Lights, Camera, Creation: Islander Alumni Bring Sculptor’s Story to Life

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas—For Matthew Thornton ’02 and Denise Thornton ’02, what started off as an elective course at TAMU-CC — filmmaking — quickly emerged into a creative career that has spanned over 20 years.  

The high school sweethearts graduated from Flour Bluff High School in Corpus Christi in 1998 and the Island University in 2002. Now living in Austin, they recently returned to campus to debut their first feature documentary, “Ullberg: Wind in the Sails,” at the H-E-B Performance Hall in the Performing Arts Center. The couple co-own Griffyn.Co Productions where Denise served as the film’s executive producer and Matthew as the film director.  

The screening, sponsored by the Island University, was held to raise funds to edit the documentary from 88 minutes to the required 56 minutes, as it was selected for broadcast in the Made in Texas series on Texas PBS. The broadcast premiere is scheduled for May 2026, and it will reach more than 200,000 Texas households.  

“It’s awesome to be able to come back and not just have the support but also see  how the school has grown and evolved since we were there,” Denise said. “It looks somewhat the same, but different in all the right ways.”  

For the Thorntons, the Island University was more than a place to earn a degree. It was where Denise played tennis during the Islanders’ first season as an NCAA Division I program, where Matthew dove headfirst into intramurals and campus life, and where one elective class shifted his trajectory entirely.  

“I was a criminal justice major, but I took a screenwriting elective with Kim Henkel ’01 who co-wrote ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’” Matthew said. “That one elective changed everything about what I wanted to do.”  

Denise’s path was equally shaped by her Islander experience.  

“I was a kinesiology major, and I loved being a part of campus and athletics,” she said. “The university gave me the foundation of discipline and teamwork that I still carry with me today.” 

After graduating, the couple married and worked in Corpus Christi for about a year. They then moved to Los Angeles to chase Matthew’s acting ambitions. “We were in LA for about four or five years, I had some good acting gigs, but eventually, the pull of writing and creating my own projects was too strong to ignore,” he said. 

The couple eventually returned to Texas, balancing full-time teaching careers with late-night creative work within the film industry. That balance became the inspiration for their podcast “Creative Moonlighting.” 

Through interviews with artists, musicians, and filmmakers, the podcast built the network and storytelling practice that would prepare them for the leap into feature filmmaking. Eventually, world-renowned sculptor Kent Ullberg and his wife, Veerle Ullberg, joined the Thorntons on their podcast in 2022, where they learned more about the sculptor’s work. The Ullbergs, who are natives of Sweden, now call Corpus Christi’s North Padre Island home. 

“The idea that our first feature documentary would be about someone from our hometown — that just made sense. It’s a way of giving back to the community that gave so much to us,” Matthew said. 

Ullberg is an internationally acclaimed sculptor with 22 public works across Texas and two of the world’s largest wildlife sculptures located in Florida and Nebraska. Ullberg sculpture “Danzemar,” a bronze sea dancer with a flowing shell-like skirt, anchors the Louise and John Chapman Lobby of the university’s Performing Arts Center. Ullberg’s work, which often blends coastal culture, science, and art, can also be found throughout the City of Corpus Christi.  

“I think Matt and Denise did a tremendous job with the documentary,” Ullberg said. “They approached everything with such sensitivity and respect, and I really appreciate that. They didn’t try to bend our story, and they recorded it beautifully.”  

Following a successful festival circuit and Texas PBS premiere, the Thorntons plan to take the film to a broader audience, expanding into educational licensing for universities and museums, on-demand streaming platforms, and curating community screenings in partnership with nonprofits. A limited-edition version, featuring exclusive bonus content and an educational study guide, will further extend the film’s reach and inspire deeper discussion in classrooms and civic spaces.