Backdrop fallback

Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine

Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine

Share

Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine

2014

1h 29m

7.1(41 votes)

History

Documentary

Overview

An intimate portrait of Matthew Shepard, the gay young man murdered in one of the most notorious hate crimes in U.S. history. Framed through a personal lens, it's the story of loss, love, and courage in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

Links & Resources

Website IMDbView

Social & External

Production Companies

The people behind it

Cast & crew

5 featured cast members

Starring

Michele Josue

Herself

Judy Shepard

Judy Shepard

Self

Zeina Barkawi

Self

Dennis Shepard

Self

Matthew Shepard

Matthew Shepard

Self

Creative team

Directed by: Michele Josue
Written by: Michele Josue

Similar Movies

Ultimate Christian Wrestling

Why would two New York-based filmmakers dedicate five years of their lives to following three white, Jesus-loving, spandex-clad men from the Bible Belt, particularly when the world of documentary filmmaking has generated its fair share of films concerning sensationalistic religious expression and contact sports in recent years? Because it's not about wrestling, and it's not about Jesus. Against a bizarre and entertaining backdrop, and through a motley cast of characters, we are reminded of what connects us all, lest we forget what it means to be human.

Earth

Earth

In 1947, the borderlines between India and Pakistan are being drawn. A young girl bears witnesses to tragedy as her ayah is caught between the love of two men and the rising tide of political and religious violence.

The Cats of Mirikitani

The Cats of Mirikitani

Documentary about red-bereted Jimmy Mirikitani, a feisty painter working and living on the street, near the World Trade Center, when 9/11 devastates the neighborhood. A nearby film editor, Linda Hattendorf, persuades elderly Jimmy to move in with her, while seeking a permanent home for him. The young woman delves into the California-born, Japan-raised artist's unique life which developed his resilient personality, and fuel his 2 main subjects, cats and internment camps. The editor films Jimmy's remarkable journey.

Mein Leben und der Notenschnitt

Mein Leben und der Notenschnitt

Sixth-graders have many things on their minds. But they are confronted with an important decision: do they continue their education in secondary school A, B, or C, or do they go to grammar school after all? And what even are those things? How do children deal with the hopes and fears associated with this step?

Mama's Boy

Mama's Boy

Traveling back to the places where he grew up, Dustin Lance Black explores his childhood roots, gay identity and close relationship with his mother, who overcame childhood polio, abusive marriages and Mormon dogma, while becoming Black’s emotional rock and, ultimately, the inspiration for his activism. With a wealth of personal photographs and candid memories from Black’s family, colleagues, and friends, this documentary embraces the personal to tell a universally hopeful tale of resilience and reconciliation through the power of love and shared stories.

The Teacher Who Promised the Sea

The Teacher Who Promised the Sea

The buried memories of the Spanish Civil War are unearthed as a woman searches for the remains of her grandfather's father and discovers the story of an idealistic young teacher from Tarragona.

An Actor's Revenge

An Actor's Revenge

An onnagata (female impersonator) of a Kabuki troupe avenges his parents' deaths. Remade in 1963 as Yukinojô Henge.

Coach Carter

Coach Carter

Based on a true story, in which Richmond High School head basketball coach Ken Carter made headlines in 1999 for benching his undefeated team due to poor academic results.

In Our Mothers' Gardens

In Our Mothers' Gardens

In Our Mothers' Gardens celebrates the strength and resiliency of Black women and Black families through the complex, and often times humorous, relationship between mothers and daughters.

Still Life

Still Life

A short companion to Leviathan, set inside the fishing vessel.

The Magdalene Sisters

The Magdalene Sisters

Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.

I Am My Own Woman

I Am My Own Woman

The life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who survived the Nazi reign as a trans woman and helped start the German gay liberation movement. Documentary with some dramatized scenes. Two actors play the young and middle aged Charlotte and she plays herself in the later years.

Sieben Mulden und eine Leiche

Sieben Mulden und eine Leiche

Thomas Haemmerli is about to celebrate his fortieth birthday when he learns of his mother's death. A further shock follows when he and his brother Erik discover her apartment, which is filthy and full to bursting with junk. It takes the brothers an entire month to clean out the place. Among the chaos, they find films going back to the 1930s, photos and other memorabilia.

Chuy, The Wolf Man

Chuy, The Wolf Man

Jesus 'Chuy' Aceves and a dozen living members of his extended family suffer from the very rare condition of congenital hypertrichosis, meaning they were born with excessive hair on their faces and bodies. Due to their appearance, they suffer from discrimination in all areas of their lives: the children are made fun of at school and abandoned by their 'non-hairy' parents, and the adults cannot find work unless they choose to exhibit themselves as freaks in circuses. This moving and visually arresting documentary is a portrait of Chuy and his family members. It examines their day-to-day lives and their struggle to find love, acceptance and employment.

In the Valley of Elah

In the Valley of Elah

A career officer and his wife work with a police detective to uncover the truth behind their son's disappearance following his return from a tour of duty in Iraq.

Studio Visits: Richard Haines

Studio Visits: Richard Haines

New York based fashion illustrator Richard Haines talks designing the cover art for The Criterion Collection's release of Tom Jones (1963).

