Anyone who was alive and old enough to engage with the world in the 90s remembers Matthew Shepard. He was the young college student robbed, beaten, and left for dead for being gay. The two images forever emblazoned in my mind are the photo of him in the blue checkered shirt and the photo of the bloodstained dirt in front of the fence he was tied to. This is the narrative people know. Maybe you learned more about the case by seeing a production of Moises Kaufman's incredible play The Laramie Project, where he interviewed community members and the murderers themselves to put together a portrait of a small town forced into international spotlight by tragedy. Maybe you saw the made-for-TV movie adapted by Kaufman himself starring an all star cast (including Laura Linney, Steve Buscemi, Camryn Manheim, and Peter Fonda). This narrative puts the crime and people's reaction to it front and center.
But what about Matthew himself? Director Michele Josue, herself a friend of Matt Shepard, asks this question in her debut documentary film Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine. Josue interviews Matt's family, friends, and mentors to open up his life to the world.
The film is ambitious in its scope. In the first half, Josue focuses on how Matt was able to touch so many lives. His friends, family, and teachers tell a story of a bright and sociable young man always willing to put himself out there. He was the center of attention. He was a kind and considerate friend who wanted nothing more than to change the world. His family was incredibly supportive of him, even at a time when coming out of the closet as a gay person was still able to regularly destroy families, derail careers, and immediately put a person in harm's way. There's enough material in these interviews, Matthew's own poetry and writing, and family photos/videos to make an entire documentary.
Josue's not satisfied with that. She chooses to confront the murder head on and devote most of the second half of the film to the crime, the trial, and the immediate aftermath. Some of these stories were inescapable at the time: the first responder on the scene, the bartender who last saw Matthew alive, the prosecutor's handling of the media and the case itself.
Most of the stories are new. Josue doesn't just interview the people who were still in regular contact with Matthew in 1998; she interviews everyone she can find who considered him a friend. She finds out the reactions of people who hadn't seen Matthew since high school. She films his teachers and even a priest talking about how the news of the murder impacted them. These are the voices that largely went unheard in the media because they were the ones fighting for the media to listen.
Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine is a fascinating documentary film. Aside from a few minor quibbles (the score is a bit too prominent in the mix, some of the talking head interview framing is just a bit off), the execution is great. Michele Josue goes far beyond her stated goal of telling the story of Matt's life through his friends. She pays tribute to her friend and establishes just how big an impact he had in his life.
Matthew Shepard could have just been another statistic in the record books of hate crimes; instead, the spark of his life and the impact he had on others compelled his friends and family to act for justice. Not just for Matthew, but for all the other victims of this kind of homophobic attack.
Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine is currently streaming on Netflix.
