We Don’t Deserve Dogs (2020)

We Don’t Deserve Dogs, the new feature documentary, has a new website. Head over to wedontdeservedogs.com to rent/buy the film.

Barbecue – Feature Documentary (2017)

Available for rent / purchase worldwide
Click here for options in your country

Winner of the James Beard Award for Best Documentary
Official Selection: SXSW 2017 (World Premiere)
Official Selection: Sydney Film Festival 2017 (Australian Premiere)

Barbecue is about more than grilling a piece of meat. It is a deeply entrenched ritual, an act performed religiously around the world, a ceremony refined over millennia. Every culture has some form of barbecue. But what is it about cooking meat over fire a thing that brings communities and families together? Barbecue is a tool for celebration. It is the pride of nations. It is something that transcends cultural differences.

Filmmakers Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker have travelled the globe, finding what it is that makes us human, what unites us in an increasingly uncertain world. Filmed obsessively over two years, in 13 languages, Barbecue is intimately told by those who stoke the flames and turn the meat. This is their story, told on the world stage. The result is a densely woven tapestry of thoughts and moments from a truly diverse world. With glorious cinematic images in 4K, and a full orchestral score, ‘Barbecue’ is a symphony of meat and fire told in epic detail.

Barbecue looks not only to the past, but also the future. From Shisanyama in Africa, to Engangsgrill in Sweden, people light fires, gather, and talk. This isn’t just a film about food – it’s about why life is worth living. From the Syrian border to an outback town in Australia, barbecue is all around us. We celebrate life through it. We find unity in it. We discover answers through it.

James Beard Best Documentary Nominee ‘Barbecue’ Is Like Anthony Bourdain Hijacked By Terrence Malick
[Jonathan Beecher Field – Decider]

“Salleh’s 4k photography is uniformly gorgeous (as a DP, he is equally attentive to pretty sunsets as to the savory colors of uncooked shawarma) and Larkin’s Philip Glass-like score is worthy of vinyl release.”
[Sean L. Malin, Austin Chronicle]

“He [Salleh] captures gorgeous scenery and food in lush 4K imagery, loading up enough cultural nuance to make Anthony Bourdain look like a homebody.”
[Eric Kohn, IndieWire]

“Barbecue is a fascinating sociological document that certainly shouldn’t be watched when you’re hungry.”
[John Noonan, FilmInk]

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Film Sales Agent: Matt Burke, Submarine Entertainment

BARBECUE
A Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker Film

Screen Australia Presents  A Projector Films Production  In Association with the South Australian Film Corporation and Urtext Films  “Barbecue”
Music by Christopher Larkin   Performed by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra   Edited by Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker
Sound Design & Mix by Michael Darren   Sound Recordist Rose Tucker   Cinematography Matthew Salleh
Co-Producer Rose Tucker   Produced by Daniel Joyce   Directed by Matthew Salleh

101 minutes | 4K DCP | 5.1

Slice of Life: The American Dream. In Former Pizza Huts.

Head over to our new website at sliceoflifedoc.com to rent/buy the film.

Pablo’s Villa

2013/14 Official Selection
Sydney Film Festival
Montreal World Film Festival
Slamdance Film Festival
Melbourne International Film Festival
Adelaide Film Festival
Revelation Perth International Film Festival
New York City Independent Film Festival
Antenna International Documentary Film Festival
WINNER, Atom Award for Best Documentary Short Form
Argentine Film Festival Australia & NZ
Irish Latin American Film Festival
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Toronto International Shorts Film Festival
St. Kilda Film Festival (Nominated – Best Director, Best Documentary, Craft Award)

In 1985, Pablo Novak watched as the picturesque holiday town of Villa Epecuén was submerged. Everybody abandoned the town, except for Pablo. Now, over 23 years later, this modern day Atlantis has finally re-emerged, and what remains of it has become Pablo’s home, and a place for his memories.

Filmed in 2013 in rural Argentina, ‘Pablo’s Villa’ has been selected for numerous film festivals in Australia and internationally.

Q&A with director Matthew Salleh @ SFF 2013
Interview and article on Pablo’s Villa at VICE’s ‘Motherboard’
The film mentioned on Slate.com, Good Short Films, Zeit.de (German)

Credits
Produced by Urtext Films
Director/Camera/Edit: Matthew Salleh
Producer/Sound: Rose Tucker
Featuring: Pablo Novak
Field Translation: Mara Uría
Subtitle Translation: GMR Transcription
Music Supervisor: Debra Liang
Music composed and performed by Steve Salvi
Photographs provided by the Museo de Carhué
Filmed on location in Argentina

Worldwide Screening Program 2013/14

Central Texas Barbecue

2014/15 Official Selection
Sydney Film Festival (World Premiere)
Melbourne International Film Festival
Antenna Documentary Film Festival
St. Kilda Film Festival
New York City Food Film Festival (International Premiere / Opening Film / WINNER – Best Short Film)
Heart of Gold International Film Festival
Dungog Festival
Adelaide Film Festival
Austin Film Festival

In Central Texas, Barbecue is more than a way to cook meat – it’s a way of life, a path to salvation, and a sure-fire way to start an argument at the dinner table.
Central Texas Barbecue represents the third in our series of international short documentaries. It was created on a road trip that followed on from our attendance at the Slamdance Film Festival, for which our film Pablo’s Villa was selected.

