Robin's Nest from American Humane - Matthew Brady, Award-Winning Producer and Director

Episode Date: January 15, 2024

In this episode of Robin's Nest, American Humane's Georgia Boyer hosts Matthew Brady, an award-winning producer and director. He is the President of MRB Productions and has worked very closely with American Humane throughout the years, including directing the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and this year's Hero Dog Awards show! In addition, he produced the award-winning documentary Escape From Extinction and has just finished producing Escape From Extinction Two— Rewilding.

Welcome to Robin's Nest. So many of us have a deep connection with the animals around us and want to protect them from the pets in our homes to endangered species in the wild. That's why I joined American Humane. As one of the oldest and most effective animal protection groups, we help billions of animals around the world. Join us as we explore how we can build a more humane world together. Today's episode is hosted by Georgia Boyer, my communications colleague at American Humane, who's a longtime animal lover. I'm so excited to introduce you to our guest Matthew Brady. Matt is not only a dear friend of mine, but an award-winning producer, and he's the president of MRB Productions. He has worked very closely with American Humane

throughout the years, including producing the 2011, 12, 13, 14, and this year's Hero Dog Awards. In addition, he's the director of our award-winning documentary, Escape from Extinction, with the incredible Helen Mirren. And he's just finished our second full-length documentary film, Escape from Extinction, Rewilding. Let's listen to his conversation with Georgia. Matt, welcome to Robin's Nest. We are so happy to have you. I am very eager to dig into all the work that you've done with American Humane. So thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here. Yes. So you have worked with American Humane for many years, specifically with the Hero Dog Awards.

Do you remember what year you started producing the Hero Dog Awards? The first year, the very first show. It was the first, very first show. Okay. Yeah. And how was that? We were having a very hard time because it was a new show and it's always easy to book people when it's a second year and third year and 13th year. But when you're dealing with the first year, it's very tricky. So I was hard at work on the show. We didn't even know if we were going to be airing at this point. We thought it might just be a dinner and a gala and not the TV show that it's grown to become. And I ran into this talent manager that I kind of know. And I told him my plight that we hadn't found a host for our show. And he said, what about Carson Kressley? And I was like, oh my God, I love Carson Kressley. He'd

be amazing. Would he do it? And sure enough, he's also an animal lover and he agreed to do it. And that relationship has turned into a long relationship with American Humane. And he's hosted Hero Dog Awards more than once. It's just cool how this all works. Like he did that for us. It ended up airing on Hallmark Channel. And then he ended up getting a Hallmark Christmas movie to do because they liked him so much on the network. And he's been a great ambassador for American Humane now for 13 years. And Carson also hosted this year's American Humane Hero Dog Awards as well. How is the first show compared to now? What I learned through the process is the stories of these, these packages that we film about the individual dogs are just so incredible. And I'm still friends with some of the winners on Facebook. Like you,

you feel so connected to these animals. And then you also start to feel like your dog at home might be a little bit inadequate because these dogs give people their life back. And I just remember this one story that we told was about this woman with hearing loss. And we went and filmed with her. And I realized that if she's waiting for a package to get delivered, she had to sit there and stare at the door all day because she couldn't hear the doorbell ring when FedEx

came. So she got this hearing dog that would help her with that. And he would go alert her. So she got her life back because of this service dog. I learned so much about these amazing dogs and that's something that is exactly the same 13 years later. Yeah. Year over year. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. And I feel like I was moved just as much. This is my first year working on Hero Dogs and getting to know the handlers and the individual stories and seeing the dogs in action.

It is breathtaking and it does make your pup at home feel very inadequate. Exactly. I'm like, my little chihuahua is still peeing on a pee pad. And then we have these service dogs that are just doing unbelievable things. So it's very cool to be a part of and to be exposed to it. So we do have the five categories this year. We have the law enforcement category, military, therapy. Then we have the service guide and hearing. And we have the emerging hero. Year over year, what has been your favorite category?

