I just got the news that Mat Thompson passed away earlier this year.

Mat was one of three behind the scenes together with Meryem Ersoz and Kevin Railsback, when UWOL was born in 2007. The trio ran the challenge successfully for years. Mat was the IT guru behind UWOL challenge's original website back in 2007. (Website is no longer in use)
His films were usually very good, and he gave back a lot of his knowledge through the feedback to each and every participant, in every UWOL challenge.
Later he got recognized and secured a job with the BBC, partly based on his UWOL films.

Mat, you will be deeply missed!
Rest in piece!

Ar Dheis De go raibh a Anam Dilis

RIP

He loved the earth and the animals.

He lived his dream.

His work is a testament to his kinship with wildlife.

https://www.matthompsontv.co.uk/video

He told me many times that he was grateful for UWOL for kick-starting his second career. He had some incredible adventures as a BBC producer, director, and cameraman.

Once, he hopped across the pond and make a feature film with me, spending a summer in Colorado and running a camera on my set. We had a lot of fun working together and hoped to do another one day. The last time I spoke with him was on Skype - he asked me to give him notes on a short narrative script he wrote.

Mat was tremendously talented and versatile.

Our networked world is strange. When you lose a good friend half a world away, you don't always get to know about it...

Requiescat in pace, friend.

Sorry to hear the sad news. Never had the pleasure of meeting him, saw his work. Will be sadly missed. Rest in peace and thank you.

I am so very sorry to hear about this. I never had the pleasure to see Mat in person but I communicated with him by email a couple of times. I am not on FaceBook or any other social media very much, but I did see a very nice tribute to Mat that Meryem wrote.

So I stole it, and published it to the DVi site under Meryem's byline. It's located at In Memory of UWOL Co-Founder Mat Thompson (http://www.dvinfo.net/article/misc/in-memory-of-mat-thompson.html).

(Meryem, I hope to beg forgiveness later and raise a toast with you to Mat the next time I see you again.)

I just missed getting this out in our most recent newsletter, but I'll definitely put it in the next one.

Once again, my sincere condolences to Mat's family and friends -- which include so many of us here at DV Info Net.

He will be missed, an amazing filmmaker with a big hart, RIP Mat.

He did some great work and was an inspiration to all of us. I wish I could have spent some time with him.

RIP Matt, you were an inspiration to so many of us.

I'm very saddened to hear this. Mat's work was very special and I enjoyed watching his competition shorts. I offer my condolences to his family and to the UWOL family here.

Dear UWOL friends and family

Our dear Bob Safay happened to be in Colorado and stopped by for a visit today (yay!) and mentioned that our Mat Thompson passed away last year. In tribute to Mat, all I can say is I am Gobsmacked. I am deeply saddened by this news and wanted to share my condolences with the UWOL family.

Several years ago I had posted on a UWOL thread once that listed British idioms that Mat would say, for a fun tease that even got Kevin Railsback laughing. Looking back through the threads I couldn't find that post, but I did run through the happy thread when Mat won the 2010 Panda award and how he was smothered with joy and congratulations by this community of incredible filmmakers. That was such a happy time!

Here's to Mat and the beautiful, talented person he was. Here's to the UWOL community.

My very best regards,

Cat

When several of us travelled to Bristol to attend Wildscreen I tried to get in touch with Mat so that we could finally meet in person.
He said he was busy editing a project bu might be able to slip away.

After talking to Claire, it seemed that Mat didn't want anyone to know or to see him as his health declined.
Really wish he would have changed his mind. I'm sure we would have had a great time at Wildscreen and would have blown the froth off a few beers at Bag 'O Nails.

I loved that he would never sugar coat a critique with my work. He believed that it made us better filmmakers.

I'm sure some people may have been taken back by his honesty but off you were looking to be a better filmmaker, Mat told it like it was.

Life's short people. We should put together a directory of where we are in the world and if we happen to be in the neighborhood, see if we can get together.

I'll be in Colorado Labor Day week in Estes Park so I need to see how close that is to Cat's home base and see about doing a little shooting together.

Ooh Hoo! Kevin, Estes Park is in my backyard. So excited to meet up, shoot some and quaff some too.

Cheers,

Cat

Kevin, when you drive to Cats house that last 1/2 mile is a real trip, especially after it rains. She has a great place. We really had a great visit. Also, on the way out there I did my usual drive through "The Tall Grass Prairie" to film the Bison. It rained the entire time that I was there. Enjoy your visit with Cat, she really is just a spit from Estes Park. Bob

Please keep this thread for what it was intended for.
Thanks for understanding.

Trond:

My sincere apology. I had no intention of being disrespectful. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Cat

Trond, sorry, Bob