Footprints of Pan-Africanism

Footprints of Pan-Africanism

In 1957, Ghana was the first African country to become independent of its colonial rulers, in this case the British. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of what in 1960 became the Republic of Ghana, called on Africans from all over the world to come to Ghana to help build the new nation. The most important aim was to "undo the damage caused by the slave trade" as filmmaker Shirikiana Aina expressed it in her documentary Footprints of Pan Africanism. Several people speak in Aina’s film about the reconstruction of Ghana and Nkrumah, who was deposed in 1966, offering room for their frequently gripping personal stories. These are often marked by racism, the emerging civil rights movement and what it’s like to be black and live elsewhere. For many, returning to Africa was like going home.

A Suitable Girl

A Suitable Girl

A Suitable Girl follows three young women in India struggling to maintain their identities and follow their dreams amid intense pressure to get married. The film examines the women's complex relationship with marriage, family, and society.

Gay Power, Gay Politics

This highly controversial documentary, aired as part of the CBS Reports series, ostensibly covers the growing influence of the LGBT community in San Francisco circa 1979. Critics have rebuked the program for its characterization of the sexual practices of gay men, while organizations such as the Moral Majority referenced it in campaigns against gay rights ordinances.

Reiwa Uprising

Reiwa Uprising

Kazuo Hara follows Ayumi Yasutomi, a transgender candidate, who is also a Tokyo University professor, as she embarks on a national campaign for a seat in Japan's Upper House.

Recommended Movies

Welcome to Chechnya

Welcome to Chechnya

This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.

Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures

Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures

Nude men in rubber suits, close-ups of erections, objects shoved in the most intimate of places—these are photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, known by many as the most controversial photographer of the twentieth century. Openly gay, Mapplethorpe took images of male sex, nudity, and fetish to extremes that resulted in his work still being labelled by some as pornography masquerading as art. But less talked about are the more serene, yet striking portraits of flowers, sculptures, and perfectly framed human forms that are equally pioneering and powerful.

Fahrenheit 11/9

Fahrenheit 11/9

Michael Moore's provocative documentary explores the two most important questions of the Trump Era: How did we get here, and how do we get out.

The Celluloid Closet

The Celluloid Closet

Exuberant, eye-opening movie that serves up a dazzling hundred-year history of the role of gay men and lesbians have had on the silver screen. Film contains fabulous footage from 120 films showing the changing face of cinema sexuality, from cruel stereotypes to covert love to the activist triumphs of the 1990s.

My Father, the BTK Killer

My Father, the BTK Killer

Raised by a man leading a monstrous double life, the daughter of the BTK serial killer shares her chilling story.

A Toxic Love Story

A Toxic Love Story

A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.

The Look of Silence

The Look of Silence

An Indonesian man with a communist background named Ramli was brutally murdered when the "Communist" purge occurred in 1965. His remaining family members lived in fear and silence until the making of this documentary. Adi, a brother of his, decided to revisit the horrific incident and visited the men who were responsible for the killings and one survivor of the purge. These meetings uncovered sadistic details of the murders and exposed raw emotions and reactions of the killers' family members about what happened in the past - much to Adi's disappointment.

I Am Vanessa Guillen

I Am Vanessa Guillen

Vanessa Guillen was 20 years old when she was found murdered at a US Army base. Rather than submit to silence, her family fought for justice and change.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Fueled by a raging libido, Wild Turkey, and superhuman doses of drugs, Thompson was a true "free lance, " goring sacred cows with impunity, hilarity, and a steel-eyed conviction for writing wrongs. Focusing on the good doctor's heyday, 1965 to 1975, the film includes clips of never-before-seen (nor heard) home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts.

Night Will Fall

Night Will Fall

When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".

ReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke

ReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke

This investigation examines the mysterious shooting of soul icon Sam Cooke, whose death silenced one of the most vital voices in the civil rights movement.

Come See Me in the Good Light

Come See Me in the Good Light

In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.

American Murder: The Family Next Door

American Murder: The Family Next Door

Using raw, firsthand footage, this documentary examines the disappearance of Shanann Watts and her children, and the terrible events that followed.

The Menendez Brothers

The Menendez Brothers

Serving life in prison for murdering their parents, Lyle and Erik Menendez speak out in this documentary explaining the shocking crime and ensuing trials.

Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror

Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror

This gripping documentary revisits the shocking 1995 bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building, the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in US history.

Crazy, Not Insane

Crazy, Not Insane

Fascinated by the human brain and its capacity for ruthlessness, psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis has spent her life investigating the interior lives of violent people. With each case, she came closer to developing a unified field theory of what makes a killer. Along the way - steering away from the conventional wisdom of her colleagues - she explored the world of multiple personality disorder.

They'll Love Me When I'm Dead

They'll Love Me When I'm Dead

As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other Side of the Wind.

Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me

Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me

From the heights of her modeling fame to her tragic death, this documentary reveals Anna Nicole Smith through the eyes of the people closest to her.

13th

13th

An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.

Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story

Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story

Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.