They're all incredible. They all do such incredible things, but these therapy dogs that give someone their life back to me, whether it's seeing eye or hearing or just, you know, a lot of them, we have seizure detection. You know, if you think about in your own life, if you lost your vision or you lost your hearing, you'd think that your life would be over and you watch these people and it's not over. And they're actually thriving. They're not just getting by, they're thriving. And it is because of their perseverance, but also because of this canine companion that helps them through. Yeah, absolutely. So basically for the listeners who don't know,

Matt comes in and produces a show, a Hero Dog Award show for us. And it features the five dogs and the finalists and the stories behind that. Now, Matt, explain to the listeners, what are the biggest challenges about doing a show like this? I think the logistics are the hardest part. You're setting up a TV studio in a hotel, are the hardest part. You know, you're setting up a TV studio in a hotel. So you're not going into a TV studio to film a TV show. You're going into a hotel that has weddings and conferences. So you have to build everything from scratch. So we have to build a stage. We have to build the set. We have to wire for cameras. We have to build a control room. And then we have to bring all these people in that are skilled in this particular very specific skill sets. So it's just, it's not just like

putting it all together. The bringing the right celebrities to the event is also very challenging, but that's incredibly rewarding because we want to get people that are passionate about animals, but also it makes sense for them. You know, We want to get people that want to share these stories and have a great time with us at this event and really become spokespeople for American Humane in the kitchen. Yeah, because that's something else that you do for American Humane is you help us with our public service announcements. So you've worked with all different celebrities that are huge animal lovers. What celebrities have surprised you the most as far as being an animal lover where you were just surprised by the fact? It's rare that I meet somebody that's

not into some sort of animal on some level, but I've been shocked by just the amount of support. I was shocked when Martha Stewart said yes immediately to do a PSA. That was really exciting to find out how passionate she was about animals. And just in our film, Escape from Extinction, just to find out that Helen Mirren was also an advocate for animals was just incredible. And it's really great. I mean, I think it was the second year I did the show for Hero Dog Awards, we reached out to Shirley McLean and asked her to do a narration for one of our pieces. And she did it. We reached out to Peter Fonda. We got Mickey Rooney to do a comedy. I mean, Mickey Rooney had been acting since he was two

years old and he was telling stories about working with Judy Garland. And I mean, it was just incredible. But to, you know, the animals is what connects us all. And of course, Betty White, I got to work with her three or four times with American Humane. Everybody knows that she loves animals, but some of these other ones were just wonderful surprises. Morgan Fairchild, who is just like such an icon of the 80s and all her soaps and primetime soaps. And so we found out last minute that she was kind enough to do it.

So we ended up filming it in my house. And I had just rescued my own dog. I did not know that was in your house. That's awesome. Yeah, and my rescue puppy is the star with her. And it's just like, how much of a dream is this job that I'm getting to do these cool things? Like my friends at home just still can't believe it. Ian Ziering is a dad at my school.

And Robin said we needed to get another one. So I grabbed him. He has the most beautiful dog as well. So we had a great time with him. And then Kyle Richards was so much fun. We also filmed at her house and she was just great to work with. She was so enthusiastic and she's been in the media a lot recently. So it's fun. I feel like I know her now and had a great experience with her. And she was kind enough while she was filming her PSA to also agree to do a comedy bit for Hero Dog Awards. And that one you should definitely look up. It's on YouTube. And it's really funny.

We do a lot of spoofs and comedy bits in Hero Dog Awards. And we like to make people cry. And then we like to make them laugh. So she really did a nice job for us. You did mention Helen Mirren and Escape from Extinction, which is an award-winning documentary that you produced with Dr. Robin Ganzert. Now that documentary, you went all over the world. What was the coolest place that you liked shooting at? So we have the sequel coming up and we have the film that already happened. The film, I'm actually so excited right now. I don't know if you know,

but the film is streaming on Peacock and then it's also available on Prime and Apple and all of the other places where you can download the film. So it's finally reached our global audience and filming it was so exciting because we did get to go all over the world. More in the second one than the first one. Yeah. But I think we really kicked things off in the Canary Islands. There's this beautiful facility there called Laurel Park. You get to this facility and you learn these incredible things that they do and how hard they've worked to save parrots from extinction.

