Curtis Matzke is an independent screenwriter, director, and producer working in Chicago, IL and founder of the media production company, Unfurnished Films. Curtis has worked in the short and feature world for several years, directing numerous narrative and documentary projects and music videos, as well as writing multiple features. He recently directed a short documentary celebrating Chicago’s Music Box Theatre, which included interviews with filmmakers Werner Herzog, Joe Swanberg, and Michael Shannon, which earned him regional Emmy nominations for Outstanding Off-Camera Directing and Outstanding Historical Documentary.  Curtis’ latest documentary feature project, FIRST FEATURE, is fiscally sponsored by Film Independent and currently in post-production. Curtis was the producer and cinematographer of SEXUAL ANIMALS, a feature film that was distributed by Gravitas Ventures and co-producer of AN EXQUISITE MEAL, a feature which premiered at Cinequest in 2020. In addition to THE ORCHESTRA, Curtis is developing several new feature screenplays as well as a pitch for a horror series. In 2012 he wrote and directed a no-budget feature film COMPLEX, as part of his Master's thesis project which went on to be recognized with several awards, including Best Narrative Feature at the Made-in-Michigan Film Festival. His feature screenplay SPINE was in the second round of the Austin Film Festival, where he also won the award for “Most Diabolical” from the National Academy of Sciences Screenwriters Workshop for an impromptu pitch. Prior to that, SPINE was also a semifinalist in the 2016 Screencraft Scifi Feature competition. In addition to his feature projects, Curtis has written and directed numerous short films. His last short film, THE ORCHESTRA, is a proof-of-concept for a feature film and has screened at over two dozen genre and non-genre specific film festivals including NewFilmmakers LA, Cinepocalypse, NYC Horror, and more. His short science fiction screenplay CICADA was a top-ten finalist at the prestigious Cinequest Film Festival. An experimental one-minute film, LENS, opened for several feature films at the 2017 Chicago International Film Festival. A short fantasy film (SPLINTER), which he wrote and directed, earned several awards and nominations at film festivals and is now available on ALTER having garnered over 200K views.  Curtis is the recipient of a professional development grant from the Illinois Arts Council and in 2019 founded The Chicago Cinema Collective, a comprehensive compendium of the Chicago film scene. He has served as a judge for the Academy-qualifying Chicago Children’s International Film Festival and is a reader for the Austin Film Festival Writer’s Competition. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Media Arts and Technology from Michigan State University with a concentration in Television, Cinema, and Radio, a minor in Film Studies, and a Specialization in Design.