MATT SHEPPARD IS A FRIEND OF MINE
18 years have past since the violent, homophobic murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998.
Two years ago we spoke to one of his closest friends, Michele
Josue, who made a documentary about his life and death.
Matt Shepard Is A Friend Of Mine has the blessing of his
parents and has won critical acclaim for its warts and all depiction of a modern day icon.
Matt and I met at an international boarding school in Switzerland in 1993 when we were 13-years-old. His dad worked
in Saudi Arabia, so Matt had to go to high school elsewhere,
and my mom’s company paid a large amount of the tuition
for me to study abroad. He was a little older than me and a
freshman. We both auditioned for a school play and they
paired us up to read together because we were both really
small.
He was really, really funny and from that moment on, we
became close. Matt came out when he was 18 and it was pretty
much a non-issue with his friends and family. After he graduated,
we still stayed in touch, even though it was harder back then because there was no Facebook or text messages. He even came
to stay with my family and I during the summer.
I was in Boston in my second year at film school when
Matthew was murdered. My older sister called me and told me
turn on the news immediately; she wanted to verify where my
friend Matt Shepard was living because something terrible had
happened to someone by the same name in Wyoming.
I watched the news and was so shocked… I tried to wrap
my brain around it because I was so confused. It was surreal at
first because we didn’t know what was happening, and all his
friends were working backwards trying to figure out what was
going on.
Over the next few years, it was a surprise how much his
murder affected people who didn’t know him, not only in the US
but around the world. There’d been many hate crimes before and
many since, but there was something about Matt’s murder that
struck a chord.
Eventually I moved to Los Angeles to work in the film
industry and to work on other people’s projects, but I was ready
to break and do something of my own. And for years, Matt’s story was building inside me. Then I watched his mother Judy on
The Ellen DeGeneres Show talking about her courageous book
about Matt, and that was a moment of clarity for me. I felt like I
was not doing enough. I had to do something for Matt and all
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