Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.And that’s just where The Mattachine Family begins.
The feature debut of director Andy Vallentine—co-written with his husband Danny—is an emotional, heartwarming drama about family lost and found.With Arthur gone, suddenly Thomas and Oscar find themselves with an empty space in their hearts and homes, one that brings the challenges of their relationship to the forefront.Meanwhile, Thomas’ oldest and best friend Leah (Schitt’s Creek‘s Emily Hampshire) is dealing with a loss of her own, having recently miscarried.
As they grieve together and try to move on, the friends grapple with what it actually means to make a family.The film is an incredibly personal one for the Vallentines, born out of the filmmaking couple’s own discussions about happiness and fatherhood, especially as gay men who came of age when certain rights like marriage and parenthood weren’t granted to queer people.Andy and Danny Vallentine made a movie about their dream to start a family.
Shortly after production wrapped, their daughter was born.“The journey that Thomas goes on throughout the film… it was kind of the same journey that we eventually went on,” Danny shared with Queerty last year.