SPOILER-FREE PLOT SUMMARY
Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder takes the stage at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall in an effort to raise money and awareness for epidermolysis bullosa (EB) research, a rare genetic disease mostly effecting children. Vedder, a co-founder of the non-profit EB Research Partnership with his wife Jill, invites doctors, researchers, donors, patients and their families for a weekend of live music as well as an EB summit, Venture Into Cures. Being a monumental feat to travel for those suffering with the disease, it’s the first time all the different pieces to the puzzle are in the same place at the same time. The hope is to have everyone meet face-to-face, learn from each other and feel the love, encouragement and support within the community on the front lines of fighting EB.
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Director Matt Finlin met patient Eli Meyer during a television project in 2019 and grew interested in learning about EB through him. From there, he discovered both Eddie and Jill’s involvement in the cause. Finlin told untitledfilmprojectpod.com that Vedder eventually asked if he was interested in coming out to Seattle to capture the shows at Benaroya, knowing key players in the effort to cure EB would all be in attendance, including the patients. He accepted and, two years after the shows, the film got it’s second ever public screening here at the Nashville Film Festival.
“I was texting the families during the movie, letting them know it was being shown tonight,” Finlin told the Regal Green Hills audience.
As far as the film goes, Pearl Jam fans are going to absolutely love this. They, in particular, will love hearing the deep cuts and rare favorites Vedder plays as the backdrop to an incredibly moving spotlight on a disease you’ve probably never heard of. That said, if you’re more of a casual Pearl Jam fan (i.e. you enjoy their radio hits), the music can actually feel like it gets in the way.
(Who had that on their bingo card?)
Great stories, be it in journalism or on the news, are told through angles. A woman’s going through cancer but the feature story is told through her son, a college football player. Food addiction is a real life battle but the article is written using the story of a rocket scientist, who used to weigh 400 pounds. So it’s no surprise that MATTER OF TIME follows suit, hooking you in with Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Vedder but quickly giving way to the real reason you’re watching the singer/songwriter at all: to raise awareness about EB.
Eli, Deanna Molinaro and Rowan Holler (among others) are some of the incredibly brave victims fighting the disease and the audience is introduced to their stories, their background and their struggles. While you and I have sock and underwear drawers, these families have entire closets of gauze and have to buy Aquaphor skin care ointment by the gross. Parents of kids with EB have to spend literally hours of their day removing and reapplying bandages to their children, often inflecting unavoidable pain in the process. As a result, this film can be tough to watch at times but that uncomfortableness is necessary to even approach the idea of telling the story accurately.
“You don’t want to be gratuitous, because it’s a really hard disease to live with, but you also need to show the audience the hardships that these people are facing,” Finlin told untitledfilmprojectpod.com. “Any [editing] decision anyone made in this was in consultation with them to make sure that they felt good about it.”
The innocence that’s robbed from these kids, the “normal life” taken from the parents and the unwavering dedication of the medical professionals are put on full display here and you can’t help but walk away knighting them as heroes. MATTER OF TIME tells a highly-effective story through the eyes of the EB community who are far better human beings than you or I will ever be.
Before walking into the theater, I didn’t even know EB existed. After I left, I was consumed by how I could help. Which, in the end, is the goal: move people to action. Finlin and his team do that in spades with MATTER OF TIME. But I also couldn’t shake a feeling that I never thought I’d have: less music would’ve been better.
JKG SCORE: 7.0
AN UNTITLED NOTE: To learn more about the fight against EB, please visit ebresearch.org.
Untitled Film Project 