
Matthew Heineman
Directing
Biography
Matthew Heineman (born June 6, 1983) is an American documentary filmmaker, director, and producer. His inspiration and fascination with American history led him to early success with the documentary film Cartel Land, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, a BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, and won three Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2009, Heineman founded his New York–based production company Our Time Projects, Inc., which would later release Our Time, his first documentary film about what it's like to be young in America, which he shot in the lower 48 states while travelling in an RV with three of his friends after graduating from college. His 2021 film The First Wave received the Pare Lorentz Award from the International Documentary Association, was shortlisted for an Academy Award, and was nominated for seven Emmy Awards, winning Best Documentary, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing. The 2022 film Retrograde was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing at the Producers Guild of America Awards and won Outstanding Editing at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards. Description above from the Wikipedia article Matthew Heineman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For

Washed-up revolutionary Bob exists in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited, self-reliant daughter, Willa. When his evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years and she goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her, father and daughter both battling the consequences of his past.
One Battle After Another

A top-secret undercover investigator known as the Savant infiltrates online hate groups to take down the most violent extremists in the United States.
The Savant

One of the most celebrated war correspondents of our time, Marie Colvin is an utterly fearless and rebellious spirit, driven to the frontlines of conflicts across the globe to give voice to the voiceless.
A Private War

A revealing look at the rise, fall, and epic comeback of global icon Tiger Woods. The series paints an intimate picture of the prodigy whose dedication and obsession with the game of golf not only took his fame and success to new heights, but also down a dark, spiraling road that eventually led to a legendary sports comeback, culminated by his victory at the 2019 Masters.
Tiger

A visceral, rarely-seen look into the personal stories of those most affected by ongoing national emergencies.
The Trade

In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as "El Doctor," shepherds a citizen uprising against the Knights Templar, the violent drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley—a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley—Tim "Nailer" Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to halt Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border.
Cartel Land

Musician Jon Batiste attempts to compose a symphony as his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, undergoes cancer treatment.
American Symphony

With unprecedented access, this documentary follows the extraordinary journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”—a group of anonymous citizen journalists who banded together after their homeland was overtaken by ISIS—as they risk their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.
City of Ghosts

When Covid-19 hit New York City in 2020, filmmaker Matthew Heineman gained unique access to one of New York’s hardest-hit hospital systems. The resulting film focuses on the doctors, nurses, and patients on the frontlines during the “first wave” from March to June 2020. Their distinct storylines each serve as a microcosm to understand how the city persevered through the worst pandemic in a century
The First Wave

The story of the last months of the 20-year war in Afghanistan through the intimate relationship between American Green Berets and the Afghan officers they trained.
Retrograde

Colombian reggaeton singer J Balvin prepares for his 2019 homecoming concert amid intense political turmoil.
The Boy from Medellín

Australian filmmaker Jordan Bryon has been living and working as a journalist and filmmaker in Afghanistan for more than six years. After the departure of US forces, he stays to document Afghan life under the male-centric Taliban leadership. With his colleague, Teddy, he heads to a Taliban stronghold in the north-west of the country, shortly after he started transitioning. If the Taliban knew he was trans, they would likely kill him. It’s a chaotic time, for the country and for Jordan, as he navigates his transformation and looks to the future.
Transition

The moment where American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved hands in defiance on the podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics is one of the most memorable images in sports history. But there is a third man in the photo, the white Australian who finished second to Smith and ahead of Carlos in the 200 meters. His name is Peter Norman, and he stands in quiet solidarity with them. Norman’s story is retold in this film with passion and perspective.
The Third Man
A documentary short that follows several residents of New Orleans' 9th Ward as they return to their homes for the first time after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Overcoming the Storm
An upcoming biopic about Mexican film star Maria Felix.
Untitled Maria Felix Biopic
The story, based on true events during the 2018 blaze that destroyed the town of Paradise, California, will center on Heather Roebuck, a pregnant woman who chronicled her harrowing ordeal in a Facebook post that went viral.
Untitled Paradise Camp Fire Project

America has questions about today's youth, what we care about, and where we're headed. We had those questions too. So, after graduating college, four of us loaded an RV and embarked on a journey looking for answers. We traveled to all of the lower 48 states, talking to our peers about growing up, 9/11, race, the Internet, careers, sex, love, and the American Dream. Along the way, we met a wide cross-section of young Americans, ranging from a cancer researcher in Boston to a drug dealer in New Mexico, from an Iraq veteran in Florida to the founder of Facebook in Silicon Valley. The film ultimately leads to the recent historic election, where our generation finally stands up to make its voice heard. OUR TIME is a passionate portrayal of a generation, a meditation on coming of age in 21st-century America, and a rallying cry against apathy.
Our Time

Our healthcare system is broken. Potent forces fight to maintain the status quo in a medical industry created for quick fixes, rather than prevention; for profit-driven, rather than patient-driven, care. Healthcare is at the center of an intense political firestorm in our nation's capital. But the current battle over cost and access does not ultimately address the root of the problem: we have a disease-care system, not a health-care one. After decades of opposition, a movement to introduce innovative high-touch, low-cost methods of prevention and healing is finally gaining ground.
Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare

In the Kenyan bush, a crackdown on ivory poaching forces a silver-tongued second-generation poacher to seek out an unlikely ally in this fly-on-the-wall look at both sides of the conservation divide.