New Film: Big Daddy Flowers

After graduating from Brown University, Matthew Osubor worked as an overnight security guard to be able to raise the starting capital he needed to start his own media digitization company. While most of his friends moved to NYC and LA, he chose to stay in New England because of how affordable and accessible it was, and while his business initially started off strong with gigs at Narragansett Beer, the EPA, and Google, Matthew always dreamed of being a filmmaker so he put his earnings into short films— the holy grail for young aspiring directors. Meaning he spent his money getting rejections from festivals around the country year after year. 

“I hated everything but oxygen and my mother,” Matthew recalls during this stage, as he began to consider if his dream would ever happen. His company was functioning, so he didn’t doubt his abilities, but he grew bitter at how inaccessible and expensive filmmaking as a career was; and he had no connections, no money and no path forward but to work harder— or so he thought. So he began to isolate himself from others. Became sour. Ignored friends. Kept to himself and tried to work on his craft. He didn’t want to move to NYC like everyone suggested because of the cost of living and he had friends who had lived out who hadn’t made anything creative due to the cost of living (and constant FOMO).

But despite his isolation and disenchantment with the film industry, he always maintained that authenticity to his character. That resolve, that decent energy to live his life in accordance with his values— the way his parents raised him. It’s this decency that led to a chance encounter in a grocery store parking lot where Matthew witnessed an orange fall to the ground off a cart. He noticed other people ignore the orange and despite his distance from it, he retrieved the orange and returned it to the rightful owner, Alexandre Rockwell— winner of Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals as well as former Director of the NYU MFA Directing program. 

After handing Mr. Rockwell the orange, Matthew excused himself to walk back into the store, but on the way in he ran into a worker who was on their break; and in the process of exchanging pleasantries the worker noted that they had seen Matthew talking with Mr. Rockwell and joked that he was a famous director and his wife was even more recognized. It was then that Matthew ran back to the parking lot in search of Mr. Rockwell and when he found him approached him and introduced himself afresh.

“I didn’t know what to say so I said, do you live here— in Rhode Island? He said yes, so I said wow, me too. We have so much in common! We should work together.” In that parking lot, Matthew found a way to convince Mr. Rockwell to keep in touch with him and after Mr. Rockwell saw Matthew’s short films— and was impressed with not just the efficiency and economy of Matthew’s filmmaking but to learn that had been rejected from festivals, he encouraged him to attend graduate school and arranged an offer for Matthew to attend, but even though Matthew was eligible for a full ride, the lack of living stipend forced him to decline. Feeling bad that Mr. Rockwell had gone to lengths to pull strings for him, Matthew approached Mr. Rockwell with the idea to make a feature film instead of taking out loans to attend graduate school with the intention that Mr. Rockwell would mentor him and executive produce his film which he agreed to; and he even got Karyn Parsons (formerly of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), Mr. Rockwell’s wife, to act in it.

While Matthew was getting his filming finished, Mr. Rockwell was working on his own feature length film, The Projectionist, and as a result Matthew wanted to refrain from asking him too many questions, but he also felt isolated in New England without a community of similar filmmakers; so Matthew did the most daring approach of going to the internet in a vulnerable state in order to solicit feedback.

“I enrolled in the Reddit Graduate School, the most affordable school out there…and I got schooled for sure.’ The internet was quick to critique his work, and Matthew was quick to engage. At first folks derided him for posting something so raw online, but Matthew explained that he did so because he wanted to improve, he wanted to get better and he needed to have someone tell him the truth— which the internet always does.

Many would find it unthinkable, crazy— to be so vulnerable so publicly to so many strangers, faceless strangers, who all know who you are and your intimate expressions, but Matthew credits his resolve and his ability to take feedback for what it is: as an opportunity for growth as a gift.

Within 10 hours of posting on reddit, Matthew’s post was the number one post in a filmmaker group of 3 million users, all eager to offer him feedback and criticism. 

“Your friends know you too well and they don’t want to offend you. It can be hard for people closest to you to be honest, and even in classrooms people censor themselves because there is a social life existing in the cohort, but on the internet nobody cares about your feelings, about what the film means to you, about your struggles. They just tell you the truth, and if you can open to that you can grow faster and improve and progress… I love the internet.” Matthew says coyly. 

Matthew is finishing up post-production for the film, Big Daddy’s Flowers, which is an impressive feat to have made with a crew of volunteers, overwhelmingly non-actors and elderly, in partnership with local friendly-businesses, like Narragansett Beer Company. Despite his low budget, he has high hopes for his film. Matthew’s story is one of the quintessential American underdog stories where a figure faces a series of adversities  against all odds, with no connections in the industry, no fancy equipment, no money, and the only seeming resolution is to take on crippling debt to have an opportunity to succeed decides to reject the rejections, rejection the options and take a risk on himself— and publicly, in front of everyone.

“Thalia Field, my greatest influence, always used to tell me: play your own game. Don’t play someone else’s. I just want to play my game.” Matthew says with the same smile from the ending shot in his newly released trailer on the Internet that gained some controversy among some filmmakers for it’s inconsistent color profile, but was well-received by entertainment lovers.

All in all, Mr. Rockwell isn’t worried about the success of Big Daddy’s Flowers, he’s more worried about the possibility he cannot afford Matthew to work for him in the future after the industry starts to take note of his talent. Mr Rockwell smiles as he says “Matthew Osubor… can make a thousand dollars off screen look like a million dollars on screen. He’s dangerous, he’s young, he’s energetic. He’s different.’