Dave LaMattina

Dave LaMattina is an American filmmaker. He is best known as the director/producer of the documentaries Summer of 94, Don Bluth: Somewhere Out There and I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story, as well as being the creator and executive producer of The Zoo franchise, all of which he did alongside longtime creative partner Chad Walker.

Career LaMattina's first job in the film industry was at Blue Sky Studios, where he was assistant to the directors on the film Horton Hears a Who! It was while working at Blue Sky where he met Walker, who at the time was a production assistant on Ice Age: The Meltdown.

In 2010, LaMattina & Walker made their directorial debut with the documentary Brownstones to Red Dirt, which captured the relationships that develop between children in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and their pen pals in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The film became a fundraising tool for Schools for Salone, raising enough money to build a primary school in Freetown. LaMattina and Walker returned to work in Sierra Leone to shoot two short documentaries: Kei, about Kei Kamara, the second all-time leading scorer in Major League Soccer, and Aunty, which profiled a remarkable headmistress.

In 2014, LaMattina and Walker premiered I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. The film earned an 84% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was awarded the Audience Choice Award for the Best Documentary at Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival. Tribeca Film acquired the documentary, releasing it theatrically and on demand in 2015.

While on the festival circuit with I Am Big Bird, LaMattina and Walker also released We Must Go, a documentary about the Egyptian national soccer team's quest to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. The film featured Mohamed Salah, Mohamed Aboutrika and American coach Bob Bradley.

2016 saw LaMattina and Walker continue their work in soccer stories with Exploring Planet Futbol, a series they created for Sports Illustrated which featured journalist James Piotr Montague. Over the course of three weeks, the trio traversed Africa from Algeria to Rwanda to Lesotho to Botswana to see how soccer reflected the people and places where it is played.

In 2017, LaMattina and Walker launched The Zoo, which they created and executive produced. Featuring the day-to-day lives of the people and animals at the Bronx Zoo, it was followed by spinoffs The Zoo: San Diego and The Aquarium.

LaMattina and Walker returned to the world of animation with their film Don Bluth: Somewhere Out There. The documentary profiles Don Bluth, the filmmaker behind the films An American Tail, The Land Before Time, Anastasia, the video game Dragon's Lair and more. The documentary premiered at the Savannah Film Festival in October 2025 and will be released in 2026. The film features an original score by Fergal Lawler of the cranberries.

2026 marked the release of Summer of 94, a documentary about the 1994 World Cup campaign of the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team. LaMattina and Walker directed and produced the film, alongside their partners at Stand Together, Cookie Jar & a Dream Studios, Imagine Entertainment and Delirio Films. The documentary was executive produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. The film premiered at SXSW before airing nationwide on Fox.

Personal life LaMattina graduated with a degree in communications from Boston College. While there, he received a grant from the Jacques Salmanowitz Program for Moral Courage in Documentary Film, which enabled him to direct and produce a documentary about child AIDS activist Nkosi Johnson. He earned his MFA from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts.

In 2007, he co-founded the production company Copper Pot Pictures with Chad Walker and Clay Frost.

Filmography Year Film Role Genre Ref. 2008 Horton Hears a Who! Director assistant Film 2009 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Additional production support Film 2010 Brownstones to Red Dirt Director, producer, writer Documentary 2011 Rio Additional production manager, script coordinator Film 2012 Kei Director, producer, writer Documentary short 2013 Epic Production coordinator Film 2014 I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story Director, producer, writer Documentary 2014 We Must Go Director, producer, writer Documentary 2016 Exploring Planet Futbol Director, producer, writer Documentary Series 2017–21 The Zoo Executive producer TV series 2019-22 The Zoo: San Diego Executive producer TV series 2019-22 The Aquarium Executive producer TV series 2019 La Gran Madre Director, producer, writer Documentary 2019 Aunty Director, producer, writer Documentary short 2025 Don Bluth: Somewhere Out There Director, producer, writer Documentary 2026 Summer of 94 Director, producer, writer Documentary