parrots from extinction. And when we did the movie, which we shot it in 2018 and 2019, I think they had 11 parrot species that they had saved from extinction. And now we keep having to rerecord that because the number keeps going up. And there's this Spix macaw, everybody knows this movie Rio. Some of them, there are only three left or there's seven left. It's incredible what they do. So they work in the zoo and they start breeding programs to help animals in the zoo. But then they also release them into the wild. And one of the biggest things I learned is that, yeah, you can just have an animal and release it into the wild. But if you don't fix the problem that's in the wild, the same thing is going to happen. If it's environmental destruction, if it's habitat loss, if it's pollution, if it's poaching, I mean, you can raise all the animals you want and breed as many as you

can in the zoo and release them. But if you're releasing them to the same set of problems, then they're going to die again. So what the zoo does is they work really hard to work with the local communities to fix whatever the local problem is, whether it's pollution or even lobbying Congress or local governments to change the rules and the regulations about export. You know, para-exports were banned from a lot of South America in the 80s. But up until then, the populations were almost exterminated. So these facilities and these zoos and aquariums, you're going and visiting them

in this exotic location, and then they're doing all their work in another exotic location and seeing what they do and how they help the animals both in the zoo and outside of the zoo was incredible. Right. Yeah, absolutely. And I felt like the film really opened your eyes. As you know, Robin always says, you can't protect what you don't love and you can't love what you don't know. And so that's exactly what this documentary does. It opens your eyes. You're able to see and feel so close to nature and all the animals and see what's going on in the world. And it really motivates you and gives you hope that we can stop the sixth mass extinction. It was a beautiful film. So will you tell the listeners again where

they can watch this? Oh, yes, of course. It's pretty much streaming everywhere. It's streaming for free on Peacock and Tubi and Voodoo. And then internationally, we're playing in so many different countries. Just actually last week, we found out that we're playing on the Sundance channel in Poland. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, and we opened theatrically in Moscow and we're playing and we're streaming in Russia.

And it's just, it's incredible making a film and finding out just who's engaged with it. You can also see the film if you're flying on Emirates Airlines or Singapore Airlines or Qatar Airlines. Oh my gosh, I love it. Yeah, their in-flight entertainment is our film, which is so incredible. And it's just so important because we're doing something. We're getting the word out about the right way to save animals from extinction. And that was the real point of making this movie. There's a lot of people that are out there trying to help and they're just going about it wrong and they're listening to the wrong people.

And that's why we gathered the top scientists and doctors and conservationists in the world and got to hear what they had to say. Right. Right. And so the sequel will be coming out. So what's the difference between the two films? You know, I think what I was just kind of touching on with The Parrots is really, was the inspiration for the second film. We really focused on the first film on what happens in a good zoo. And I need to differentiate because there are bad zoos, but we really focused on these good zoos and how to celebrate and support them. So what they're doing in the zoo is incredible, but what they're doing in the wild is kind of like you read little cards when you go into the zoo and you hear a

little bit about it, but there's a whole second part of this thing that's happening in the wild. So the second film is really focused on what's happening in the wild. And there's this kind of new movement, and it's called rewilding. And it's a word that we've been hearing a little bit. It's not even in the dictionary. It's just something we're hearing more and more and more about. It's coming into mainstream. And what that is, is taking these places.

There's a lot of former farmlands that just don't make sense anymore. They, you know, entire communities were just raised for farmland. And so this rewilding concept is taking these places and turning back to wild. And what's really interesting is that you don't have to do anything. You just leave it alone. And the weeds grow in, and then plants start to grow, and then insects start to grow and then insects start to come and then birds come and then mammals come. And we see this over and over again, how our landscape has the ability to just correct itself. And it's everywhere.

You know, even if you look at a place like Chernobyl, that's become kind of a wildlife sanctuary because it was just left alone. And that's not in our film. But we talk a lot about these different farms that have been converted. We talk a lot about invasive species where there's these places like Australia where we brought in invasive species and we destroyed the local ecosystem. And so getting them out of Australia is actually how Australia is being rewilded. And turning these farms, you know, in Bolivia, Laurel Park actually bought a farm and they just let it go wild again and there's no people allowed there.

And that's become a wildlife habitat for these different parrots and all the other animals that live there as well. The jaguars and the pumas and the capovas, they're all surviving because of this intention to help the parrots. So it's amazing how the cascading effects of one initiative helps so many different animals. And of course, we need oxygen. The plants bring oxygen and combat global warming. So there's all these different layers. And that's what's really exciting about this new film. Yes. I'm so excited to see it. I loved the first one. I felt like it was very inspirational. It ended on a note of hope. So with this second film, what were the challenges that you had while filming? We filmed a lot of it in Africa. So again,

the greatest thing about being a filmmaker is you learn so much as you're going. And I knew about two sentences worth of information about Rwanda. And both of them were about the genocide, this horrible thing that happened. And they converted this country. They took a lot of space that had been lost to animals during the various genocides. And they turned it back wild again. And they brought these animals back. And they're really leaning into ecotourism.

