Nomadland has been in the news a lot recently, thanks to a combination of the movie heading to streaming and also landing awards notice at nearly the same time. However, this morning we have sad news to report, as sound mixer Michael Wolf Snyder, who recently worked on Chloe Zhao’s film, is dead at 35.
His father David Snyder was the first to break the news in recent days, telling those near and dear that Michael had not been heard from for a few days. So, David took a trip over to his son’s Queens, NY apartment where he found his son dead. The cause of death was suicide. David Snyder shared more about Michael Wolf Snyder's final days on Facebook in the "hope that it could help others," noting,
I would like to share a little bit more about what happened in the hope that it could help others. Michael took his own life sometime in the last week and wasn’t discovered until I went to check on him Monday after he had dropped out of contact for several days. He has suffered from Major Depression for many years. For most people, this is an illness that waxes and wanes over the years. I’m sure it was difficult for Michael that he spent most of the last year alone in his small, Queens apartment, being responsible about dealing with the coronavirus. In spite of this, we all believed he was doing well, and for most of this past year I think he was.
David Snyder said that one of the bright spots for Michael over the past several months were the accolades that his movie Nomadland was getting. Chloe Zhao won the award for Best Director at the Golden Globes a few days ago; the movie itself was nominated for four awards total. The film also won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, among numerous other accolades. David Snyder touched on how that notice had seemed to “invigorate” his son.
He seemed especially joyful and invigorated in these last few months since he was able to return to work on several different film projects. He was certainly thrilled about all of the accolades for Nomadland and told us many happy stories about his work on the film and the amazing people he got to spend time with.
Later, Michael’s Aunt Cathy Snyder also took to Facebook to share the family’s feelings following the devastating news. She noted that seeing how the world saw Michael Wolf Snyder has helped immensely.
Hard to read this piece just published in Variety, and wowed at the same time--our Michael Wolf--we know him as beloved nephew, son, cousin, brother, friend, and awesome human. Now, through all of the enormous and poignant outpouring of love and respect for M Wolf Snyder we are reading on social media, we get to learn how the rest of his world saw him.
Michael Wolf Snyder was a sound mixer who worked on a variety of both TV and film projects. Nomadland was among the most prominent, though the young man scored plenty of gigs since his start in the business about a decade ago. Other notable gigs include work on Amazon’s Good Omens and Bryce Dallas Howard’s documentary Dads.
Nomadland’s supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer Zach Seivers told THR M. Wolf Snyder saw himself as a “storyteller” first and foremost. He will be missed and it may be small comfort, but if there's one thing we learned from Nomadland it's that there's no final goodbye. Just see you down the road.
