Kickstarter

Seasons greetings and best wishes for the New Year from the "Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine" Team!

To our dear and amazing supporters,

First off, we offer our sincerest apologies for being out of touch all this time. We have not forgotten you! We have been incredibly busy with the long and rather uneventful process of editing "Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine." But since it has been quite a while, we are happy to give you the following updates:

We completed principal photography on the film at the end of last year, thanks to your generous pledges. Principal photography unfolded, on and off, over the course of a year. Our small field team traveled all over the U.S. with lots of time spent in Matt's home state of Wyoming. We also traveled all the way to Switzerland and Morocco to capture key parts of Matt's important story. 

Last month, we returned once again to Laramie, WY for a few pick-ups we needed. While there, we discovered an extensive archive collection on Matthew at the University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center. We also happened to meet a wonderful couple from Florida who were in Denver for business and decided to drive the 2.5 hours to Laramie to see the bench dedicated to Matt on the UW campus. It was a worthwhile and heartwarming trip.

Photography was exhausting, not just physically, but emotionally as well. But our hard work in the field has netted us hours upon hours of compelling and beautiful footage that we are very proud of.

Throughout this year, we have been deep in the difficult but incredibly rewarding process of distilling this mountain of footage into the shape that "Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine" will ultimately take. As of now, we are extremely close to completing a rough cut of the film with temped in music.

There is still a lot of work to be done on the film in the coming months--refining the edit, scoring, and the myriad of things that go into preparing a feature film for release. To that end, we have enlisted the services of independent film distribution guru Peter Broderick, who is helping us develop a distribution strategy to ensure that "Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine" will most effectively reach audiences across the U.S. and around the world. Also, we are looking forward to launching our new website for the film within the next month.

Though there is still much to be done, we are churning ahead and so excited to be nearing the finish line. While making this film has been a long and sometimes arduous journey, it has always remained an inspirational one, and we're so honored to be sharing it with all of you.

With much love & gratitude,

Michele and the "Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine" team

Today, on what would've been Matthew's 35th birthday, we remember our loving friend and share with you a short but poignant clip from the film. In this clip, Judy Shepard talks about her son as only a mother can.

As wonderful supporters of our efforts to tell Matt's story, each and every one of you have shown us how one person can truly make a difference. 

In Matt's honor, we kindly ask that you please take a moment to support the Matthew Shepard Foundation, a wonderful non-profit organization founded by the Shepard family that is so close to our hearts, and vote for them in the American Giving Awards. As a small but passionately dedicated organization, the substantial grant they could be awarded would greatly impact their tireless efforts to protect bullied youth and “Replace Hate with Understanding, Compassion and Acceptance” through a variety of educational and outreach programs. Your vote will make a difference in their mission to Erase Hate.

You can vote DAILY from now through December 8th at www.VoteMatthewShepard.org

As always, we cannot thank you enough for your help.

With much love and gratitude,

Michele & the "Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine" team

If you're in the Los Angeles area, the "Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine" team will be presenting a few short clips from the film at a panel on Bullying at UCLA tomorrow, Wed., November 30th. If you can make it, we'd love to see you there!

http://www.friendsofnpi.org/OpenMindEvents.html

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday!

Michele & the "Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine" team