Matthew Charles Hall

Born in Placentia, California in 1985, Hall's fascination with film began early. His mother gave him a camcorder at the age of 6 and from then on he would often film his own short films in in his backyard, incorporating his classmates to be his co-stars. His parents divorced when he reached the age of 16. He has stated that this had a huge impact on his storytelling career. At age 18, Hall joined the brotherhood of Eagle Scouts in the Boy Scouts of America; an honor he shares with such filmmakers as Steven Spielberg, Michael Moore, and David Lynch. He attended Chapman University in Orange, California and majored in World History and minored in Film History (he was rejected four times from the film production department). At the age of 23, his early film work was recognized by the Reel Ideas Studio program and his first short film "In the Land of Phantoms" (2008) was chosen to play overseas during the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival. While in France, Hall directed the short film "100 Mountains" (2008) which screened out of competition at the festival that very same year. His first feature film, "Dark Horizon" (2009), garnered some attention for having been photographed in three counties, on two oceans, and for under $60,000. The project took three years to complete. Since his first feature, Hall has dabbled in various genres including horror -- "Hunting Grounds" (2009) -- and family films "David's Dinosaur" (2017). In 2010, Hall was mentored by Oscar-winning producer Michael Phillips ("Taxi Driver", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "The Sting"), an idol of his, while Hall began setting up an online film distribution platform. The project was eventually abandoned and Hall stepped out of the industry for several years, working in industrial real state and property management. Several commercial projects kept one foot in the business and in 2014 he was asked to produce and direct the documentary feature "The Longest Road" (2016) in the Middle East. Upon the project's completion, the film premiered in Orange County, California, before premiering internationally in India, Canada, Sweden and throughout Europe in addition to film festivals across the United States. Since then, Hall has returned to filmmaking in a part-time sense, directing the upcoming documentary "Daughters of Ghafouri" on the Syrian / Iraqi border and the upcoming ocean documentary "Aloha Kai" -- which will lens in Hawaii. He lives in Orange County, California.