RON TAYLOR: DR. BASEBALL

Drew Taylor (director, producer, writer, editor)

Drew made his foray into filmmaking with OUR MAN IN TEHRAN, serving as Director, Producer, and Writer (along side Larry Weinstein). The film, which premiered the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, examines the events surrounding the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the joint efforts by Canadians and the CIA to ex-filtrate six American diplomats and went on to win 5 Canadian Screen Awards including Best Documentary Program and Best Direction in a Documentary. It has earned multiple awards including Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking at the Newport Beach Film Festival, Best International Film at the Charleston Film Festival, Audience Choice at the Cinefest Sudbury International Film Festival, People’s Choice at the Victoria Film Festival, and the North Carolina Film Critics Association’s pick at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. The film has played on HBO Canada, The History Channel Australia, and the Yes Network in Israel, among others.
He is currently in production on BUYING TIME, a documentary detailing the current breakthroughs in aging and longevity and the individuals and scientists behind these discoveries. He also recently finished a short documentary film on his father, RON TAYLOR: DR. BASEBALL, who played 11 years of professional baseball with the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals before touring hospitals in Vietnam, which inspired him to return to school and become a physician. Ron has since served as the team doctor for the Toronto Blue Jays for the past 35 years.
Drew has had a unique career leading to film. He was a pitcher, playing professional baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies and also attended the University of Michigan for his Master’s work in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and the University of Toronto for his PhD in Biomedical Engineering. He has been published in multiple international medical journals with specific attention to tissue engineering and sports medicine. His strong background in research drew him to documentary filmmaking.

Matthew Taylor (director, producer, writer)

Matthew is a co-founder of Film House Inc. and has a strong background in the industry. He attended Queen’s University, where he graduated with a degree in Film Studies. While living in Kingston Matthew had two of his shorts premier at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival. After graduating he worked at Atlantis Atlantis and CanWest in television programming and market research. He has also held posts specializing in theatrical marketing at Maple Pictures, Think Film, and Alliance Films. He currently manages Theatrical marketing VVS Films.
With this valuable experience Matthew has a strong passion for narrative feature films. He was Executive Producer on the feature film THE DEATH OF INDIE ROCK, which premiered at the Bloor Street Cinema and aired on Superchannel. He was an Associate Producer on the feature documentary OUR MAN IN TEHRAN which premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and went on to air on TMN, Movie Central, and HBO Canada.
Matthew recently finished a short documentary film on his father, RON TAYLOR: DR. BASEBALL, who played 11 years of professional baseball with the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals before touring hospitals in Vietnam, which inspired him to return to school and become a physician. Ron has since served as the team doctor for the Toronto Blue Jays for the past 35 years.

Director Statement

We were raised on the stories our father told. For us, they seemed normal, just a regular Dad having a life before kids. As we grew older, we started to notice the look in peoples eyes as he relived his baseball moments, or helped a patient at his sports injury clinic play a sport that they never thought they would get to experience again. We decided to make this film as a way to not only honour our father, but as a way to tell his story to people who may not have had the chance to get to know him like we did.
We felt there was no better way to make the film then to co-direct and co-write the story, allowing each of us to highlight the areas of Dad’s life that spoke to us the most. Many people know his as either a Doctor or a Baseball player, few know he worked as an Engineer as well. We wanted to show how he was able to combine all of his lifes passions, having three successful careers, each of which fulfilled a part of his drive to live a full, robust life. And on top of that, he was our father and role model, shaping us to become the men we are today.