Art is often a collaborative process, and becomes almost invariably so as projects grow larger and more ambitious. The film industry is a prime example of this; small independent films can get by with a small team, but any kind of blockbuster or even mid-sized movie requires the work of dozens, if not hundreds, of collaborators. From ideation, through early filming and production, to editing, and even—if not especially—during the release window, films succeed on the backs of collaborative teams working toward a shared vision. This is as true for horror movies and action movies as it is for biopics and documentaries. 

It’s that collaborative spirit that makes filming documentary projects so engaging and fulfilling, at least according to the award-winning filmmaker David Anthony Ngo. As both a writer and director of documentary and narrative films, David Anthony Ngo has created films shown around the world, including at festivals like the Sundance Film Festival. He’s the winner of the PBS Human Spirit Award, and has been nominated for both the WeScreenplay Diverse Voices and the Tracking Board Launch Pad competitions. Most recently he helmed Never Get Busted! a Sundance featured film following the infamous Texas lawman who turned on the police. 

The process behind putting together award-winning documentary projects is multifaceted and involves a great many people. Even after release, the process of taking these films to major international festivals has a lot of moving parts; taking a film from concept to the festival circuit is one of the most challenging artistic collaborative efforts that exists today. That’s part of what makes it so engaging and fulfilling, at least for David Anthony Ngo. 

“I have met hundreds, perhaps thousands, of filmmakers throughout the years at film festivals all over the world, and have found a shared passion and struggle for the medium that is inspiring,” Anthony Ngo says. “Making a movie is always a challenge. Making one independently requires an enormous amount of risk, dedication and hard work.” 

Inspired By Stories, Driven By Teams

While he’s now an internationally recognized and award winning writer and director, David Anthony Ngo started the same way every filmmaker does: small. He fell in love with watching murder mysteries—which would later become his genre of choice—and Hitchcock films with his grandmother, and would spend weekends going through piles of video tapes from the local store for new experiences. By the time he was watching The Big Lebowski as a teenager, he’d realized that the art form he loved so much was one he could contribute to. 

“I soon bought a small DV camera and started making short films on weekends,” Anthony Ngo recalls. “They weren’t great, but with each I got a bit better, learned the craft more, and bit by bit started to bridge the taste gap—that enormous divide between your artistic intention and the end result.”

As the years passed and his filmmaking career developed, Anthony Ngo learned that there is nothing more essential to the art than collaboration. In his words, the most unique thing about filmmaking is that it is a collaborative process; editors, producers, writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, and more are all crucial members of the team. Even during his formative career working as an editor, Anthony Ngo believed that it wasn’t about professional titles, but making sure the best idea wins. It’s a mindset he carries to this day. 

“Unfortunately, the industry puts too much focus on directors as a singular creative force,” he explains. “That’s simply not true. It’s always a team effort. Writers often initiate the project and key creatives help interpret it. So when I collaborate, I always try to keep that in mind. If someone else has a better idea, it’s best to drop the ego and take the win.”

From Concept To Festival Debut

Like any artist, David Anthony Ngo has his own unique creative process when it comes to filmmaking. Most of his films are rooted in true stories, often true crime stories, because they often inherently carry with them the ingredients of a good story for film: a great premise, interesting characters, and high stakes. However, whether it’s a documentary or not, it always starts with a story, a flash of inspiration, a driving idea that fascinates him enough to be interested over the years it’ll take to write, direct, and release the film. 

Once the illuminating idea has been discovered and chosen, the real work begins. Research makes up the majority of the early process, which often leads to multiple early rewrites on its own. Anthony Ngo usually starts with a beat sheet that maps out the major characters and plot points, giving necessary structure to the story before he fleshes it out into a longer form outline or script. These early stages can take over a year on their own, before any preparation for shooting begins. Once it’s done, Anthony Ngo will seek out feedback from trusted peers, then send it out to potential production partners and financiers. 

“In ‘Never Get Busted’, the co-creator Erin Williams-Weir and I saw a short video with the lead subject Barry Cooper, and were instantly hooked,” Anthony Ngo says. “Once we’d fleshed out the story, we sent it out to some Executive Producers in the space and were very fortunate it got in the hands of John Battsek (Academy Award Winner ‘Searching For Sugar Man’) and Chris Smith (‘Tiger King’) who saw the potential and jumped on board. It was an enormous undertaking that took 6 years of blood, sweat, and tears to finish.”

