Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Filmmaker Thaddeus D Matula Is Helping To Change Our World
Let go of your ego. Take the opportunity. Enjoy the process of creating rather than focusing only on the result.
As a part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Thaddeus D. Matula.
Thaddeus D. Matula, Director, INTO THE SPOTLIGHT. Thaddeus is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning director; including 2x ESPN 30 for 30 films, in addition to projects for HBO, BBC, PBS, THE GRAMMYs, and many more.
In 2010 Matula directed the Peabody Award-winning film Pony Excess about the NCAA-mandated “death penalty” on the SMU football program. When the film debuted on ESPN in December of that year, after the Heisman Trophy presentation, it landed as the highest rated documentary premiere in the network’s history. He followed it up in 2014, re-teaming with ESPN to direct the Emmy-winning Brian & The Boz, a father-son story about the dual personalities of the gifted and conflicted University of Oklahoma and Seattle Seahawk linebacker Brian Bosworth. Since then Matula has served as a producer on projects on a broad range of topics including the opioid epidemic, the prep basketball star Rush brothers, brain drugs, the cryptocurrency craze, and the inventor of the modern day basketball jump shot. He has also spent time developing and filming portions of documentary projects on Kenyan runner Kipchoge “Kip” Keino, the current transformation of the city of Austin into a major international city, and the saving of an endangered species in Jamaica.
In 2020, Matula is excited to be returning to his narrative writing and directing roots with the production of As I Live and Breathe followed in 2021 by the feature-length version of The Dreamer, the full epic realization of his college-era 1999 science fiction short film of the same name that first brought him international renown.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to do what I get to do now. As a kid, I would tell people that when I grew up, I wanted to — and I’m picturing myself neck back, looking up at the adult world proclaiming in my high little boy voice — “write, produce, direct and star in my own films!”
Now, I don’t so much want to star in them, and I really only produce out of necessity. It’s the directing that I am called to — I feel like the Universe works through me to reveal a film that already exists.
As a college sophomore, my sci-fi film The Dreamer aired nationally on PBS. I witnessed firsthand the awestruck reactions of festival audiences, sparking my motivation to be a filmmaker. I’m a fan of the human condition and the powerful storytelling that can occur through film.
I take a lot of joy in what I get to do, but I’m very aware of the gravity of it. The sacred trust between filmmaker and viewer is never far from mind. Joseph Campbell called the filmmaker the modern-day shaman or priest, and it’s a responsibility I take very seriously. What we get to do is not only “cool” — it can speak to a viewer in ways that can be foundational.
The Dallas-based documentary Into the Spotlight is an honest film that is a heartfelt story of how a script, a stage, and a theater program composed of adults with disabilities celebrate their creativity, explore life’s complexities, and empower a community — in their own words and their own way. What truly sets this film apart is that the film’s subjects, adults with disabilities, speak and act on behalf of themselves instead of parents, caregivers, or friends editorializing the experience of these individuals or speaking on their behalf. In the film, the commitment to agency and authenticity sets this story apart from other documentaries addressing similar subject matter. This film was produced from the perspective of the participants, freeing them to tell their own stories.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In my freshman year in college, I showed up to film school and wanted a camera put in my hands. That didn’t happen immediately so I decided I wasn’t waiting, I needed to make a film myself — I had been waiting for it for so long! I received a small video camera as a high school graduation gift, and I was now determined to use it to make my first film. After the first day of shooting, I was on top of the world and showed the footage to my buddy, who was a couple of years more advanced than I was. I couldn’t wait for him to tell me how good a job I did. Instead, he told me, “This is great, but you broke the 180º rule.” Do what now? I thought he was making it up, but it’s a real rule in filmmaking, and fundamentally, it’s how you set up shots to not visually confuse the audience when covering a scene, usually dialog. Once I figured out he wasn’t joking, it was a gut punch, and I realized I had much to learn.
I never made that mistake again. But I also realize that I made a different mistake that day that I can still make from time to time. I so badly wanted my pal to tell me that my work was great, and when he said, “It’s great, but” I never heard anything before, “but.” As filmmakers, while it’s important to think about the audience and the final result, it’s equally important to remember that the joy is in the process of creation. I learned so much while working on other people’s films, and I’m still learning with each production I’m part of.
What would you advise a young person who wants to emulate your success?
The objective isn’t to avoid making mistakes; it’s key to be constantly making mistakes, learning from them, correcting, and refining your work. When you are too focused on not making a single mistake, you become deadweight on a film set because you are not doing anything. Make a thousand mistakes, and learn as you make a thousand corrections.
Work on getting centered, taking the ego out of the equation. The more present you are, the less stock you put in the outcome, and the more you can recognize and act on opportunities in front of you. Too often, we don’t see the right path because it doesn’t look like the way we think things should go. And if you are ever at a crossroads and you don’t know which option is best, pick the one that looks like harder work. It’s inevitably the right choice.
Is there a person that made a profound impact on your life? Can you share a story?
