Reel 2025
Documentary – Transandina
Transandina (2026) – Currently in Pre-Production
Duration: 30 minutes
How does it feel to live with two different identities?
This is the reality for many migrants who leave behind their families, traditions, and culture in search of new opportunities abroad. Building a new life means forging fresh relationships and customs—but it can also create a sense of dislocation from the place you once called home.
In this deeply personal film—for both its protagonist, Carla Fuenzalida, and its director, Matt Maynard—a runner sets out to reconcile these two identities on a 334-kilometer ultrarunning odyssey from her adopted home in Santiago, Chile, across the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina, the town where she was born.
Click to watch the original teaser in Spanish to watch the English Language version.
Documentary – Apu
Apu (2026) – Currently in Post Production
Duration: 40 minutes
Far from home, in a remote corner of the ancient Tawantinsuyu empire, Sumaq, an indigenous Quechua woman, dreams of climbing Cerro El Plomo (5,434 m), a sacred apu in the Chilean Andes. Along the way, she meets Javiera, a glaciologist, and together they uncover how ancestral and scientific knowledge might not be worlds apart.
Documentary – Laguna Negra
Laguna Negra. 13 minutes. Chile´s people live in the shadow of the Andes but have very limited access to its privately owned mountains. Laguna Negra tells the story of how that could be set to change through the experiences of frontiersmen and mountain guides in this wilderness area on the outskirts of Santiago. Directed and edited by Matt Maynard. Script by Matías Rivas. Narration by Catalina Illesca. Costume design by Paola Flores. Photography by Matt Maynard, Daniela Rakos and Yair Barrios. Funding was provided by Aguas Andinas. Laguna Negra was screened for the first time in November 2024 at the Santiago Mountain Film Festival as part of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour and continues to be shown at festivals worldwide.
Please click to watch the trailer.
Commercial work – Butterfield and Robinson
Bike and Wine Chile. 1 minute 15 seconds. Butterfield and Robinson wanted a promotional video of their classic bike and wine adventure, so off we set with cameras, lycra and a good thirst into the Central Valley in April 2025. The brief was to communicate the culture, the landscapes and the luxury notes of the experience with a full photo set and a promotional video for both sharing in horizontal format on You Tube and vertically on Instagram. Narrowing down the hours we filmed with the guests over the next few days was the hardest part. In the filming we got inside great casks at storied vineyards, handed off treats to still-mounted cyclists as they passed artisan kitchens and ventured deep into fields-upon-fields of grape as we looked for that juicy angle. In the edit we drooled over pelican-eye view footage of Pacific ocean sunset cruising and more cheersing than any good medical doctor would approve of. Click to watch the final cut.
Micro Doc – Respiro Austral
Respiro Austral is a six minute short filmed in September 2024, following atmospheric scientists on their mission to measure seasonal winter air pollution in Chile´s Patagonian city of Coyhaique. On certain days of the year, this city surrounded by mountains and virgin forests becomes one of the most polluted cities throughout South American as temperature inversions trap wood smoke creating dangerous health implications for its citizens. Whilst flying drones to measure the dispersion of the pollution as different altitudes, the scientists visit local families and a school to share their findings, raise awareness of the pollution´s impact and suggest changes that can be made to improve overall well being.
Adventure film – Transformer
Transformer is a three minute film about first experiences in the mountains told through the mind´s eye of a four year old with the help of AI. It was filmed in 2023 during antipodean winter in the El Arrayán valley in the foothills above Santiago de Chile. It was filmed and edited by Matt Maynard and is currently being shown at adventure film festivals worldwide.
Documentary film – Wala
Wala is a 16min documentary film from the world´s southerly most inhabited island, Isla Navarino. Its narrative weaves the story of two modern adventurers sent to Tierra del Fuego to map the island´s trails, with the pre-history of the island´s indigenous inhabitants the Yagán. Wala challenges the traditional adventure narrative and invites viewers to reflect on what they seek when going into the world´s wild places. Production by AndesHandbook. Witten, directed, filmed and edited by Matt Maynard. Some of Wala´s screenings include its inclusion in the Banff Mountain Film Festival world tour in Santiago in December 2022 and the Santiago Wild film festival in association with National Geographic in March 2023. Wala was filmed in 2020 on Isla Navarino.
Surf film teaser – El Ñino
El Ñino is an antipodean surf film currently in production in Chile. In 2023 and 2024 the massive El Niño phenomenon is dumping monstrous surfable waves along all the hotspots of the South American coast. But the life of the surfers in these coastal towns who drop into these waves are more complex than just that fleeting brilliant moment in the sun. El Ñino is being produced by Earth Rise Productions and is directed by Matt Maynard.
Client – Patagonia. Part III
Patagonia funded a 6 month environmental story telling project in 2023 called El Despertar del Río. It sought to reconnect Santiago´s citizens with their remaining rivers and water sources. Matt worked with dancers to interpret the water cycle, narrating its course from High Andean glaciers to the mouth of the Pacific Ocean in San Antonio. El Renacer is the third of three videos in this mini series. It asks questions about why it is important for the river to reach the sea and invites us to examine the relationship between fresh and salt water bodies.
Client – Patagonia. Part II
Patagonia funded a 6 month environmental story telling project in 2023 called El Despertar del Río. It sought to reconnect Santiago´s citizens with their remaining rivers and water sources. Matt worked with dancers to interpret the water cycle, narrating its course from High Andean glaciers to the mouth of the Pacific Ocean in San Antonio. El Cicatriz del Río is the second of three videos in this mini series. It examines the relationship Santiaguinos have with the Mapocho and Maipo Rivers as they pass through the capital city.
Client – Patagonia. Part I
Patagonia funded a 6 month environmental story telling project in 2023 called El Despertar del Río. It sought to reconnect Santiago´s citizens with their remaining rivers and water sources. Matt worked with dancers to interpret the water cycle, narrating its course from High Andean glaciers to the mouth of the Pacific Ocean in San Antonio. El Viaje de Ondina is the first of three videos in this mini series. It begins in the breathless high-altitude climate of glaciers and Andean watercourses. El Viaje de Ondina invites us to think more closely about our often abstract understanding of the fragile and yet essential ecosystem in which our most essential resource begins its journey to our home and beyond.
Tres Puntas – CR2
Tres Puntas is a 90 second short, filmed for the Centre for Climate Science and Resilience at 3800m above sea level at the Valle Nevado atmospheric measuring station in central Chile. This was the second collaboration with the multi-disciplinary research group CR2, with the outreach seeking to communicate the importance of the measurements the scientists are taking to understand snow fall and the impacts on hydrological security in the Santiago Metropolitan region.
Client – The Guardian
In February 2022 Matt travelled to Patagonia for the Guardian to tell the conservation story of the diminutive huemul deer. Through interviews with wildlife experts in the field and five days stalking the animal in its native habitat, Matt filmed and edited this short for the Guardian. The film accompanied his story and photo set for the Guardian about the rewilding potential of the the huemul throughout Patagonia and was published on May 29th. You can see Matt´s film, his photos and story, ¨The Case of the disappearing deer¨– here.