Leo Lewis O'Neil
{{Short description|American documentary filmmaker}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Leo Lewis O’Neil
| image =
| caption = O’Neil at the Cannes Film Festival, 2025
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1997}}
| birth_place = Austin, Texas, U.S.
| occupation = Documentary filmmaker
| notable_works = Slauson Rec
}}
Leo Lewis O’Neil (born c. 1997) is an American documentary filmmaker. He is best known for directing Slauson Rec (2025), an explosive guerrilla documentary chronicle{{Cite web |last=Bergeson |first=Samantha |date=2025-04-02 |title=Shia LaBeouf’s Explosive, ‘Unconventional’ Experimental Theater Collective Slauson Rec Is Captured in Guerilla Doc |url=https://www.indiewire.com/news/trailers/slauson-rec-teaser-shia-labeouf-1235112728/ |access-date=2025-05-29 |website=IndieWire |language=en-US}} of actor Shia LaBeouf’s experimental theater company in South Central Los Angeles. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Cannes Classics section and received widespread acclaim for its unfiltered depiction of artistic idealism, power dynamics, and emotional abuse.{{cite web |last=Fear |first=David |date=May 19, 2025 |title=That Doc on Shia LaBeouf’s Acting School Is Even Crazier Than You’ve Heard |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/shia-labeouf-acting-school-documentary-1235338909/ |access-date=May 28, 2025 |website=Rolling Stone}}{{cite web |last=Canfield |first=David |date=April 1, 2025 |title=Shia LaBeouf Handed a Stranger a Camera, Then Unraveled Before His Eyes |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/shia-labeouf-slauson-rec-documentary-exclusive |access-date=May 28, 2025 |website=Vanity Fair}}
Early life and background
O’Neil was raised in Austin, Texas. He moved to Los Angeles in 2018, shortly after dropping out of college, with aspirations of working in film. Struggling financially, he took odd jobs and lived on borrowed air mattresses while trying to find creative community.
That fall, he attended an open call posted by Shia LaBeouf for an unstructured acting collective based out of the Slauson Recreation Center. O’Neil, then 21, brought his camera and quickly became the group’s informal documentarian.
Career
= ''Slauson Rec'' (2025) =
From 2018 to 2020, O’Neil filmed more than 800 hours of material inside what became the Slauson Rec Theater Company—an improvisational acting group led by LaBeouf. With LaBeouf’s blessing, O’Neil continued filming even as tensions escalated, eventually documenting episodes of emotional volatility and physical aggression.{{cite web |date=April 25, 2025 |title=Slauson Rec: why did Shia LaBeouf let the cameras film his meltdown? |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/shia-labeouf-documentary-slauson-rec-c72g9x0zv |access-date=May 28, 2025 |website=The Times}}
The project culminated in the 2025 documentary Slauson Rec, which was produced independently by O’Neil and Matt Zien, and executive produced by Kevin Knight. The film received praise for its intimate access and emotional complexity. Rolling Stone called it “one of the most damning, unfiltered, take-no-prisoners portraits of a celebrity losing his shit ever recorded for posterity.” Vanity Fair described O’Neil’s work as “an extraordinary act of grasping for closure.”
= Directorial style =
Reception and legacy
Slauson Rec premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to a standing ovation and was widely discussed in the press. It was featured in RogerEbert.com’s Cannes coverage, and included in *The Telegraph*'s “best-reviewed” roundup.{{cite web |title=Cannes Film Festival 2025: the best and worst films reviewed |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/cannes-film-festival-2025-best-worst-film-reviews/ |access-date=May 28, 2025 |website=The Telegraph}}{{cite web |last=Lee |first=Zachary |date=May 22, 2025 |title=Cannes 2025: Slauson Rec, Dandelion’s Odyssey, Lucky Lu |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals/cannes-2025-sauson-rec-dandelions-odyssey-lucky-lu |access-date=May 28, 2025 |website=RogerEbert.com}}
In an interview with *Deadline*, producer Matt Zien remarked, “Leo wrote ‘We Cannes do it’ on our office whiteboard the day we moved in. And he did.”{{cite web |title='Slauson Rec' Director On Shia LaBeouf Cracking Under Pressure Of Running Theater Company |url=https://deadline.com/video/slauson-rec-interview-director-leo-lewis-oneil-matt-zien/ |access-date=May 28, 2025 |website=Deadline}}
Filmography
- Slauson Rec (2025) – director, cinematographer, editor
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=nm15574970|name=Leo Lewis O’Neil}}
- [https://www.slausonrec.film Official website for Slauson Rec]