Matt Bird
Encyclopedia
Biography
Matt Bird wrote, directed and produced the indie feature 'Blue Neon' in 2000, during his final year of film studies at the University of Technology, SydneyUniversity of Technology, Sydney
The University of Technology Sydney is a university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1981, although its origins trace back to the 1870s. UTS is notable for its central location as the only university with its main campuses within the Sydney CBD...
. Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
radio film critic Peter Castaldi declared at the time: "Australian screens need a future and this is it!"
Bird was then invited as one of eight award winning directors to make a film for POV 2002, from a script by celebrated writer Brendan Cowell
Brendan Cowell
Brendan Cowell is an Australian actor, screenwriter and director. Cowell was born in Sydney. He stumbled upon acting by accident while waiting for his sister to come out of a rehearsal; he was then cast in a commercial at age 8...
. Bird's film 'The Doppelgangers' told the story of a woman haunted by horrific visions of her lover's double, and starred AFI Award Winner Pia Miranda
Pia Miranda
Pia Miranda is an Australian, multi-award-winning actress whose career was launched with her successful 1999 role in the feature film Looking for Alibrandi, an Australian film based on the novel by Melina Marchetta....
.
In the years since then Bird has continued to hone his skills in drama, while also directing television commercials and music videos. After meeting Producer/MC Thes One
Thes One
Thes One, born Christopher Cesar Portugal in Torrance, California, on October 18, 1977, to an American mother and immigrant Peruvian father, is one half of hip hop duo People Under the Stairs, serving as a vocalist/MC, producer, engineer and business manager...
of People Under the Stairs
People Under the Stairs
People Under the Stairs is a hip hop group from Los Angeles, California formed in 1997 by Thes One and Double K. The group has released eight critically acclaimed full-length albums and performed on every continent except Antarctica. It is estimated that the group has performed well over 1,000 sold...
, Bird directed the Los Angeles hip-hop duo's debut music video "The Wiz" in 2008. He has also directed music videos for ARIA Award winner's Bliss N Eso
Bliss n Eso
Bliss n Eso are an ARIA Award-winning Australian hip hop band based in Sydney, and were originally known as Bliss N' Esoterikizm for their debut EP The Arrival...
and operates Chesterfilm, a film & TV production company based in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
.
In February 2011, Bird's film 'A Desperate Deed' was a finalist in the world's largest short film festival, Movie Extra Tropfest
Tropfest
Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival.Tropfest began in 1993 as a screening for 200 people in a cafe in Sydney but has since become the largest platform for short films in the world. Tropfest Australia takes place in February each year in front of a live audience of approximately...
. It screened to a live national audience of 150,000 people and won Best Editing and Best Original Score.
Bird's recent thriller 'Cold Sore', starring Saskia Burmeister
Saskia Burmeister
Saskia Burmeister is anAustralian actress. She is most known for her roles in Hating Alison Ashley and Sea Patrol....
and Henry Nixon
Henry Nixon
Henry Nixon is an Australian actor.Henry Nixon was born in the 1970s at St Margaret's Hospital on Crown Street in the inner-Sydney suburb of Surry Hills...
, premiered in 2011 and continues to travel the international film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
circuit.
Filmography
- A Desperate Deed (2011)
- Cold Sore (2010)
- Making the Wiz (2008)
- The Fatal Blow (2005)
- Stuffed Bunny (2002)
- The Doppelgangers (2002)
- Blue Neon (2001)