Matthew Heineman

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Matthew Heineman
Occupation Filmmaker
Years active 2006–present

Matthew Heineman is an American filmmaker. He is best known for both directing and producing Emmy-nominated television documentary Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare (2012) and Oscar-nominated documentary film Cartel Land (2015).

In 2014, Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare received a nomination at the 35th News and Documentary Emmy Awards in the category for Outstanding Science and Technology Programming.[1] Cartel Land also received positive reception, and was nominated for numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature[2] and BAFTA Award for Best Documentary.[3] He was named one of Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global Thinker's of 2015.[4] Heineman has additionally worked on documentaries Overcoming the Storm (2006) and Our Time (2009), which he produced and directed, as well as HBO's The Alzheimer's Project (2009). He has also directed several short films and commercials.[5]

Life and career

Heineman was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Cristine Russell and Ben Heineman,[6] and grew up in Darien and New Canaan, Conn. He attended New Canaan Country School and Brunswick School in Greenwich.[7] His mother is a science journalist and his father is a lawyer. His career as a filmmaker began after graduating from Dartmouth College in 2005.[8] He studied history in college and initially wanted to be a teacher. Heineman was fascinated with American history, notably the American Civil War. He told C-SPAN in 2012, “I think it really taught me to be analytical, to think critically about events” and “try to learn from the past to affect the future.”[9]

He and his friends took a post-graduation trip across the U.S., and Heineman shot video along the way.[10] He and his friends spent three months living out of an RV, interviewing kids “from all walks of life, trying to figure out what our generation is about.” The resulting footage (which Heineman dubbed, “rough, guerilla filmmaking”) became Our Time (2011), a feature-length documentary about American youth.[9]

He began shopping around Our Time, which was self-produced via Our Time Projects, Inc., a production company Heineman founded in 2009.[11] Heineman was hired at HBO and spent two years working on HBO’s The Alzheimer’s Project, a four-part documentary series.[12] He was mentored by director Susan Froemke and producer John Hoffman.[13]

Heineman worked with Froemke to direct and co-produce Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare (2012). The film was later picked up and aired by CNN. The film received a New York Times Critics Pick.[14] “This hard-hitting film leaves us finally more hopeful than despairing,” wrote reviewer Jeannette Catsoulis.[15]

First films

Heineman studied history at Dartmouth College and planned to start a career as a teacher after graduating in 2005. After he was rejected by Teach for America, however, he said he felt a blow to his ego, and decided to take a road trip with friends across the U.S. Although he had never held a camera or taken a film class, Heineman used a video camera to document the group’s experiences and interviewed youth along the way.[9] “It was really cheap. I mean, we were scraping together money from family and friends. We got sponsorship money from Nantucket Nectars and Penske Corporation, and — but it was really, you know, bootstraps, you know, rough guerilla filmmaking.”[9]

Heineman said he walked away from that trip feeling inspired about his own opportunities and a career change. “No matter where you're from, no matter what your background is, is that, you know, everyone has this burning desire to be better, to do better, to improve their surroundings, to improve themselves,” Heineman said in an interview with C-SPAN in 2012. “Our generation, you know, does want to fix this country, does want to fix this world, and I don't know if it's going to happen overnight, I think our world is changing every day.”

Heineman approached HBO with his film and while he was turned down, he was hired to work on a health care film series called The Alzheimer’s Project.[9] Heineman continued working on edits of Our Time after he was hired by HBO. The film was released in 2009. Heineman then teamed up with mentor Froemke to begin work on Escape Fire.

Escape Fire

Main article: Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare

Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare is a 2012 feature-length documentary directed by Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemkeand released by Roadside Attractions. Escape Fire premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, opened in select theaters on October 5, 2012, and was simultaneously released on iTunes and Video-on-Demand. The film was released on DVD in February 2013 and premiered on CNN on March 10, 2013.

The film tells the stories of physicians and patients, alike, taking creative steps at improving the U.S. health care industry. It gets its name from the practice of protecting firefighters battling wildfires by pre-burning a small patch of area so that the oncoming blaze will move around it.[16]

“What Americans desperately need is a way to transition from the current system, which is fragmented and focuses on high-cost, high-tech interventions after illness strikes, to a modern system that delivers coordinated, high-touch, lower-cost, patient-centered care with an emphasis on primary care and prevention,” Heineman wrote in an opinion piece at The Huffington Post in 2012.[16]

While making Escape Fire, Heineman said his goal was to be politically agnostic and offer solutions, not just problems. “So many of these documentaries - you know, you sort of walk out of them feeling depressed and hopeless. And we really did not want to make that type of film. From day one, we wanted to make a film that highlighted not just problems, but solutions.”

Escape Fire was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance (2012), and received several other accolades, including: Full Frame Human Rights Award (2012); Silverdocs Social Issue Award (2012); Newport Beach Outstanding Achievement in Directing and Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking (2012).

Cartel Land

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Main article: Cartel Land

Cartel Land is a 2015 documentary about the Mexican drug trade and vigilantism that has sprouted up to combat it.[17] It shows the story of Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles, a doctor in the Mexican state of Michoacán. Mireles leads a group of citizens who take up arms against drug traffickers, sometimes resulting in gun battles on the streets and clashes with federal police.

“I wanted to tackle huge, complicated subjects — vigilantism, border security, the drug war — but in a far more personal and targeted way, through the eyes of the compelling and deeply complex individuals at the heart of these vigilante movements,” Heineman said before the film’s premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Cartel Land premiered at Sundance, where it won Best Director U.S. Documentary and Documentary Special Jury Award: Cinematography (U.S. Documentary). The film later had screenings at the 2015 True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Mo., and had its New York debut at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.

Heineman conceived the film after reading a news article on the New York Subway about vigilantes tracking drug cartels along the U.S.-Mexican border in Mexico. “I didn’t know much about border, much about vigilantism. But from the moment I read it, I knew I wanted to make this film.”[18]

The film’s story then shifted to parallel storylines about two groups of vigilantes fighting against the drug trade on both sides of the border. Heineman was also one of two cinematographers credited in the film.

“I never knew who I was with — the good guys or the bad guys,” Heineman told interviewers at Sundance Film Festival.[18]

The film received positive reviews in trade publications such as Variety. “The pic’s lush, aestheticized imagery is an impressive surprise, and the film has no shortage of ace handheld work,” wrote reviewer Ben Kenigsberg.[19] IndieWire called it: “Disturbing, dangerous, and thrilling, Cartel Land is a fearsome reflection on the breakdown of order and the line between obeying the law and staying alive.”[20]

Filmography

References

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  6. ↑ http://ncadvertiser.com/20838/former-new-canaanites-film-airs-on-cnn/
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External links

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