Central Texas Barbecue was the precursor for Barbecue, an feature documentary that continued our journey to discover the meaning of life via the age-old process of cooking meat over fire.

Credits
Produced by Urtext Films
Director/Images: Matthew Salleh
Producer/Sound: Rose Tucker
Music: Christopher Larkin
Solo Violin: Lachlan Bramble

Articles:
Dallas Observer
Eater.com
Cinema Australia
The Advertiser
themusic.com.au
Ripitup

Worldwide Screening Program 2014/16

Showreels and Trailers

Urtext Films is a Brooklyn, NY based film production company.

Matthew Salleh: Director, Cinematographer & Editor
Rose Tucker: Producer, Sound Recordist & Editor

For more information, please contact Rose Tucker on +1 (646)-465-3045 or rose@urtextfilms.com .

Please Don’t Rush

2014 Official Selection
Docweek Australia
Byron Bay Film Festival
St. Kilda Film Festival (Nominated – Craft Award)
New York City International Film Festival (Nominated – Best Short Documentary)

At a school for blind in Laos, children who cannot see are raised away from their families.
For many, their parents have abandoned them, as the difficulty of raising a blind child in impoverished Laos is too much to bear.
Amazingly however, their failing sight if often treatable. Sometimes a simple pair of prescription glasses is all it takes to find the cure.
Please Don’t Rush is a touching and powerful short film. It reveals how a little bit of time, care and compassion can change a person’s destiny for the rest of their life.
(synopsis by Docweek).

Credits
Produced by Urtext Films
Director/Images: Matthew Salleh
Producer/Sound: Rose Tucker

Translation by Ky Ratanatray

Produced with the generous support of Sight For All.
www.sightforall.org

Filmed on location in Laos.

Worldwide Screening Program 2014

Accel Partners – Spotlight On

Visit the Spotlight On website here.

One of most extensive projects to date has been to provide complete editing and post-production solutions for Accel Partners, one of the world’s leading venture capital firms, with almost $30 billion of assets under management.

Spotlight On is a multi-year video podcast project, where Partners from Accel lead in depth and entertaining conversations with a variety of companies they have relationships with. In addition to handling all the editing for the episodes, Urtext Films also handles all their social media videos, announcement videos, as well as a large range of interesting video side projects. More than a freelance editing project, it has allowed us the chance to set up and maintain a complete post-production solution for a major global company.

The series has featured some of the world’s most successful companies, including Google, Microsoft, Perplexity, Crowdstrike, Lovable, Netscope and Roblox.

Produced by Marni Blake Productions.

You Gotta Try…

Finalist, 2013 AADC Awards, Editing Category (Part I)
Finalist, 2014 AADC Awards, Editing Category (Part II)
Finalist, 2014 AADC Awards, Casting Category (Part II)

Produced by Urtext Films, for the South Australian Tourism Commission

In early 2013, SA Tourism commissioned a series of films by local filmmakers about the things they’re passionate about. We’re passionate about food. The Adelaide Central Markets are all about food. When we asked people what we should make a film about, everyone had a different answer. So that’s what this film is – a bunch of locals saying what it is that ‘you gotta try…’

After the great success of the film, SATC commissioned ‘You Gotta Try II: Barossa Edition’. This time we got to explore the secrets of the Barossa region, including an amazing 15 course degustation at Hentley Farm, SA’s restaurant of the year.

Now our third film has been released. You Gotta Try III: Fleurieu Edition talks to the locals, to find some of the hidden gems of a beautiful region.

Sometimes our work is just too much fun.

for Urtext Films:
Directed, Shot & Edited by Matthew Salleh
Produced & Sound by Rose Tucker

Crew – You Gotta Try…
Additional Interviews & Camera by Mira Soulio
Additional Sound by Nick Steele
Camera Assistant: Finley McNeilage
Editing Assistant: Darcy George

Crew – You Gotta Try II
Research Assistant: Aaron Nash

The New Logo I & II

Credits
Produced by Urtext Films
Director/Camera/Edit: Matthew Salleh
Producer/Sound: Rose Tucker
Music: Christopher Larkin

Finalist – Grolsch Filmworks Shorts Showcase

A pair of short documentaries we created to celebrate the creation of our new company logo, featuring local artists from our (original) hometown of Adelaide, South Australia.

A celebration of the bespoke and handcrafted approach to design, and how their methodologies reflected our own filmmaking processes.