Anxious to preview the documentary film celebrating the 125th anniversary of The Daily Texan?

Award-winning documentary film-maker Quin Mathews, a Daily Texan alum and member of The Daily Texan Hall of Fame, has completed initial interviews with 20-plus individuals associated with The Texan covering a period of several decades.

Mathews will be preparing a preview to be shown April 4, 2025 at the annual Friends of The Daily Texan Hall of Fame event on the UT campus. The film will be released late in 2025.

Mathews is donating his expertise and time to produce the documentary, and the Friends of The Daily Texan, Inc. is supporting production costs of the film.

So far, 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 effort are underway.

And you, as a supporter 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.

Reach out with any questions to [email protected].

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.

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).

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 will premiere at the Dallas International Film Festival.

“I always thought there was the 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.”

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.