Bleeding Audio

Directed By Chelsea Christer

From inspiring triumphs to heartbreaking setbacks, Bleeding Audio relives the explosive career of the Matches and what it means to succeed in the digital age of music.

  • ABOUT
  • BIO
  • AWARDS
  • PRESS
From inspiring triumphs to heartbreaking setbacks, BLEEDING AUDIO relives the explosive career of The Matches and explores what it means to succeed in the digital age of music. Told through the eyes of quirky, charming, and humble bandmates: Shawn, Jon, Matt, and Justin, BLEEDING AUDIO details the rollercoaster career of the Oakland band, The Matches. Like many acts in the early 2000s, they were set to be the next 'big thing'. After building a tight-knit music community in the Bay Area, The Matches broke out and became an internationally touring act. An eclectic group of artistic weirdos, the band grew a thriving cult fanbase worldwide, yet remained virtually penniless. Their story overlaps with the drastic changes of the music industry since the takeover of the digital revolution— from declining sales, to excessive touring, to illegal downloading and streaming. With interviews from some of music’s biggest names like Mark Hoppus (Blink 182), Nick Hexum (311) and Tom Higgenson (Plain White T’s), Bay Area filmmaker Chelsea Christer’s uplifting tribute tracks The Matches’ history and recent reunion to dig deeper into the challenges the average musician faces in the digital age of the industry—and the community that keeps our artists alive.

Originally from a horse ranch in Colorado, Chelsea Christer began her filmmaking career in San Francisco. Her feature-length directorial debut, the award-winning music documentary BLEEDING AUDIO, screened at nearly twenty festivals including Slamdance. BLEEDING AUDIO released in May 2022 to critical acclaim. As both a fiction and non-fiction writer/director, Chelsea focuses on character-driven narratives often exploring themes of identity, ambition, and human connection. Her recent narrative short HOLDING ON FOREVER is currently on the film festival circuit, while her upcoming unscripted comedy TV series NOBODY ASKED will premiere on Dropout in 2024. Her latest short, the extremely dark comedy OUT FOR DELIVERY, will premiere at festivals in 2025. Chelsea has produced and directed brand documentaries and commercials for tech giants like Google and Adobe, spanning from the US to Japan, Europe, Australia, and rural India. Chelsea is an engaged member of the film community, having volunteered 15 years at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as contributing as a programmer and juror for Slamdance, Cinequest, and more.

Slamdance 2021 - George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award

Cinequest 2020 - Audience Award for Best Documentary

SFDocFest 2020 - Audience Award for Best Documentary

Dances With Films 2020 - Audience Award for Best Documentary

Oxford Film Festival 2021 - Best Music Documentary

"“BLEEDING AUDIO is unquestionably the most thoughtfully constructed and true-to-spirit music documentary I have ever seen.""
Tony Helm, Film Speak
"“BLEEDING AUDIO engagingly and epically chart’s this one amazing alternative punk band’s birth, life, 'death', and triumphant resurrection as an older and wiser band--my wish is that the documentary is deemed ‘Oscar worthy’.”"
Vernon Nickerson, THE ART OF MONTEQUE
"“We get a lot of documentaries all the time about bands and artists that “could” and “should” have been more… BLEEDING AUDIO and The Matches tell a similar story, but the music, the band, and their fandom set this film apart from those other stories. Seek"
Alan Ng, Film Threat