The Team

Matthew Millan

MATTHEW MILLAN (Director) boasts an unconventional background for a filmmaker. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics from UCSC and worked as an engineer for several years. Unfulfilled by this vocation, he turned his back on Silicon Valley co-founded 180 Films in 2002. Since then, he has built a diverse portfolio directing narratives, music videos and documentaries.

Millan considers himself an adventurer before a filmmaker, and as a consequence, has traveled to some of the most remote places on the planet, from the expansive wastes of the Sahara to the lawless border towns of Northern Vietnam. While trekking on Stok Kangri glacier in Ladakh, India, he and his team were the first people to capture the elusive snow leopard in a successful hunt. Because of his shocking footage of the two leopards hunting a dzo, a large hybrid of a cow and a yak, the Snow Leopard Conservancy later revised their hypothesis on the hunting habits of the threatened animals.

When the Libyan Revolution first erupted in early days of 2011, Millan traveled there to witness the uprising firsthand. What he saw shocked him, and inspired him to document the burgeoning music explosion in Benghazi, culminating in the award-winning STRONGER THAN BULLETS, a rock & roll odyssey that has picked up many accolades on the festival circuit, and was broadcast on AJE on October 20, 2016, the fifth anniversary of the death of Moammar Gaddafi.

Recently, Millan has teamed up with acclaimed journalist Michael Kirtley to launch the Bridge to Hope Campaign, a wide-sweeping, long-term internet film project whose purpose is to improve relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims, and to combat ideological polarization and radicalization on both sides. The first phase of the series, which has been completed,  took him to North Carolina where he worked with the non-profit organization Bridges to a Common Ground to target an audience that is fearful or hateful towards people of other faiths.

Alistair Audsley

ALISTAIR AUDSLEY (Executive Producer) has worked all over the globe during the last twenty years as a sought-after marketing consultant both for, and in, emerging markets, such as Russia, Bulgaria, Panama, the Middle East and Libya. His world now straddles the music and film industries. In the music world, he has been executive producer on several international pop albums, as well as being a co-producer of the spectacular interval show at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. He wrote and produced the critically acclaimed independent feature, The Paddy Lincoln Gang and is an in-demand screen- writer and script-doctor, having written two major European films set for release in 2014. It was while providing commercial consulting for Maghreb, the commercial security arm of the NTC, that Alistair was drawn to the wider story and staggering diversity of music coming out of the epicenter of the revolution. After initially providing some advice to Matthew Millan’s efforts to launch a music festival, he duly boarded as Producer for POST-REVOLUTIONARY BLUES.

Harold Millan

HAROLD MILLAN (Producer) is the U.S Producer of STRONGER THAN BULLETS. Previously, he has been a producer of WE WIN OR WE DIE and provided seed funding for STRONGER THAN BULLETS.

Millan coordinated festival submissions for WE WIN OR WE DIE, resulting in selection by 15 festivals in four continents. He has represented the film at many of these festivals. In addtion to supporting these films, his career includes more than 25 years of experience in Information Technology Management and Project Management.

Hammuda Abidia

HAMMUDA ABIDIA (Producer) is a Libyan entrepreneur who came to the United States as a political dissident in the early days of Gaddafi’s reign. After 36 years of exile, he returned to Benghazi during the opening stages of the revolution and was the original impetus behind documenting the revolution on film, which has ultimately developed into POST-REVOLUTIONARY BLUES. Since then, he founded the Libyan Friendship Association, a charitable organization that focuses on many facets of improving Libyan society, ranging from telemedicine to agricultural projects. In addition, Hammuda has produced several films, including Matthew Millan’s award-winning WE WIN OR WE DIE, a short film of the first four days of the 2011 Libyan revolution.

Doug Blush

DOUG BLUSH (Story Consultant/Supervising Editor) is an award winning documentary director, editor, cinematographer, and writer. He won the 2013 ACE Eddie Award for Documentaries for his work on TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM, winner of the the 2014 Academy Award for Best Documentary, and 2014 Critic’s Choice Award. He is co-producer and editor of OF TWO MINDS (about bipolar disorder), a winner of the 2013 Voice Awards. In 2012, he edited and associate produced THE INVISIBLE WAR, winner of the Sundance Audience Award and nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary. He is also the Consulting Editor on the 2014 Sundance Documentary Grand Jury Prize winning RICH HILL. He was also the editor of other notable films, including WORDPLAY, TROUBADORS, THESE AMAZING SHADOWS, I.O.U.S.A, OUTRAGE, BEER WARS, and FREAKONOMICS.

Alex Rea

ALEX REA (Story Consultant, Music) is a screenwriter, musician and professional wrestler. Taking an unconventional route, Alex dropped out of school at 16 and spent the 1990’s as a touring musician supporting punk and psychobilly genre legends such as the UK Subs, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, Demented Are Go and the Anti-Nowhere League. Returning to education in the early noughties, the short film he made for his BA ‘Ties That Bind’ won a contest to open for Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City in cinemas in the UK. After completing a Masters Degree in screenwriting Alex relocated to Los Angeles, where he has completed eight feature length scripts; he is currently working on a sci-fi script for a major anime company. Alex is also an active professional wrestler competing in American style, Lucha Libre, and Death-Matches, and has held titles in several major independent promotions. Brought on board STB by creative cornerstone Benton Quinn, Alex recorded bass and composed some of the music, as well as acting as a story consultant.

Erik Niel

ERIK NIEL (Story Consultant, Music), narrative filmmaker, creative artist and musician has produced several projects over the last 12 years, ranging from short films and music videos to documentaries. His talents lie especially in creative design, but he still finds time to record and compose music. Erik’s passion lies in the narrative story, and he finds nothing more satisfying than telling a wide range of tales as a writer/director. He has written/directed 180, The Ultimate Disease and a wild rock n’ roll odyssey that took him to the crumbling remains of the Great Wall.Currently he is in the process of completing two scripts, one of which is a rock & roll, blood and thunder homage to The Twilight Zone.