Filmmaker Matt Zane Responds to Wayne Static and Tera Wray’s Families’ Objection to Unauthorized Documentary
The back and forth between filmmaker Matt Zane and the families of the late Static-X frontman Wayne Static and his late wife Tera Wray continues, as Zane has now released his own statement in response to one they made last week about their “strenuous objection” of the project. Along with Zane’s new statement, he’s also launched an IndieGoGo campaign to help fund it.
In the families’ joint statement, they requested that any rare or unseen footage Zane intends to use be submitted to them for review. Another documentary, called Evil Disco, is already in the works with the estate’s permission—a separate project than what Zane is working on, though he did contribute to it. You can read the families’ statement in full here.
Zane started out by saying:
“I understand the family’s concerns, especially Wayne’s sister Aimee who is a wonderful person, but my obligation isn’t to the families — it’s to Wayne and Tera. They asked me to do this, and I know they would want the focus to be on the two of them.”
Then, on the fam’s request to approve material before it gets used, Zane says the family might be confused as to what the documentary is about in general:
“I think the family is a bit confused about the creation of the official documentary Evil Disco” he said. “I was hired and edited about 85% of that and in good faith allowed my footage to be used within the edit. I never signed over the footage legally for use but was willing to do so if the agreed-upon terms were met. I also allowed my personal footage of Wayne to be used in multiple music videos such as ‘Stay Alive’ and ‘All These Years’ even though the band hasn’t officially licensed it from me.”
Zane emphasized that his film won’t conflict Evil Disco, as the two projects are meant to serve different purposes.
“I personally think both movies can exist. I watched a working cut of Evil Disco with Wayne’s sister Aimee and it’s really cool, but it’s more about the band — past and present. My movie is about Wayne and Tera.”
As well, Zane thankfully confirmed that he wouldn’t use any unreleased Wayne Static music without explicit approval from the estate, though he does confirm the existence of it.
“As far as the unreleased music, unfortunately I’m unable to use any of that without the family’s consent. What I may do is create tracks based off of the music Wayne and I worked on and bring in other singers, similar to what Jonathan Davis did for Queen of the Damned.”
“But I can tell you this: there are six tracks Wayne wrote and recorded that I did not have any part in that are truly his final solo works,” he said. “Yes, his vocals are on them and they were done in 2013.”
Zane’s film is meant to be a more personal and emotional account on Wayne and Tera’s relationship specifically—a story he claims the couple really wanted him to tell. If you wanna donate to the project, you can find the crowdfunding campaign here.
Hmm…