So what we found is that these people whose parents and grandparents were poachers or killing bushmeat for food, now they're working as tour guides. And they're working as por guides and they're working as porters and they're working at hotels, concierge and front desk, and they're making more money and having a better livelihood because of ecotourism than they were when they were poaching. So it's an entire community that's been created and thriving because of this movement and this governmental initiative to change things back to make them wild again. The people in the forest, in the mountains of Rwanda, where the gorillas live, will fight for the gorillas because that's their livelihood.

There's only a thousand gorillas left. So you don't want to take one of them away and mess their livelihood. They also care about the animals because they're wonderful people, but don't mess with them. So learning about Rwanda and learning about how they changed, that was one of the hardest things because I just had no idea. Right. You learn so much and they quite literally changed their way of thinking and community around and it's a whole new economy for them. Yeah. And why aren't other countries in Africa getting on this as quick as possible? And so can people take the model that Rwanda did such a great job with and apply that to the other countries that people are fighting because they're hungry. People are fighting. There's reasons that people are

fighting, but can we all work together to make everybody make money in a livelihood and then also help the animals and the environment and our CO2 levels? Yeah. Well, and it's so true. And I feel like these documentaries help spread the messaging and you're able to actually visualize and see the results of this way of thinking. Yeah. And the biggest challenge, actually, it's, you know, how do we take this information and make it interesting enough so that families and people that really need to see it can go see it and learn how they can really help the world.

Because I think everybody ultimately wants to help. If you read a tweet from somebody or you're getting your news on TikTok, you might not be getting the full story or hearing it from the right people. And the people that usually have the biggest platforms aren't necessarily the biggest experts. And we want to make sure that we're getting our information

from the PhDs who dedicate their life to saving animals. And they want to make sure that we're getting our information from the PhDs who dedicate their life to saving animals. And they want to save our animals. They want to save our land. They want to save our plants and the entire ecosystem. Yeah, that's such a great point. And to your point, that's why creating these documentaries and movies, it's a platform where you are spreading the message and you're a key proponent to that. So you do great work, Matt. So let's go back to Hero Dog Awards and then also all the award shows that you've worked on because I know you've produced the ESPYs as well. Can you talk about the difference between producing the ESPYs and the Hero Dog Awards? Is it the same? Is it different?

My first job or one of my first jobs out of college was the ESPY Awards. And I've worn a bunch of different hats on that shows over the years. And I think that that really helps me when I'm working on another show because I can say, hey, we tried that. That doesn't work so well. It sounds like a good idea, but it's probably not going to work. We can take out a little bit of that experimenting.

But I did the Golden Globe. I executive produced the Golden Globes last year and it is in the same place as the Hero Dog Awards. And it really isn't that different. It's a different crowd that comes for sure. There's less dogs at the Golden Globes if there's any. But a lot of these award shows that you see, they are filmed at the same few places. So yeah, I have to say it's really not that different. It ends up being the same. Yeah, that's awesome. So you have worked very closely with our CEO and president, Dr. Robin Gansert. I feel like you guys have such a great relationship and

working relationship. What is it about that relationship that flows so nicely? I feel like your creative juices just bounce off of each other. Well, I think that Robin trusts people. And I think that's one of the things that makes her such a good leader is she just lets you do your thing. And she trusted me and I couldn't believe it because I wasn't that experienced when I started Hero Dog Awards with her, I don't think. And she just trusted me and she let me do my thing and she always listened and she gives great feedback and she's just a cheerleader and she's so supportive. And I think that that's really what makes a great leader because I've worked with all sorts of different people. My first

job in Hollywood was working as a personal assistant to a movie star. And I've had all of the levels of, you know, you're allowed to speak, you're allowed, you know, we don't want your opinion, only speak when spoken to. And Robin's a collaborator. Yes, absolutely. I like to try different things. And, you know, just this year, I was like, you know, we had talked about maybe shooting the hero dog packages, like just in Florida. And I was like, please don't do that. Let's please go out into the world and shoot them because you're going to get this, these perspectives that you would just never get as meeting the dogs one-on-one. And she was like, you know what? Let's do it. And I was, last month, I was on a Coast Guard boat

in the ocean watching a hero dog get lowered out of a helicopter with hurricane force winds going around. And that was because Robin trusted me and agreed that that was a good idea. And when you guys see the show, you'll realize how smart a decision that was because these, I mean, it looked like a Michael Bay movie, what we filmed. It was incredible. And you just can't, you can hear someone talking about something, but this is a visual medium and it's just so great to have the opportunity to also see it. And because of Robin's trust and guidance, now you're going to see it. Yeah, absolutely. And I did see that clip of K-9 Buddha being lowered down from a helicopter onto a vessel.