My family of course has had a huge impact on my life, but someone I met while I was living in Austin, Texas after college comes to mind at this moment in my life. Over 10 years ago when I met Bob, he had retired at 55 from a job in Silicon Valley and moved to Austin, Texas and was a bit of a local spiritual guru who taught meditation workshops. Bob would always say he can’t teach meditation though, but that the sitting is the teacher. When Bob walked into a room, it felt like everything was going to be alright, and he taught me to look at the world from a different perspective — appreciate the present moment.
I learned from Bob not to spend a lot of energy wondering about the future or regretting the past to not miss what is right in front of us. Adopting this attitude has left me more able to identify and act on opportunities as they present themselves.
How are you using your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share with us the meaningful or exciting causes you’re working on right now?
I’m fortunate to find purpose in this gift of storytelling, to be able to use film as a vehicle for shining a light on causes I hold dear and also bringing awareness to others’ stories as well.
In the documentary feature film Into the Spotlight, we tell the story of the participants in the Spotlight Musical Theater program. The participants are all individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who are part of the Belong Disability Program at Highland Park UMC in Dallas. Instead of staging a Broadway musical, this group comes up with an original concept each year. The participants write their own scripts, help score their own music, build sets, help make costumes, and it is a way for them to talk about how they feel and how they see life. This program has a relentless commitment to empowering a community by celebrating their creativity and encouraging participants to tell their own stories — in their own words and their own way. This team effort fuels a process and production that seeks to share the messages of acceptance, resilience, and humanity.
We decided early on that the best way to tell this story was to honor the ethos of the program and tell the story from the perspective of the participants. This is also what sets the film apart from other documentary films and really makes it special.
Helping to share the story of the participants in Spotlight Musical Theater through this documentary film is an opportunity to inspire and encourage people of all abilities. So many people with any level of disability can see themselves on stage and relate to the actors through their stories.
Can you share with us a story behind why you chose to take up this particular cause?
When I was approached by Highland Park United Methodist Church Senior Minister, Rev. Paul Rasmussen, to direct the project, I knew I would experience something truly remarkable and was inspired to serve a community I knew very little about. The entire Spotlight Musical Theater program comprises late-teens and adult individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities who, with the help of industry professionals and volunteers, create, rehearse, and present an original musical every year.
I mean, how could you look away from an opportunity like this? Where we get to help them amplify voices that haven’t truly been heard or amplified in this way. It also provided an unexpected and welcoming platform to share the world as they see it. It was the honor of a lifetime.
Can you share with us a story about a person who was impacted by your cause?
Every year HPUMC’s Belong Disability Ministry holds a lottery to see who will be in the Spotlight musical since more participants want to be in the show than can be supported in one single production. In the year of our production, they stayed true to that model. Belong’s Director, Stephanie Newland, and Spotlight Musical Show Director, Lisa Schmidt made recommendations on which participants might be considered for deeper stories of our film.
Not only were they asking participants to take part in a six-month theater production process, but we were also asking them to share their lives with us and be comfortable with that as well. This is not a group of professional actors, and letting us take a peek behind the curtain (pun fully intended) can be intimidating for anyone! It was a gift to witness them blossom as filming went on and know that we were a part of something more, creating a platform for each of them to tell their stories in their own words.
As the film has been accepted to and screened at film festivals around the world, winning awards along the way, the participants continue to share the spotlight as they are an integral part of the festival circuit. They continue to share their stories with audiences and communities where the film is screened, inspiring others to create similar programs in their own communities.
Are there three things or are there things that individuals, society, or the government can do to support you in this effort?
Spotlight Musical Theater was born about 13 years ago, when the Belong DIsability Program team realized there was a huge need for young adults and teens in the program who were approaching age 21 and beyond, who didn’t have a lot of fellowship and community activities. The programs are free and open to anyone in the Dallas-Fort Worth community who is or has a family member affected by a disability.
This documentary film is a testament to the power of a supportive, creative space where young adults with disabilities can explore their creativity and express themselves through the performing arts, and we hope that it will inspire others to create programs like this in their communities. Into the Spotlight spreads the message of ability and skill within the community of those with disabilities by authentically sharing a story about and by people who might not otherwise have an opportunity to be in the spotlight. Our hope is that when people see this film, they build programs like this in their communities, or help support it in any way they can.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started”
- Be grateful.
- Be present.
- Be of service.
- Let go of your ego. Take the opportunity. Enjoy the process of creating rather than focusing only on the result.
- Everyone deserves joy and the chance to tell their own story.
You’re a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Meditation and doing the work it takes to get ourselves into the present, whatever that is. Communication and doing our part to be of service to others.
Can you please give us your favorite life lesson quote? And can you explain how that was relevant in your life?
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
This is a reminder that for all we know, we only get one shot at this life. Our human body is the vehicle through which we get to experience this life.
Bonus… this is the one that guides me in art. And in life.
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” — Michelangelo
As a filmmaker, I don’t necessarily “make” the films; they’re already there. My job is to bring together a team so together we can clear the path to let the light shine through so all can see what we see.
We are blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
George Lucas, who taught me that hope was real, friends could win against all odds together, and instilled the desire in me to tell every person I possibly could that you are going to be okay. You are okay right now. You are loved. You deserve joy simply by being alive.
Thank you so much for these amazing insights. This was so inspiring, and we wish you continued success!
Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Filmmaker Thaddeus D Matula Is Helping To Change Our… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.