NBA Champion and Showtime Sports’ Matt Barnes and award-winning filmmaker, Joslyn Rose Lyons have partnered with 1091 Pictures in creating (R)evolution Docuseries; an eight–part film anthology that profiles the evolution and growth of an athlete, exploring their revolutionary work beyond sports. (R)evolution will supply insight into life beyond being an athlete. This first episode displays Matt’s Bay Area roots, his family backstory, and his growth as a businessperson, media personality, and proud father.
Tell us about (R)evolution.
Joslyn: (R)evolution is a docuseries, the first episode features Matt Barnes. It is about the evolution of the athlete and the revolutionary work beyond sports. The first episode dropped on December 13th and is now available on Amazon and Apple.
Matt: From my perspective this series will be the first to give fans an opportunity to get to know the person not the personality that the media painted to be a certain way, or you thought you knew because you saw an incident on social media. The series allows fans to get an in-depth look at people’s real journey and experiences they felt and what has shaped them into the person they know and love or hate. This really gives fans an opportunity to see the untold stories of athletes.
What can fans expect from the series?
Matt: An in-depth look at people’s real journey like what made Matt Barnes the person you know today or Steve Jackson or Renee Montgomery. Normally today you get to see failure or success, without understanding what it took to get to success or where the turn was made that led to failure. I think the series will give you a journey into what made these people successful not only on a professional level in sports but also in society and life.
Do you feel that you are portraying the truth that has been hidden behind mainstream?
Matt: I do; not that all mainstream is lies because nobody is perfect there has been stuff that I did that has been portrayed and it was messed up, but it was true I know see it as a miss step. At the same time, in my career I was the “bad guy or the villain” there was good stuff that happened outside of the game in my life, but it did not fit the narrative so why show it? For me, it is giving me an opportunity as Joslyn said to show what was unshown what has always been going on but chose not to show in the past.
Why is it important to shed light on the parts of lives that are often left unseen?
Joslyn: It is important because as Matt said you either see the success or failure of a story, but not often do we see the journey itself. The actual alchemy that happens in our life where we grow and evolve is on the journey. We live in a society where we celebrate the outcome or the product; to me success is a byproduct of your growth and evolution. Revolution is an opportunity for us to see in the first episode Matt’s evolution and a lot of that evolution comes from being able to reflect on what you have been through.
Why do you feel it is important for athletes to have control over their own narrative?
Matt: For so long other people have been telling our stories, and that is another person’s perspective of who we think we are. Now we live in an age where we are telling our own stories by using platforms such as podcasts like my All The Smoke podcast and allow people to take pride in being able to tell their own stories. A story told by someone else, although it could be done well or a negative portrayal of you, it is still their depiction of you. When we are telling our own stories you are getting it out of our mouths and the lives of who we really are, and that is important.
Do you feel this will change the perspective of fans that athletes are more than just athletes?
Matt: I hope so, I think now we have made a lot of progress from “shut up and dribble” to leading protest. My co-host led a protest for the killing of George Floyd that was heard around the world. I think we have come a long way and the aspect of athletes is just athletes are dumb athletes. I think people do know that we are serious, highly intelligent, and intuitive and not only are we athletes on a professional level, but we are also productive business owners and parents you know so on and so forth. People start to understand that just you know as the LeBron’s company says, “more than an athlete,” we are just much more than entertainment where you know we are coming.
How has being a father, and an entrepreneur helped you grow into the person you are today?
Matt: Just being a father is such an amazing opportunity; you want to continue to do remarkable things for your family and for your kids. My whole thing now being a successful entrepreneur is let me start teaching my teenage boys, we started doing this at about 11 or 12 with they are 14. Now let me start teaching them stuff I did not learn until I made to late 30s early 40s to really make sure no matter what path they take whether it is hopefully athletics, because that is what they want but you know if that does not happen, they are still going to be successful entrepreneurs and good solid people which is most important.
What is the experience like working with each other and 1091 Pictures?
Matt: I think with Joslyn… I mean she has always been on the radar, but I do not think it has ever really got justice due to her talent and her ability to capture and to tell stories in a unique way. Now, she has taken off and is busier than ever. It has been dope getting a chance to work with her and learn and see her growth in this profession as like we are showing my growth through this film to the world.
Joslyn: it has been a wonderful experience and just watching Matt’s growth transitioning out of the NBA and into media and the success of All The Smoke. It is exciting and inspiring to see that unfold and being a part of it is a gift and honor. 1091 has been great Greg Maurice, one of our executive producers movies acquisitions over there he has been an advocate for (R)evolution from the beginning, 5-6 years ago when we started working on it and we did not know where it was going to go and Greg had believed in this project for a lot of years, so I do not take that for granted and Matt and I share a lot of gratitude towards Greg for just spearheading this effort to get the revolution out into the world.
Deanahi
