Cultural depictions of Matthew Shepard include notable films, musical works, novels, plays, and other works inspired by the 1998 Matthew Shepard murder, investigation, and resulting interest the case brought to the topic of hate crime. The best known is the stage play The Laramie Project, which was adapted into an HBO movie of the same name. Matthew Wayne Shepard was an openly gay university student who was brutally attacked near Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998 and left for dead by his attackers.[1]
People in the entertainment industry expressed outrage and responded in various ways to the attack, and Ellen DeGeneres spoke at Shepard's memorial services in Washington, D.C.[2] Three narrative films were made about the Shepard story: The Laramie Project (2000, based on the play of the same name), The Matthew Shepard Story (2002), and Anatomy of a Hate Crime (2001). The Laramie Project and The Matthew Shepard Story both won numerous awards. The documentary film Laramie Inside Out (2004) focuses on the murder's effect on the Laramie community in the aftermath of the murder.