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Point and Shoot


Matthew VanDyke is available for press interviews about Point and Shoot. To arrange an interview, please email him directly at matthew@matthewvandyke.com

 

              
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Point and Shoot is a documentary film produced by Matthew VanDyke, Marshall Curry, and Elizabeth Martin about VanDyke's transformation from a shy, sheltered young man from Baltimore, MD, USA to a freedom fighter in the 2011 Libyan Civil War.

 

In 2007, inspired by the adventure films of Australian Alby Mangels, VanDyke set off for North Africa and the Middle East with a motorcycle and a camera to film whatever happened.

Matthew VanDyke in front of Gibraltar with his Kawasaki KLR 650 motorcycle

 

Four years later he was fighting in the Libyan Revolution.

Matthew VanDyke serving as a freedom fighter in the National Liberation Army of Libya during the Libyan Civil War

 

His extraordinary adventures during the four years before the war in Libya, from 2007-2010, took him to Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. He captured much of what happened on film. His experiences during those years, some of which nearly got him killed, were a quest for manhood that transformed him in profound ways.

Matthew VanDyke filming a protest in Iraq

 

In early 2011, just two months after VanDyke had finished his journey and had decided to settle down to a more normal life in America, the friends he had made in Libya were fighting for their lives against Muammar Gaddafi. VanDyke realized he had to make one more trip to the region, to help his friends. He joined the Libyan Revolution as a rebel fighter, serving in the rebel forces with his friend Nuri Funas, whom he had met during the motorcycle adventures in 2007.

Matthew VanDyke and Nouri Fonas riding in a KADDB Desert Iris 4x4 during the Libyan Civil War

 

Wounded and captured during the war, VanDyke spent nearly six months as a prisoner of war in two of Libya's most notorious prisons.

Matthew VanDyke in his prison cell while a prisoner of war during the Libyan Civil War

 

After nearly six months of psychological torture in solitary confinement, other prisoners broke the lock off VanDyke's cell at Abu Salim Prison in Tripoli, and he escaped with them. VanDyke returned to combat on the front lines, serving as an infantryman and heavy machine gunner until the end of the war.

Matthew VanDyke with Libyan rebel fighters during the Libyan Civil War

 

Point and Shoot uses VanDyke's footage from both his years on the road and while fighting in the war, in combination with interviews, to bring part of VanDyke's unique, inspiring story to the big screen for the first time.

Point and Shoot - A film produced by Matthew VanDyke, Marshall Curry, and Elizabeth Martin. Directed by Marshall Curry. Cinematography by Matthew VanDyke, Alan Jacobsen. Edited by Marshall Curry, Matthew Hamachek.
Starring Matthew VanDyke, Nuri Funas.