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About the movie
WOLF EMPIRE
From ballot boxes to bloodlines, the return of wolves to Colorado ignites a once in a century experiment, testing the limits of democracy, survival, and coexistence.
When Colorado voters mandate the return of wolves, a bold democratic experiment collides with the realities of the wild, unleashing a deeply human story of conflict, identity, and the fight to define the future of the American West
SYNOPSIS
In 2020, Colorado made global history by passing Proposition 114 the first citizen led initiative to reintroduce an endangered predator. Wolf Empire captures the unfolding consequences of that decision, from the first wolf release in December 2023 to the birth of wild pups on Colorado soil for the first time in nearly a century. But this is not a simple conservation story.
As wolves reclaim their ancestral range, fault lines deepen across the state. Along the Front Range, the return is heralded as a landmark environmental victory. On the Western Slope, ranching families confront a daily reality shaped by risk, loss, and generational identity. What emerges is a portrait of a state and a nation locked in a struggle over land, truth, and survival.
With unprecedented access and intimate storytelling, Wolf Empire places audiences inside this collision, where policy becomes personal and coexistence is anything but guaranteed.
Thematic Focus
Democracy vs. Ecology
Can complex ecosystems be governed by public vote?
Collision of Worlds
Urban ideals meet rural realities on contested land
Myth vs. Reality
Rewriting the cultural story of the wolf for a new generation
Ancestral Return
Indigenous perspectives on restoration, balance, and memory
IMPACT & RELEVANCE
Can humanity make space for the wild and for each other?
As Global temperatures rise and biodiversity collapse accelerate, Wolf Empire captures a defining global question with urgency and cinematic scope.
Colorado’s wolf reintroduction is one of the most visible and controversial conservation experiments in the world. This film transforms that headline into a deeply human story with international resonance positioned at the intersection of environment, politics, and culture.
Directors Vision
This film is driven by a singular question: What happens when democracy rewrites the rules of the natural world?
Wolf Empire is designed as a character driven, cinematic documentary that transcends the issue itself. Wolves are not the subject they are the catalyst. Through ranchers, biologists, students, and Indigenous leaders, the film reveals a deeper narrative about power, belonging, and competing realities in modern America.
Visually grounded in the stark beauty of the Colorado landscape, the film pairs observational storytelling with emotional immediacy capturing moments of awe, fear, and transformation as they unfold in real time.
Matt Skinner
Writer, Director, Producer
Matt Skinner is a filmmaker, writer, director and producer whose career spans twenty-five years, with many of those being spent in Atlanta, Georgia and Austin, Texas. Now based out of the inspiring landscape of the Rocky Mountains, Skinner creates film and video projects in a variety of genres. Matt credits much of his success to Academy Award-winning producer, Gray Frederickson along with late documentarian, Albert Maysles. As a mentor to Matt, Frederickson, who won an Oscar as Co-Producer of The Godfather Part II and for producing such great productions as The Outsiders, has helped his protégé develop his vast talent.
With an attentive, empathic approach to the human condition, Matt's work is recognized for evoking emotion and encouraging thought in his audience. Some of Matt's work include Outlaw: Life, Death and Texas Football, a film that recounts the life and untimely death of legendary football coach John Outlaw. Fox Sports premiered the film in 2016 and Sports Illustrated released it as one of their signature documentaries to open with Amazon in 2017. In 2019, Matt produced, assistant directed, and camera operated the film Porvenir, Texas. PBS chose to air the film nationally on VOCES, their signature Latino arts and culture documentary showcase. The film uncovers the truth of a 1918 massacre of 15 Mexican men along a Texas border town.
Skinner has also worked on AMC's The American West produced by Robert Redford. Matt covered then Senator Obama's speech at The University of Cincinnati, as well as eight years later as President of the United States at the White House for SXSL (South by South Lawn). Outlaw was recognized as an 'Official Selection' at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Matt's ability to unveil truth and the strength of vulnerability is the foundation for his command of Cinema Vérité in documentary and feature narrative filmmaking. Matt has a heart-felt commitment to volunteering with vulnerable populations and his humble approach when presenting to university students has helped set the stage for the next generation of filmmakers. Matt has been making Wolf Empire over two years and is excited for the public to see it.
Nevie Owens
Editor
In the beginning, editor Nevie Owens honed her skills by making bad movies shorter; now, 28 years later, Nevie has had the pleasure of working with acclaimed directors and on projects she is proud to show her wife and kids. Whether it's a commercial, music video, short, or feature Nevie approaches the project with enthusiasm and with the right amount of creative vision and attention to detail...every frame counts! Nevie got her first taste of the industry with a STARZ internship her final year at the University of Denver, where she was a communication/philosophy major.
Upon graduation and focusing on film, she landed an assistant editor position on Before Sunset under Sandra Adair. Nevie's first feature as lead editor was Kat Candler's directorial debut, Jumping Off Bridges starring the fresh faced Glen Powell. Some other key credits include: Mitch Schultz's ground breaking documentary, DMT: The Spirit Molecule, Matt Muir and Chris Olson's, Thank You A Lot, and the genre bending feature, The Teller and the Truth. Nevie also completed the much anticipated bio-documentary by Louis Black/Karen Bernstein celebrating Richard Linklater, dream is destiny; and she is currently cutting the timely and culturally impactful documentary on the Grey wolf reintroduction in Colorado, Wolf Empire. Nevie moonlights as a technical director for live musical performances in Austin to escape the editing room. Nevie's favorite movie is Delicatessen, she is uncannily good at cribbage, and had perfect attendance in high school.
Jeffrey Carabelos
Composer
Jeffrey Carabelos is a Colorado based film composer and founder of Harmonic Alchemy, known for immersive, cinematic scores for documentaries and narrative films. His work on Wolf Empire weaves modern synth soundscapes, ambient textures, and subtle orchestral elements to evoke our inner childhood connection to nature and the delicate reality of wolf reintroduction in Colorado's landscape.
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