The Amsterdam T-Shirt Project

Matthew A. Donahue's Biography:

Matthew A. Donahue is an award winning documentary filmmaker, award winning visual artist, musician, writer and educator in the field of Popular Culture.

His 2003 debut in film was the documentary film The Hines Farm Blues Club, for which he served as co-producer, co-writer and co-director as well as music consultant. This documentary was a collaborative effort with WBGU-PBS and aired nationally in the United States. For this documentary he received a Telly Award and the Award for Excellence from Women in Communication. He was also nominated for an Emmy bfs the Midwest Chapter of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences.

From here he has worked on numerous other popular culture documentaries, serving as producer, director, writer and music consultant. The documentaries are often related to his research or creative projects in the field of popular culture.

His documentary titled Taking It to the Streets: An Art Car Experience and Car Power: Another Art Car Experience, highlighted the history, cultural influence of art car culture and the creation of his art cars such as the Record Car, the Jackson Pollocktik and Car Power.

Additionally, he went on to make the fan based documentary Motorhead Matters. This documentary highlighted the history, cultural influence and fan connection to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal group Motorhead. For this film, he was the Grad Prize Winner of the Motorhead Superfan Contest of North America.

He has also worked on a variety of music videos and live concert video performances related to his various music projects.

His latest documentary is The Amsterdam T-Shirt Project, created with his longtime collaborator Joshua Lightle. This documentary was shot on location in the souvenir t-shirt capital of the world, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

In addition to his various film and creative projects, he teaches for the Department of Popular Culture at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.

For more information on his creative and academic pursuits, visit his website at www.md1210.com.

Joshua Lightle's Biography:

For over ten years, Joshua Lightle has had the opportunity to work on numerous documentaries, short films, and music videos.

In 2005, Joshua Lightle began his career at his alma mater, Bowling Green State University, in Bowling Green, Ohio, where he was responsible for shooting and editing educational, promotional and fundraising videos.

In 2010, Josh joined Root Inc. where he creates instructional and inspirational films for dozens of Global 2000 organizations — some of which have won both Telly awards and Brandon Hall Awards.

While at Bowling Green State University, Joshua Lightle and Matthew A. Donahue began collaborating on various short films, music videos and documentaries……“art for art’s sake” projects. Most recently, Joshua Lightle and Matthew A. Donahue have completed a short documentary that explores the souvenir t-shirt in Amsterdam, Holland and its significance in popular culture titled The Amsterdam T-shirt Project (2018).

In his spare time, Josh has chaired the Tree City Film Festival for six years and has helped to produce several award-winning films that were judged by a panel of Hollywood professionals. Additionally, Josh is the host of The Story Machine 9000 — a podcast dedicated to storytelling and script writing — which is entering its third season.