WHO: TRAVIS MATHEWS
WHAT: DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILMS AND
VIDEO JOURNALISM FOR CURRENT TV
AND OTHER OUTLETS
WHY: TO DRAW ATTENTION TO NEWS
STORIES THAT MAINSTREAM MEDIA
RARELY TOUCHES
There’s very little of the sensationalism or
high gloss of mainstream media that attracts
documentary filmmaker and video journalist
Travis Mathews, who’s based in San Francisco
but has traveled far and wide to produce films
and video stories for Current TV ( current.com).
If you’re wondering why you might have heard of
it, Vice President Al Gore is chairman of Current
TV, which is an Emmy-winning website and
24-hour global cable and satellite TV channel
“produced and programmed in collaboration with
its audience.”
Kelly Cochran performs with the Phat Fly Girls in
Mathews’ video piece, Fat Activism Goes Big.
Mathews behind the camera, a
Panasonic DVX-100B.
PHOTOGRAPH Y BY: SAMAN THA BERG
555*' M|L FEB•09 www.maclife.com
Mathews has a bachelor’s degree in media and
film studies from Ohio State and a master’s in
counseling from the California Institute of Integral
Studies, but he was drawn into video journalism
and documentary filmmaking largely because
video-editing software, such as Apple’s Final
Cut Pro, made it possible for him to be a one-man show.
“I’ve always had an interest in both filmmaking
and social justice–oriented issues, but it was not
until the advent of Final Cut Pro that I really realized
that—and at the same time, digital video cameras
were coming down in price but increasing in
sophistication,” Mathews says.
“For the last seven to eight years, I’ve been
getting more and more involved in video. I did a
documentary in 2005 called Do I Look Fat? about
gay men and body-image issues” (see www
. doilookfatthemovie.com.) It was featured at film
festivals and all—but probably, more importantly,
it went to different college campuses. I got to
