Experiencing Interruptions?

Rapture

When intimacy by the hour evolves into an ardent romance, a lack of trust exposes the quiet costs of survival.

  • Tristan Reginato
    Director
    Uncoupled, Blade Runner 2049, American Rust,
  • Tristan Reginato
    Writer
  • Jake de Nicola
    Producer
  • Julian Manjerico
    Key Cast
    "Luke"
    Oh Mary, A Man Called Otto, Bird in Hand
  • Nicolas Jakola
    Key Cast
    "Wolf "
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, LGBT
  • Runtime:
    19 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 20, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    12,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Black Magic 6k - .BRAW
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Washington DC International film festival
    DC
    United States
    July 17, 2025
    BEST LGBT SHORT FILM
Director Biography - Tristan Reginato

Tristan Reginato grew up in New York City in a dozen different neighborhoods. That constant proximity to various artistic communities fostered an awareness of how environment and culture affect human behavior. An influence that remains central to his filmmaking.
Working primarily in drama, with a new found increasing focus on thriller, horror, and suspense, his films explore urban life as both a physical environment and a psychological condition.
His stories often center on imbalance between families, friends, classes, identities, and systems. His latest film, Rapture, draws from personal relationships, lived observation, and queer literature, grounding its emotional core in intimacy and survival. Across his work, Reginato favors atmosphere, performance, and moral ambiguity, rendering city life both intimate and unsettling.

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Director Statement

Rapture interrogates the myth of sincerity under capitalism. Luke’s transition away from sex work does not represent liberation so much as a lateral movement within the economy of care. The explicit transaction gives way to a more opaque exchange: emotional availability, compliance, and reassurance become the new currency. Wolf’s affection is not portrayed as villainous or false; rather, it is entangled with class anxiety, entitlement, and the subtle fear of being deceived. Trust erodes not through spectacle, but through accumulation, through glances held too long, questions asked too carefully, and silences that begin to feel audited.

Formally, Rapture resists narrative catharsis. I am interested in cinema that withholds resolution, that allows contradiction to remain unresolved rather than redeemed. The film privileges atmosphere, duration, and performance over exposition, drawing attention to the micro-politics of behavior: how power circulates in a look, how imbalance manifests in gesture, how tenderness can coexist with control. The camera does not accuse; it observes. Moral clarity is deliberately deferred in favor of ethical complexity.