Private Project

Playing With Matches

Dave downloads a dating app in hopes of a easy casual sex, but as reality sets in, each date proves to be more horrifying than the last.

  • Matthew Petti
    Director
  • Matthew Petti
    Writer
  • Benjamin Gregory
    Producer
  • Justain Connor
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Comedy, Thriller
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Museum of the Moving Image: Queens World Film Festival 2024
    Queens, NY
    United States
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Matthew Petti

Matthew Petti is a writer, director, producer, and photographer based in Queens, New York. A native New Yorker, Matthew has always sought to make sense of the greater inequities of the city he calls home through vivid character studies and dark, but sincere, humor. His short film The Layover Screened as a part of Hollyshorts Film Festival’s Monthly Bitpix series, and at Anthology Film Archives as a part of New Filmmaker’s NY 2021. His recent short Playing with Matches was screened at the Museum of the Moving Image as a part of the official selection at the 2024 Queens World Film Festival, the local NYC underground screening series non-films, and was featured in the Italian publication La Voce Di New York. He has several feature scripts in development and is set to shoot his first microbudget feature film in the fall of 2024. Matthew works as a Production Coordinator/APC in film and television in New York, his past credits include Emancipation (2022), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), and A Murder at the End of the World (2023).

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Director Statement

This film doubles as a social satire and cautionary tale to a generation of young men chronically exposed to a hyper-sexualized culture and imagery on the internet. This culture creates unrealistic expectations of what sex and romance look like in the modern world, stunts the sexual maturity of young men , encourages their commodification of women, and typically puts both men and women in unsafe situations for the sake of sexual gratification and external validation.