Community & Craft: MATTHEW KAZUO FIRPO
A conversation with Matthew Kazuo Firpo moderated by Chris Chan Roberson.
Matthew Kazuo Firpo is an award-winning director and photographer, and the writer of Marvel Studios' upcoming feature THE ETERNALS. He is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and was recently named one of Forbes' 30 Under 30.
Born and raised in San Francisco, he’s been making movies since he was eight years old. His focus on powerful storytelling has won him Best Director at the AdWeek Watch Awards, Best Documentary at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and landed him at the top of the 2017 Black List. As a photographer he’s shot editorials and covers all over the world, from Jaipur to Joshua Tree, and has led photographic expeditions from Mount Kilimanjaro to the Swiss Alps. In 2016, Matthew spent a month in Greece creating THE REFUGE PROJECT, a multimedia chronicle of human stories from the Syrian refugee crisis that premiered at SXSW - and he's since worked with UNICEF to create an original documentary series highlighting local programs from around the world.
His commercial work has generated hundreds of millions of views online, played the Super Bowl, and has been featured everywhere from Times Square to the front page of AdWeek. He believes in telling stories that make a difference.
Currently based between Los Angeles and New York, Matthew is represented worldwide as a writer-director by the United Talent Agency and LBI Entertainment. He's the writer of five feature films, including Marvel Studios' THE ETERNALS, the upcoming post-war drama RUIN starring Margot Robbie, and the near-future thriller MIMI FROM RIO currently set up at Netflix with Ridley Scott producing. He's the winner of the 2017 Black List, Hit List, and Blood List, as well as a two-time Semi-Finalist in The Academy Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship. He currently has his debut feature film in development, slated to shoot in 2020. He likes incredible things.