From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is KCRW's program of stories and original documentaries, part of KCRW's independent producer project and this

week it's an audio documentary that gives us a peek into the belly of the Hollywood

beast. The Sundance Film Festival is currently underway in Park City, Utah.

Thousands of filmmakers, film buyers, film lovers, and paparazzi take over the small ski town.

It's still known as the filmmakers film festival,

the place where over the course of a few days an artist and their work can go from an

unknown entity to become the story of the festival.

I mean I had been a struggling filmmaker who had had some little indie movies made but really

small.

I had been fired by my agent, which rarely happens and an agent just fires you.

That was just like a non-existent.

In 2005, Richard Shepard had come to a crossroads in his career. That is, it had pretty much stalled out.

And there's frankly a limit to the number of times a struggling filmmaker can roll the dice.

So in frustration, Richard wrote a script without even thinking

too much about how it would get made, but that script got him a new agent and attracted

the attention of actor Pierce Brosnan. The Matador was made in Mexico City on a very small

budget and from thousands of submissions the movie was accepted by Sundance.

Everything Richard Shepard had worked for in his life all came down to what would happen at Sundance.

I knew it was going to be a film that people would notice, so if it was bad, I would just

be bad I would just really put the nail in my career I would just probably be done and if it was good it would change my it would actually give me a career so there was so much writing on it

In 2005 Matt Matt Holtzman was the producer of KCRW's

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