Dylan Mohan Gray

Dylan Mohan Gray
Dylan Mohan Gray, Agra, 2005
Alma mater	Dartmouth College, Central European University
Occupation	Director, producer, screenwriter

Dylan Mohan Gray is an award-winning Indian filmmaker of Punjabi and Irish ancestry, best known for the documentary feature film Fire in the Blood,^[1] which in November 2013 set a new all-time record for the longest theatrical run by any non-fiction feature film in Indian history following a five-week stint in Mumbai.^[2][3]

Born on remote Prince Edward Island off Canada's Atlantic coast, where his biologist father served as a national park warden, Dylan Mohan Gray grew up with a keen interest in theatre, first as a child actor, then later moving into writing and directing plays, followed soon thereafter by videos (often using equipment borrowed from school sports programs). He was originally trained as a contemporary historian and expected to make a career in academia, but began working in the film industry after a chance meeting in Budapest with a former acting colleague who was there working as an assistant director with David Cronenberg, and in the following years came to work in various capacities (sometimes credited as "Dylan Gray" or "D. Dylan Gray") on feature films in over two dozen countries worldwide in close collaboration with numerous acclaimed directors including Fatih Akin, Peter Greenaway, Paul Greengrass, Deepa Mehta and Mira Nair.^[4]

Dylan completed university studies in History and Film at Dartmouth College (US), as well as at the University of Vienna and the Budapest University of Economics. He holds graduate degrees in History from the Central European University and the University of the State of New York, with research focussed on historiography and geographic dimensions of identity.^[5]

He was also a resident in Film at Canada’s renowned Banff Centre for the Arts, and has a special interest in political stories with significant international and historical components.

Dylan Mohan Gray founded the production company Sparkwater India in 2005. He lives and works in Mumbai (Bombay).^[6]

Awards and Nominations

WINNER—2013 Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Prize for Political Film, Filmfest Hamburg, October 2013^[7][8]

WINNER—DOXA Feature Documentary Award (main prize) -- 2013 DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Vancouver, May 2013^[9][10]

WINNER—Justice Matters Award—27th Washington DC International Film Festival, April 2013^[11]

Grand Jury Prize, World Documentary (Nominated) -- Sundance Film Festival, January 2013^[12]

Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) Team Award, Feature Film (Nominated), 2007

Media

Dylan Mohan Gray has been featured or profiled on outlets including the BBC (radio and television), BBC World Service (radio and television), CNN-IBN, Democracy Now!, Frontline, Indiewire, Filmmaker Magazine, Movieline, MSNBC, The Asian Age, The Guardian, The Hindu, India Today, Mumbai Mirror, Indian Express, The Times of India, RTE, POZ (magazine), Time Out, The Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal.

References