The Filmmakers

Matt Hinton

Co-Director, Editor & Producer

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Matt Hinton grew up loving movies but believed that rock n roll was the more realistic career path. While playing in various bands, he studied Religion and Philosophy at Georgia State University, followed by graduate school at Emory University where he studied Theology. While teaching Religion at Morehouse and Spelman Colleges in Atlanta, he produced, directed (with his wife, Erica Hinton), and edited “Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp (2008),” his first feature documentary, about Sacred Harp singing, a tradition of early American shapenote hymn singing, which has been kept alive in rural Georgia and Alabama for over 150 years. “Awake, My Soul” has screened in at least 4 continents, aired nationwide on PBS, and has been featured in TIME, NPR, Spin, Rolling Stone, NY Times, Chicago Tribune, Pitchfork, & Les Inrockuptibles (France). Hinton was interviewed on “Bob Edward’s Weekend” (NPR) and “On Point with Tom Ashbrook” (NPR) in connection with “Awake, My Soul.”

His next film, “Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury,” followed the path of Luxury, a band from small town Georgia, who, on the cusp of success suffered a devastating wreck. In the intervening years, three members of the band became Eastern Orthodox priests, yet they have persisted in making music. The film was the result of 20 years of informal documentation, as Hinton joined the band in 1999. Parallel Love won “Best of Fest,” the top honor at The Covelite International Film Festival, and “Audience Choice” at the Gasparilla International Film Festival. It screened theatrically in the US and Canada in 2019, distributed by Abramorama.

In addition to filmmaking, teaching and rock n roll, he has worked as a carpenter, a photographer and a seller of architectural antiques. He currently owns and operates Bell Street Burritos (named one of the top 10 burritos in America by USA Today, with 6 locations in Metro Atlanta) which he began in his kitchen in the home he shares with his wife and 3 kids.

Erica Hinton

Co-Director

Erica Hinton is the daughter of a schoolteacher and an archeologist and was raised in Crabapple, Georgia next door to her grandparents who owned an antiques shop. She studied English Literature and Film at Georgia State University, and it was as a film student that she made a 10 minute short form documentary called “Awake, My Soul.” Realizing that 10 minutes was not nearly enough to fully explore the tradition of Sacred Harp singing, she, and her future husband Matt, continued to shoot footage and conduct interviews as early as 1998, the result of which is the feature documentary of the same name. In her spare time, Erica enjoys printing on her antique printing presses, which date back to the late 1800s. One of these presses makes a cameo in the title sequence of “Awake, My Soul.” She is raising three kids and homeschooled two of them in the West End neighborhood of Atlanta where they make their home.