MIRACLE MATT

US, 2017, 25 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Kevin Durham.

This is a short film, American, designed for screening for families, schools, clubs, churches. It is an entertainment but it is also, rather low-key, moving towards the end to issues of God and faith and Providence.

It is advertised like this: The first thing to know about Matt Manzari is that he should be dead. A self-described adrenaline junkie and world-class professional athlete, Matt would survive not one but two accidents, each of which left him at death’s doorstep. But for Matt, miracles seem to be a way of life.

Matt Manzari appears in the film, with a great deal of footage about his sporting progress, his skill in being a water skier, a wake-skier. He had significant prospects in this field. However, in a competition, skiing in a series of lakes was a bottleneck stream, he had a severe accident and could have died. He spends long months in hospital, recuperates, goes back to his sport.

He is a genial interviewee, explaining his life, explaining the accident and recovery, then revealing that he should have died twice – doing some labouring work, electrocuted, the current, it is said, the equivalent of six electric chairs. And, once again he recovers.

There are interviews with his wife who was pregnant at the time of his accident. She thought he was to die.

So, this is a story of a man with strong will, trusting in God’s Providence, twice almost dead and coming to life again twice.