Matt Finlin

Matt Finlin is a Canadian documentary filmmaker,^[1] who is partners with Karen Barzilay in the Door Knocker Media film studio.^[2] He is most noted for his 2024 film The Movie Man^[3] and his 2025 film Matter of Time.^[4]

Matt Finlin
Born	Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Filmmaker
Notable work	The Movie Man

Background

Born and raised in Cambridge, Ontario,^[1] he earned an Honours degree in Psychology from the University of Guelph, followed by a Bachelor of Education from the University of Ottawa. After graduating, he worked as an English as a Second Language teacher in Taiwan,^[5] where he directed The Glass Box, a short film exploring Taiwan's betel nut trade.^[6] He later moved to New York City, where he released Below New York (2011), an award-winning short documentary capturing the lives and performances of the city's subway buskers, in 2011.^[7]

Door Knocker

Finlin founded Door Knocker Media in 2014 with producing partner Karen Barzilay. With the company, he worked as a director and producer of television specials and sponsored films for charitable organizations, including We Day specials,^[8] and a posthumous tribute special to actor Leslie Jordan.^[9]

The Movie Man, his feature documentary debut, premiered in February 2024 at the 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival,^[10] and had its Canadian premiere at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival.^[3] The film received a Vancouver Film Critics Circle award nomination for Best Canadian Documentary at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2024.^[11] Pete Hammond of Deadline dubbed the film "a Canadian Cinema Paradiso."^[2]

In 2025, Finlin released Matter of Time at the Tribeca Festival.^[12] The film profiles Eddie Vedder's series of fundraising concerts to raise money for research into a cure for epidermolysis bullosa.^[13]