Matt Barse (Wichita and Affiliated Tribes) is an alumnus of the University of Oklahoma with a major in Integrative Studies and minor in Film Media Studies. He also received a Professional Certificate in Screenwriting from UCLA and a Certificate of Mastery in Digital Cinema Production from Oklahoma City Community College. His work encompasses both narrative fiction and documentary with recent projects centering on horror and sci-fi.
Barse is an award-winning filmmaker, primarily writer, director and editor. Fiction short films include Lovely Day (2012), a drama about an estranged couple, Epilogue (2020), a horror/thriller featuring a young woman haunted by her troubled past, and Distance (2023), a pandemic drama with an emphasis on the undead. Non-fiction work is based on Indigenous stories with I Said I Would Never Paint This Way Again (2013), focusing on established artists from various tribes and backgrounds, and Shan Goshorn: Reclaiming Our Power (and More) (2019).
He has also been cast on the sets of major motion pictures and television series as background, stand-in, and non-speaking roles, notably Reservation Dogs (2022) for FX on Hulu, Tulsa King (2022) for Paramount+, indie feature Fancy Dance (2023), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) for Apple+. Projects in development include Indigenous sci-fi drama Nebula Unfolding with Sunrise Tippeconnie, the A.I. sci-fi drama Saavie with Elizabeth Drew, zombie horror/romantic comedy feature Dawn of the Bed, and The Boy from Enemy Swim, the story of a young Dakota man growing up on the Lake Traverse Reservation in the early twentieth century.
