you’re undesirable. It means you’re willing to accept the unacceptable because it’s so flattering to you. I was having my first experiences with men but also my first experiences being fetishized by men.”
What the short really excels in is the use of genre elements to convey these themes of fetishization and the feeling of being trapped. On genre, Gualtieri stated that “We’re trying to push as much into the genre space as possible because horror lends itself to making you feel afraid. We wanted to have that element of fear. There’s such a fine line between fear and desire. The question the film is asking is: How do you know when to feel afraid?”
While the film is thematically strong, the visuals are also stress inducing. An arguably beautiful cabin in the woods feels transformed into a sinister lair, through precise filmmaking techniques and decisive visual choices. I explained my appreciation for how small the house felt, to which Gualtieri replied that “The house we filmed in is massive, actually. It’s so huge. I think especially with the cinematography, it’s: how do we create a sense of isolation and also intimacy at the same time? With the wide shots, you have the lens of an observer. When they get to the house, you use close shots to create intimacy.”
He then added: “We used a lot of doorway framing. It speaks to the visual language of horror. I have to give all credit to Kim Cohen [the film’s cinematographer] really, it’s so much of her vision.”
When I asked Gualtieri about shots that didn’t make the cut, he explained, “There’s some shots we didn’t end up using. There’s a shot with Matt, the David character, [the professor] where I made him really chew on steak. It was very grotesque. I like the visual idea of the kind of carnal nature of it and the violent nature of it. We didn’t get to use it but there are a lot of fun shots that are disturbing.”
I then asked about how he felt about the film getting screened at Cannes. He said “I rarely have good feelings about stuff, but I just had a good feeling about this one”.
After our brief chat about the film, I asked about the writer director’s future plans. He replied “I want to do a short every year. I’m directing a music video soon, one of them is actually for Sydney who plays the student. He’s actually a musician.” I asked whether he had any advice to aspiring directors, to which he explained that you need to “find producers you trust” and “trust in the people you’ve hired. The people that I work with, my department heads, they’re really brilliant.”
If you want to follow Nate Gualtieri’s work, you can follow his instagram @nategualtieri and keep an eye out for future releases and festival appearances.