| David N. Donihue | |
|---|---|
| Born | David Nelson Donihue April 25, 1974 Spokane, Washington, USA |
| Other names | Minh Duc David N. Donihue |
| Occupation | film director, producer, screenwriter, playwright, composer, actor |
| Years active | 1985 - present |
David N. Donihue (David Nelson Donihue, b. April 25, 1974) is an American writer, director and actor.
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Donihue was born in rural Eastern Washington, raised blocks away from The Green River Killer, and was a resident of Auburn, Washington. He started writing plays that were performed for 45 cents in his back yard and local parks when he was as young as seven. His first film was made when he was eleven, utilizing a rented video camera and two borrowed VCR's with stereo cables. His father was a pastor. His mother, Anita Corrine Donihue, was a special education teacher who later became a well known Christian Devotional author.
By his mid teens, Donihue was writing feature length plays. During these years, Donihue began to work graveyard shifts at a local college radio station, KGRG-FM, as an overnight DJ. There, he became obsessed with experimental music and film, and directed a series of student films. These included Anthony's Appocalypse and Inside Anthony's World.
During this era, at age 18, he wrote Hold My Hand & Tell Me I'm Not Insane, a comedy-drama about a young playwright whose scripts follow his life, yet later dictate it. The play was produced in Seattle with its premiere at the Scottish Rite Hall on Capitol Hill.
During his early twenties, Donihue wrote, directed, acted in and produced a string of independent plays within the northwest including Hey Baby Do Ya Wanna Come Back To My Place and Justify My Existence, and another pop psychology comedy Brain Aches And The Quest For Redemption Of A Telephone Psychic as well as the forty minute short film "Love Me Tender, Pay Me Well".
He penned dozens of feature length scripts, both plays and films, during this era, most of which he refused to have seen or published. A partial list of titles exists with corresponding dates. He was quoted at one point in the Seattle Times as saying "Creation is far more interesting than exhibition."
By his mid twenties, Donihue was a mainstay in the Seattle Underground film and music scene, making the little seen yet sought after, The Humanity Experiment, as well as the provocative short film The Girls Of Bi-Polar Disorder.
Just before leaving Seattle to pursue mainstream filmmaking, Donihue was cast in Matt Wilkin's highly acclaimed drama, Buffalo Bill's Defunct. Donihue played a troubled young man who finds himself amidst an evening of drinking and gutting a dear in a small American town. The American Avante Guard referred to the film as "Brilliant."
Donihue moved to Los Angeles and began directing music videos while he worked to establish himself as a screenwriter. In 2005 he partnered with Rahul Dholakia to write and (ghost) produce Parzania starring Naseeruddin Shah (Monsoon Wedding) and Raj Zuchi (Slumdog Millionaire). The film is considered by many accounts, to be one of the most controversial films in the eastern hemisphere. The English language thriller, based on the true story of the Gujarat Riots of 2002, was initially banned in India, caused a storm of protests and bomb threats, and later garnered praise from the New York Times, Variety, Indiewire and many others.[1] It was shown in New York as part of the Museum of Modern Arts' India Now film exhibition.[2] Donihue was nominated for Filmfare Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Story for Parzania. The film won the Screen Gem Award for Best Picture.
He subsequently wrote and directed the first feature-length live-action Choose Your Own Adventure style interactive film, The Weathered Underground.
Former collaborator Rahul Dholakia is in production on another of Donihue's scripts, a thriller entitled Nameless.