Award-winning documentary film-maker Quin Mathews is nearing the end of the interview process for the film he is preparing to recognize the 125th year of publication of The Daily Texan.
More interviews are to be held over the next few months in Austin and elsewhere, and a tentative completion date of the documentary is late spring 2026.
“I want to portray The Texan as its staffers deal with changing challenges in journalism,” Mathews said. “ My goal is to show how smart, enterprising students continue the tradition of leaders in journalism, public life and culture.”
More than 20 Texan staffers and supporters from all recent decades have been interviewed. Research work continues, along with gathering of photos, video clips and other material that would be supportive of the documentary.
Mathews, a Daily Texan alum and member of The Daily Texan Hall of Fame, is donating his expertise and time to produce the documentary, and the Friends of The Daily Texan, Inc. and other donors are supporting production costs of the film.
Mathews will tell the story through interviews with notable Texan staffers from different decades, and will mix in historical research, information from The Texan archives and photos along with the interviews.
Supporters of The Daily Texan of The Daily Texan can be a part of the production process of this special documentary film.
From the Friends’ board: “Join us in bringing the Texan’s history alive by making a donation to support production costs and place your name into the credits listing of the film.as a backer of The Texan in its 125th year of operation.”
Donors backing the film production with a donation will appear in the credits section at the end of the documentary, and also posted on the Friends of The Daily Texan website.
Make your donation here: https://friendsdailytexan.wildapricot.org/donate
Please be sure to include the name or names to appear in the credit line.
He turned to film-making after a 22-year career in journalism, leaving WFAA-TV in the 1990s to pursue a career in documentary film-making. Mathews continued his journalism career in radio for several additional decades.
Mathews is known for City of Hate: Dallas and the Assassination (2013), The Colors of the Sky: The Churches of Michoacan (2009) and Inauguration Day: The Documentary (2009).
A revised City of Hate: Dallas and the Assassination has screened at film festivals from Austin to London and is now in distribution. Mathews said he has had uccess placing a documentary in film festivals over the last year and has signed a distribution agreement for that film, and will be seeking the same for The Daily Texan documentary.
More about City of Hate: Dallas and the Assassination (2013), from D Magazine: “In 2013, the filmmaker Quin Mathews examined the tumultuous political and social atmosphere in Dallas leading up to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in the documentary, City of Hate: Dallas and the Assassination. A decade later, he has returned to the subject.
“The film is composed almost entirely of new footage, including Mathews’ personal recollections of seeing JFK just before the assassination. One of the most compelling aspects of this new version is how Mathews shares his own experiences with the camera, having seen Kennedy at Dallas Love Field Airport the day of the assassination.
“Tragedies that occurred over the last decade pulled him back into the story. Mass shootings connected to North Texas—like in El Paso, a racist attack that was carried out by a shooter from Collin County, and the Allen outlet mall—pushed Mathews to reassess the history of violence and injustice in his hometown. A special cut of City of Hate: Dallas and the Assassination 60 Years Later premiered at the Dallas International Film Festival.
“I always thought there was extremism in Dallas in the 1960s and Dallas has improved so much that it [no longer has any] relation to the actual assassination. But I can’t dismiss it,” he says.
“I can’t dismiss the connection, that when you have an atmosphere where there is a vocal element that seems to prompt other people to commit acts of violence, or to instigate a feeling of hate, that it does have consequences.”