It is straight out of Hollywood. It was unbelievable. And I'm on a boat with Coast Guard guys. And they're like, oh, we're in Tijuana now. I'm like, what? And they give us these raincoats like, oh, you might get knocked over from the wind. And we were dropping cameras. And how cool is it that the dog, Buddha, was like, whatever, as the rain is coming on him and the wind is blowing. He was so chill about it. He's so chill. I was just talking about this yesterday. Like, I wonder what he's thinking.

I know. Oh God, are we doing it again? Or if he's like totally into it, but he looked, you know, I was with him as he was sniffing for bombs and both, actually both him and Poppy do sniff for bombs and explosives. And they both just get so excited. They find their little explosive and sit down next to it. Like, they're so proud of themselves. And they get their tennis ball as their treat. And it's just like, that's how they entertain themselves.

I mean, my dog runs in the backyard and chases squirrels. Like, that's how she entertains herself. And these dogs literally help save our community and keep it a safer place. They do know their job and it's very impressive. Well, actually two of the families told us in these packages that you'll see is that when they get home, they do take off their work hat and they switch and they become silly dogs again, which I thought was so cool because when they go to work, they're working. And when they come home, they're just playing and acting silly and not necessarily following

all the rules in the house and stuff. And I just thought that was so cool because they're going to work and they're proud of themselves. And it's just like how we want to be. We want to go to work and be proud and do a great job. And we want to come home and be silly. Yeah, it's very true. It was such a wonderful show, such a successful show. Well, it was a huge success and we were so proud of what we did. And Christy Brinkley was just such an incredible spokesperson for us and for the animals. The show is, you know, it did air on Thanksgiving Day on FYI Network, which is part of the A&E family. And we are so proud and so thankful for that network for airing it. I actually also produced Miss USA, the show Miss USA, and that also airs on FYI. So we're

hearing a lot more about this network. It also aired on A&E on television. And then you guys can find it now on the VOD platforms for A&E. FYI actually has their own app and so does A&E. And then, of course, you'll be able to see clips on YouTube and various other social platforms as well. Yes. And it's a wonderful program to watch. It pulls at the heartstrings. There's laughs, there's tears. And it's a great way to honor these extraordinary canines. There's laughs and there's tears. And there's just, you leave with a sense of pride. And that's the greatest thing about this show is that you just leave feeling like, wow, I feel like I just did something good. I learned something good. And it's like leaving a school and knowing you aced your exam. Like,

you just feel like you're at the top of the world. And that's how you feel when you watch the Hero Dog Awards. Yeah. That's a great way to put it. That is an absolutely perfect way to put it. So with that said, Matt, are there any other programs that you would like to talk about or things that you are working on right now? Oh, well, I'm always working on a bunch of things at the same time. I do commercials, movie, TV, documentaries, of course, because we're talking about one. And I did a Christmas movie last year for the Hallmark Channel. I ended up being the number one Christmas movie, and it's now on Prime. It's called An Unexpected Christmas. Oh, congrats. Yeah, thank you. We did very well and it's a

great movie. So my family's turning that into our annual tradition that we're going to be watching Elf and An Unexpected Christmas. I love that. Yeah. And I still have the ESPYs again next year that's still in Los Angeles and yeah and then the film coming out so hopefully very soon if you just google and search Escape from Extinction 2 we'll have a platform to air it on

we are going to come out in theaters and we will do the film festival circuit again and then it will be available streaming as well. Amazing. Well, you do such great work. You do such great work for American Humane. We're so happy to have you on Robin's Nest.

And so glad to hear all about all the things that you have done behind the scenes. It's been a pleasure to have you. So thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. it's been a pleasure to have you so thank you so much for joining us today thank you