Director: Kevin Durham
Starring: Matt Manzari
Distributor: Heritage Films
Runtime: 27 mins. Reviewed in Feb 2022
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc

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Rating notes:

A short story of water skier Matt Manzari who survives two severe accidents in his life, and renewing his trust in God and providence.

MIRACLE MATT, US, 2017. Directed by Kevin Durham. 25 mintues. Rated G.

This is a short American film designed for screening to families, schools, clubs, churches. It is an entertainment but it also, in a rather low-key way, moves toward 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, he suffers a life-threatening accident in a competition and spends long months in hospital, before recuperating enough to return to his sport.

He is a genial interviewee, explaining his life, 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.