Mat Love is an Australian filmmaker based in Victoria.
His work focuses on raw, personal storytelling grounded in lived experience, exploring themes of identity, trauma and transformation.

Bleeding the Demon is his first film.

This film wasn't made to impress anyone. It was made to tell the truth.

There was a point where everything felt like it was slipping, physically, mentally and internally. What followed wasn't a sudden change, but a slow process of rebuilding, step by step.

The work you see in this film is real. So are the thoughts behind it. The internal side, the doubt, the patterns, the weight of it, was just as important as anything physical.

I didn't want to present a polished transformation or a message. I wanted to show what it actually looks like to go through it, without dressing it up.

If anything, this film is just an honest record of that process.

Bleeding the Demon is a raw and unflinching documentary that follows Mathew Love’s transformation from addiction, trauma, and self-destruction to a life rebuilt through discipline, accountability, and truth.
After reaching a critical breaking point, Mathew undergoes gastric sleeve surgery, but soon realises the operation is only the beginning. What follows is a relentless confrontation with the patterns that shaped his past, as he works to rebuild not just his body, but his identity.
At the centre of the film is a unique system of “loaded” training, carrying heavy weight up steep terrain, serving as a physical expression of the internal burdens he once carried. As the weight increases, so too does clarity.
More than a transformation story, Bleeding the Demon is an exploration of what it means to face oneself honestly, to take ownership, and to change, one deliberate step at a time.