- May 20, 2026
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Not that long ago, in a galaxy not that far away, a Polk County filmmaker was casually scrolling through TikTok when he stumbled across a video that would become the basis of his first feature-length documentary film.
A barefoot man in shorts and a T-shirt stood in his living room brandishing a lightsaber. Not a cheap, plastic toy but a life-sized, glowing LED rapier that seemed ripped straight from the Star Wars films Matthew Wiatt, the filmmaker, idolized as a child, he says. The man spoke to the camera, explaining various forms of attacks and defense, footwork patterns, cuts and thrusts echoed with precision from martial arts, military and fencing techniques.
Wiatt scrolled through video after video of practices and duels. There were no costumes, no flowing Jedi robes. Just athletic gear and protective masks. The sabers — LED tubes reinforced with durable cores — were handled with care and dexterity. The combat, Wiatt says, was “competitive,” “cinematic” and “nostalgic.”
He was hooked.
Wiatt had discovered The Saber Legion, the world’s largest armored LED light saber combat community. Founded in 2015, TSL has approximately 8,000 members and charters in 42 states and 15 countries. The group turns Star Wars cosplay into a real competition, with championship tournaments held every year.
The Saber Legion’s Florida chapter, and the man with the fancy footwork who first caught Wiatt’s attention, are now the subject of "Saber," the Lakeland filmmaker’s first documentary film, which was featured during the 2026 Sunscreen Film Festival in St. Petersburg May 2.
Wiatt’s Lakeland-based production company, Indie Atlantic Films, has been in business for two decades and is a creative video production company and studio that specializes in story-driven, cinematic content ranging from traditional commercials to branded documentaries. The company has worked with local, regional and national clients including AdventHealth, Publix, Southeastern University and Florida Polytechnic University.
For nearly three years, Wiatt followed LED saber athletes as they trained for the Saber Legion World Championships in Las Vegas, he says. But making a movie wasn’t what he had in mind the day he first found Florida Legion member Alec Martinez on TikTok.
“At first I just wanted to know more about what this thing was — I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, this is going to be my big documentary project’,” Wiatt says. “But then Alec invited me to a meet in Orlando and when my wife and I got there we saw the community around the people that were there and just how it was sort of like a found family. … That’s when I started to see that there was a story to be told here.”
Wiatt produced "Saber" with his wife and his brother-in-law through Indie Atlantic Films. The trio has mainly produced commercials, web content and other promotional videos. In 2017, though, Wiatt’s wife, Katie Wiatt, took the leap into documentary filmmaking with “Fly Like A Girl,” a film about women in aviation, paving the way for her husband to follow suit with Saber.
His film premiered Feb. 14, during the 50th annual Boston Science Fiction Film Festival.
"Saber" was self-financed. Wiatt declines to disclose how much money was invested in the film or share any other financial information.
It was fate, Wiatt says, that he met the stars of the film — Martinez, of Clermont, and Kat Rosemund, of Miami — during that trip to Orlando to watch a showcase TSL tournament. Martinez, known as the Dancing Swordsman or Kyber Ranger, is recognized as a top 5 world-ranked fighter in standard and exotic categories of TSL. He also makes his own lightsabers, which can cost upwards of $400, trains in mixed martial arts and dances in Irish jig competitions.
Rosemund, a writer, joined the group in 2018 and was less interested in the fighting than she was the camaraderie found within the group. As someone who says she didn’t “come into her nerdiness” until adulthood, she was unsure at first about joining TSL. She learned of the group while “doomscrolling” on Facebook and decided it could be the connection she needed during a dark period in her life, she says. During that first meeting, Rosemund was content standing on the sidelines until a member recognized her from her Facebook post on the group page and gave her “this really great hug that I needed at the time.”
“Then he said, ‘So you’re fighting today,’ and there was not a question mark at the end of that sentence,” Rosemund says. Before she knew it, members were outfitting her in gear and putting a lightsaber in her hand.
Now that the Sunscreen Film Festival is over, meanwhile, Wiatt says there are a few more potential screening opportunities for "Saber" before his team begins working on distribution this fall. His wife’s film, “Fly Like A Girl,” eventually got distribution with Gravitas Ventures and is available to watch on Hulu, which has helped boost Wiatt’s confidence in the future of his film.
The goal is that after "Saber" makes the festival rounds, Wiatt and his team can show the film in independent movie houses around Florida, he says. While there are more documentaries in Wiatt’s future, "Saber," he believes, is a story that’s unique in its ability to connect with audiences from all walks of life.
“It’s just such an amazing diverse group of people that always checks all their political and social differences aside when they go to meet up and just create these amazing friendships with people,” Wiatt says. “I think what I really hope people get when they watch this movie is that no matter what your hobbies are, no matter what you’re into, you can find a community that accepts you for who you are.”