From its earliest spark to its final form, David Anthony Ngo was deeply embedded in every layer of the project—shaping the story from the ground up, personally connecting with subjects to build an intimate, observational lens that feels lived-in rather than constructed. What followed wasn’t just a production timeline, but a many years-long personal commitment, as he poured significant parts of his life into bringing the film to completion, taking on the uncertainty and risk that comes with independent storytelling.

Documentary work demands unwavering commitment from start to finish. While others stepped away when the process became too hard, the film was carried forward by those with the strength to never give up—through years of uncertainty, travel, and relentless effort. Alongside Emmy Award nominee Julian Hart (‘Tinder Swindler’) and a small edit team, David Anthony Ngo worked relentlessly combing through hundreds of hours of archival material and interviews to shape a story that resonates emotionally while maintaining a sharp, compelling edge.

Once the movie was complete, taking it into the international film festival circuit was only a logical next step. Festivals like Sundance are one of the few avenues independent filmmakers have to seek exposure, especially as distribution networks and studios have become more risk averse. Festivals are a way for smaller budget films to get attention and prove audience engagement—which can then lead to those networks distributing and screening the film. It’s a hard gauntlet to run, but every success makes it worth it. 

“Tenacity is the number one characteristic of any good filmmaker,” David Anthony Ngo says. “You’ll hear a million ‘no’s,’ be told you can’t do it, tell yourself you can’t do it, have people try to stop you from doing it—and still need to get up every morning and persevere. The world is always hungry for an engrossing story. Technology changes all the time, but if you’re a great storyteller, everything else can be learned.”

Written in partnership with Tom White

By Myescha Joell

Abe Yellen’s “South of Italy” is the kind of song that settles into you slowly — a warm, unhurried ache dressed in acoustic guitar, lush strings, and the kind of melody that makes you feel like you’ve heard it before, even when you haven’t. The fourth single off his upcoming debut album, Long Goodbye, the track is cinematic in the truest sense: it doesn’t just tell a story, it places you inside one. And the story it’s telling is about love that’s been lost — and the strange, beautiful hope that comes after.

The song traces back to a solo trip Yellen took to Italy in late 2021. Moving through Florence, Siena, Rome, Capri, and Positano, he found himself drawn to the music of Piero Piccioni — the Italian film composer whose lush 1960s scores blanketed his travels with a particular kind of longing. Melody came first, arriving somewhere between the cobblestones and coastline. The lyrical story didn’t crystallize until he returned stateside.

“When I got back in the studio in Austin, that’s really when I think it finally came together — I was able to tell more of a chronological, left-to-right story,” shared Abe Yellen.

On the production side, the track grew out of a collaborative session with fellow artists Taylor Armstrong and Callan Brown. Armstrong had been working through an acoustic guitar idea — harmonically complete but still searching for a direction — and Yellen heard something in those chords immediately. He took the idea, lived with it for nearly a year, and when he finally returned to shape the vocal melody and arrangement, the song found itself. The final touch came from UK-based award-winning composer, orchestrator, and cellist Matt Hawken, brought in to handle all the string work — and the one who pushed the track into fully cinematic territory.

“Matt Hawken did all the string work on that song. He did a beautiful job — he’s a genius for sure. Some folks have listened and said it’s very cinematic, and I think that’s kudos to his fine work,” enthused Abe Yellen.

As for a visual, Yellen has a clear picture in his head: a Super 8 camera, the Italian countryside, montage footage that lets the landscape do the talking. Nothing is locked yet, but the intention to return to Italy and capture it is real. In the meantime, studio performance footage is being filmed in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in April. Meanwhile, Yellen has his eye on house shows as his preferred live format this year — an intimate setting that fits an album this close to the bone.

“In a dream world, we’d fly out and shoot one there [in Italy]. Seems like anything else would be cutting it short,” added Abe Yellen.

Long Goodbye — the full debut Yellen has spent years quietly building toward — arrives in April, preceded by one final single. “Farfisa” drops March 27th, named after the instrument he wrote it on: a vintage 1960s organ with a dreamy, transportive quality — the same one Sly Stone once played. The album itself was born from the experience of divorce, but Long Goodbye isn’t an angry record. It’s a love letter — honest, lived-in, and shaped by the kind of loss that quietly teaches you something if you let it.

“Music, for me, was always therapy,” explained Abe Yellen.

