Matt Sweetwood was born in Kansas City in 1971. From 1990 until 1994, he studied film at San Diego State University and worked as production assistant, author and assistant director on several independent film productions in the San Diego and Los Angeles area. In 1995, he moved to Berlin and started working for Verlag der Autoren. As writer and editor, he partook in some award-winning documentary projects. The documentary "Forgetting Dad" (2008) finally marked his debut as director. The film portrays a man who visits his amnesiac father after many years and went on to win the Special Award of The Jury at the Amsterdam Documentary Festival.

In 2009, Sweetwood won a funding contest with a treatment for his next project: a documentary about Germany's passion for beer. "Beerland" premiered three years later at the Leipzig Documentary Film Festival and was released theatrically in Spring 2013.