What Was Ours

Emmy award-winning independent filmmaker Mat Hames is based in Austin, Texas. His films have screened at South by Southwest, HotDocs, and the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and have been broadcast on the Sundance Channel and PBS. Mat’s feature documentary, When I Rise, about African American mezzo-soprano and civil rights icon Barbara Conrad, premiered at SXSW and internationally at HotDocs. It was also featured on Independent Lens. After playing in 10 festivals in the US, the UK, and Canada, the film was nominated for an IDA Documentary Award. Prior to When I Rise Mat directed the 2008 documentary Fighting Goliath for Robert Redford’s Sundance Preserve. It was the official selection of 12 film festivals, awarded the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for Best Documentary Short at the Red Rock Film Festival, and the Golden Sun at the Barcelona Festival Internacional de Cinema del Medi Ambient. In 2006, Mat was knighted by the King of Belgium for drawing attention to the efforts of the Belgian Resistance during World War II in his first PBS film Last Best Hope. Mat's short doc, Austin Revealed, played as part of the Faces of Austin SXSW Showcase in 2014. He’s the co-founder of Alpheus Media, a film company in Austin, and is on the Board of Directors for Lights, Camera, Help!

As co-owner and executive producer at Alpheus Media in Austin, Texas, Beth Hames has been producing documentaries, non-profit films, and commercial productions for the past two decades. Beth’s most recent film, A Fighting Chance, was broadcast on PBS in 2012 and follows five families who are living in poverty, showing what it really takes to get by in today’s economic climate. The film takes viewers into the middle of real life scenarios that can lead to poverty, such as severe illness, job loss, and addiction, as well as the triumph of staying together and working to improve their circumstances despite the odds. Beth served as producer for the PBS films When I Rise and Last Best Hope, and the Sundance Channel’s Fighting Goliath. Another career highlight has been raising awareness about issues facing cancer survivors by capturing hundreds of their stories for the LIVESTRONG Foundation. Beth also produced the Emmy-winning 13-part series, State of Tomorrow, that aired on PBS stations across Texas in 2007. What Was Ours, which Beth produced, premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Her next project is a six-part series called Power Trip: The Story of Energy.

Jordan Dresser, co-producer of What Was Ours, was recently appointed Native American Fellow at one of the oldest museums in the U.S., the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. In 2015, Jordan received a master's degree in Museum Studies from the University of San Francisco. What Was Ours is Jordan’s first feature film. His knowledge of reservation culture and history provided an essential and invaluable contribution to the success of the film.