Born in Petaluma, California, and raised in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Yellen found his footing on church stages and open mic nights before trading college for the road and joining his older brother’s band Night Beds on tour. He eventually landed in Austin, where he spent years building records for other artists — helping them find their sound while quietly stockpiling his own. His influences run wide: the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Bossa Nova, and Jazz. Genre has always been a complicated question for him — not because he lacks identity, but because he’s after something bigger. He’d rather create the genre than fit into one.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if, in your lifetime, you were responsible for a new genre? Motown was a label that became a genre. Then you have João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim, who were the grandfathers of Bossa Nova. Maybe I’m trying to find a new one. I just haven’t found it yet,” shared Abe Yellen.

He closed with a T.S. Eliot quote from his famous poem “Ash Wednesday” that felt less like a citation and more like a mission statement: “Because I know that time is time and place is always and only place and what is actual is actual only for one time and only for one place” — and then offered simply: “Hopefully this all comes at the right time. You never know when the right time is, but I’m glad it’s coming out now.”

Before the full record lands, look out for “Farfisa,” the final single from Long Goodbye, dropping March 27th. It’s the last single to be released before the full project arrives. Long Goodbye drops in April. 

“South of Itlay” is now available on all streaming platforms, with promotional support from Starlight PR.

Instagram | YouTube  | Spotify | Apple Music | Tidal | TikTok

Written in partnership with Tom White

By: Paul K. Barnes 

Matt Axton is an artist with a heart built around music. His goal is to connect with people
through this art and share the good times with everyone who hears it. His latest single,
“MUSCLECHOPS” created with his band Badmoon, encapsulates this through a style
he calls mountain-soul rock and roll.

“Moutain-soul rock and roll is an offshoot of Americana that blends multiple musical roots
styles. Blues, country, soul, rock and roll all come together to create something unique
and special. I come from a musical legacy that believes music can be genreless when
your focus is just writing a good song.” he said.

After writing over 300 songs in his hometown of Tahoe City, Matt wrote
“MUSCLECHOPS” after moving to Los Angeles at the very beginning of the pandemic. He
wanted to craft a song that gave people hope and something they could dance to. The
song’s instrumentation ensures the latter with guitars, drums and an organ combining to
create a feel good funky Americana sound.

“The song talks about how things are just on the edge of not working out and you don’t
know which way they are going to go. It’s almost perfect and it’s almost not but
inevitably things come out on the right side. It reassures the listeners that we’re all going
through something and we all have support.” he said.

Americana is built on genre blending and lineage. Matt is a part of the Axton Musical
Legacy which includes his grandmother Mae Boren Axton co-writing Elvis Presley’s
first #1 hit “Heartbreak Hotel” and his father Hoyt Axton, an entertainment icon who among other hits, wrote the classic 70’s hit “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night, known for its humorously ear catching opening line “Jeremiah was a bullfrog.”

“I try to embody taking the old and spinning it with the new as much as possible. That’s
the foundation they laid. It’s an honor and I’m getting stronger every day by carrying it.”
he said.

Matt’s musical heart extends to the opportunities he provides for other artists. He’s the
founder of the Tahoe Joy Music Festival and the Americana Joy Music Series. Both of
these platforms offer opportunities for local artists to be showcased to the communities
they are a part of at a free event. Matt believes these artists can continue to build a
fanbase through face-to-face interactions and form human connections.

“The little mountain resort town I grew up in is going through a lot of changes right now.
However, we’re still a community of caring people and the festival reflects that. In the
Americana Joy series in Los Angeles, we focus on showcasing original music and fair compensation. That’s not common in LA so we are just filling in the gaps and giving the artists
the love and platform they deserve.” he said.

Matt and Badmoon’s track “MUSCLECHOPS” comes from his newest EP Same Old Story
which is out now. A tour across the mountain west in April, a national tour in the fall and over 200 days on the road solidify Matt as one of the hardest working artists in the business.  But seeing the world is one of Matt’s favorite things about ” the grind”  because he sees how every place he goes has something special. He’s learned that people are more alike than they realize. They all just want to have a good time with good music.

“We’re going to continue to spread joy with our music, keep the legacy alive and make as many
friends as we can along the way.” he said.

You can see more of the spirit of mountain-soul rock and roll by keeping up with Matt
Axton and Badmoon on these platforms.

Website for Festival Info | Music Website | Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram \ TikTok | Facebook

The Starlight PR Team thanks Matt Axon for taking the time to speak with us.

Written in partnership with Tom White