ABOUT

Matthew Leutwyler

Founder / Partner

Matthew Leutwyler is an award winning filmmaker and founding partner of Ambush Entertainment and The Film Arcade. He wrote and directed the cult- comedy/horror/musical DEAD AND BREAKFAST (SXSW 2004), starring Jeremy Sisto, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and David Carradine. The film went on to win over a dozen audience and best feature film awards around the world and was nominated for a Saturn Award. Since then he has produced or exec produced the films THE OH IN OHIO, LOWER LEARNING, AGAINST THE CURRENT, WONDERFUL WORLD, EVERY DAY, SUPER, THE GIRL MOST LIKELY and the food doc SPINNING PLATES. He has directed the films THE RIVER WHY, ANSWERS TO NOTHING and UNCANNY.

After 13 Years at Ambush he left to focus his attention back on writing and directing. He spent the final five months of 2019 directing and show-running the 8 episode action-drama series STATE OF SEIGE: 26/11 based on the true life events surrounding the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The series was one of the most popular mini-series in India with 80M people watching the premiere episode and nominated for 7 FILMFARE AWARDS (India’s Emmy).

In 2020 Matthew and producing partner Anton Laines formed KG28Media in Rwanda and began following the real life stories of an all female boxing team in DR Congo for an upcoming docu-series. Matthew wrote a dramatized version of their story and in August 2022 directed the feature film FIGHT LIKE A GIRL, based on the true story of a young Congolese woman forced to work in an illegal mine who escapes her captors and finds a new life as a professional boxer. The film has been nominated for 8 AFRICA MOVIE ACADEMY AWARDS (2023) including Best Screenplay, Best Lead Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Cinematography and won Best Film at the South African Independent Film Festival. Most recently the film won Best Feature Film at the 2024 Dances With Films Festival:LA..

Outside of his career as a filmmaker, Matthew founded and oversees the non-profit WE ARE LIMITLESS. Since 2012 the NGO has been providing Rwandan and Congolese orphans and underprivileged youth with quality boarding school educations and healthcare. He also owns a popular restaurant in Rwanda’s capital city Kigali named after his mother, Lavana.

Anton Laines

Founder / Partner

Twenty years ago, Anton jumped head first into the film industry working with NFL Hall of Fame coach John Madden’s Production Company, Goal Line Studios. In 2003 he was the Unit Production Manager on the feature film, DEAD AND BREAKFAST, where he met Matthew Leutwyler. In the following decade Anton focused his career specifically on commercial production, working with clients such as Clorox, Electronic Arts, and Bud Light, as well as some of the world’s top leading ad- agencies. In 2013 Anton founded TWENTY NINE BLACK PRODUCTIONS, a full-service production company, in which he’s helmed multiple national and global campaigns for major brands. Anton began to focus his career toward directing in 2016. Over the years he’s also worked on several projects with Matthew, including VOLUNTEERS: A RWANDAN COMEDY and THE BANK. Most recently he worked as a Second Unit Director on STATE OF SIEGE: 26/11 in Mumbai, India.

Clarisse Umutoniwase

Production Manager / Producer

Clarisse’s unconventional road into the film industry began when she partnered with with U.S. filmmaker Matthew Leutwyler to open Kigali based Lavana restaurant. After successfully creating one of Kigali’s most popular weekend hot spots, she opened a smaller cafe version Lavana on the other side of town. Leutwyler quickly realized her unique managerial talents and offered her a position as Production Manager on a slate of projects he and partner Anton Laines were putting together to film around East Africa for their newly formed production company, KG28MEDIA.

Her first project to go into production was the docu-series “FIght Like A Girl”. For the past 20 months, the series has been following the lives of four young female members of a boxing club run by a legendary Congolese boxing champion and ex-child soldier known as “Kibomago.” Clarisse oversaw numerous shoots in and around The Democratic Republic of Congo including the Congolese Boxing Championships in Kinshasa and challenging treks into war-torn areas of North Kivu in East Congo. In August 2022, the series took a short hiatus so the producers could shoot a scripted narrative feature based on the same boxing team. Clarisse remained on board as Production Manager of what is the first western narrative feature to be shot in the DRC.

Clarisse is currently heading up the development of a true story of a 10 yr old Hutu girl who, in the midst of the Rwandan Genocide, finds a Tutsi baby in a ravine and risks everything to protect her.

Schadrack Karekezi

Field Producer

Schadrack began his work with KG28Media as an assistant to the partners before quickly showing his value in the field when the team began shooting the docu-series Fight Like A Girl. For the next two years, he deftly ventured into conflict areas in East Congo to interview militia members, citizens, and local politicians while simultaneously coordinating the necessary security and planning the safest and most efficient way to get the story recorded. Schadrack has recently moved to Austin, Texas where he attends college on a scholarship for computer engineering. He continues to be an active member of the post process for the series, overseeing the translation of the myriad languages spoken in the show. Schadrack also received an Associate Producer credit on the scripted feature film version of Fight Like A Girl and is in charge of managing all new submissions to KG28Media.