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Daniel Druhora

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Daniel Druhora (born June 3, 1982) is a Romanian-American filmmaker and educator. Notable for his work in documentary filmmaking, Druhora has directed and produced several acclaimed films including Lives Not Grades[1] (2021), Cloudwalkers (2024), and Flowing Forward (2024), as well as his upcoming narrative feature Elie’s Overcoat.

Early Life

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Born in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, during the last years of Communism, Druhora and his family immigrated to the United States following the 1989 Revolution, settling initially in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and later in Phoenix, Arizona. His father, Ovidiu Druhora, is a minister and theology professor, and his mother, Ana Druhora, was an orphanage director.

Education

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Druhora graduated with a B.A. from the University of Washington in 2007, where he studied social sciences, international relations, and comparative literature. Originally intending to pursue a career in diplomacy, he chose to pursue filmmaking instead under the guidance of his mentor, screenwriter Stewart Stern who wrote the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause starring James Dean. He earned his M.F.A. in Film and Television Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2014.

Film Career

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Druhora began his career in the film industry interning at Warner Brothers for producer Dan Lin, contributing to projects like Gangster Squad (2013) and The Lego Movie (2014). His directorial works include Lives Not Grades (2021), which follows a team of college students working to find solutions to the global refugee crisis. The film won an Emmy Award for Best Independent Programming at the 74th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards[2]. He co-founded the U.K.-based Safe Passage Films in 2019, through which he produced “Long Distance Swimmer – Sara Mardini (2023)”[3][4][5][6], a film that premiered at various international film festivals including Hot Docs in Toronto and Sheffield DocFest. In 2023 he directed and produced “Cloudwalkers: ISI And The Inventors of The Future” about the early days of the internet and the emergence of the age of A.I. In 2024, he began directing and producing Flowing Forward, a series about the challenges and innovations in urban water management, and a follow-up to Lives Not Grades[7] focusing on innovations in Ukraine. His feature directorial debut, Elie’s Overcoat, will tell the story of Holocaust survival and heroism in his native Transylvania.

Screenwriting

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Druhora has written several screenplays, including “Climbers”, about Rwanda’s cycling team, and “Marjan”, a semi-finalist for the 2017 Academy Nicholl Fellowship[8]. He is also writing the screenplay for Miracles In War, about human rights lawyer Jackie Isaac and her fight to bring justice to the women who survived in ISIS captivity.

Teaching

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In 2018, Druhora co-founded a course at USC titled “Innovation in Engineering and Design for Global Challenges,”[9] popularly known as the Lives Not Grades course, which prepares students to develop solutions for global crises[10][11]. He also teaches the art of storytelling at USC and contributes to university publications. Druhora, who is an advocate for documenting the testimonies of survivors of religious persecution also created "Prizonierii Luminii"[12] ("Prisoners of Light"), an audiovisual archive that documents the experiences of survivors from communist prison camps in Romania.

References

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  1. ^ Lives Not Grades | PBS. Retrieved 2024-05-21 – via www.pbs.org.
  2. ^ sfodor (2022-08-10). "Documentary by Romanian filmmaker Daniel Druhora among winners at 2022 Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards". Romania Insider. Retrieved 2024-05-21.
  3. ^ Long Distance Swimmer: Sara Mardini (2023) | MUBI. Retrieved 2024-05-21 – via mubi.com.
  4. ^ "Long Distance Swimmer - Sara Mardini". www.sheffdocfest.com. 2023-06-18. Retrieved 2024-05-21.
  5. ^ Brunelli, Roberto (2023-06-08). "Syrian Refugee Sara Mardini on Her Long Swim to Freedom, Netflix's 'The Swimmers' and Her Trial". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2024-05-21.
  6. ^ Ramachandran, Naman (2022-11-24). "New Docs Boards 'Long Distance Swimmer: Sara Mardini' That Begins Where Toronto Opener 'The Swimmers' Ends (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2024-05-21.
  7. ^ Lives Not Grades | PBS. Retrieved 2024-05-21 – via www.pbs.org.
  8. ^ "ACADEMY NICHOLL 2017 CEREMONY | 2017". www.oscars.org. 2024-03-19. Retrieved 2024-05-21.
  9. ^ B. Becerik-Gerber, D. Druhora, D. Gerber and B. Cracchiola, "Engineering Innovation for Global Challenges : Peacebuilding in Refugee Camps: Creating Innovators and Witnesses," 2018 World Engineering Education Forum - Global Engineering Deans Council (WEEF-GEDC), Albuquerque, NM, USA, 2018, pp. 1-7, doi: 10.1109/WEEF-GEDC.2018.8629602. keywords: {Technological innovation;Viterbi algorithm;Europe;Entrepreneurship;Engineering students;global challenges;refugee crisis;engineering innovation;design thinking;social entrepreneurship}
  10. ^ "USC students work with refugees to engineer solutions for better camp life". The World from PRX. Retrieved 2024-05-21.
  11. ^ Lee, Chuike; Viller, Stephen; Vyas, Dhaval (2023-10-04). "Refugee Entrepreneurial Trajectories". Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 7 (CSCW2): 355:1–355:26. doi:10.1145/3610204.
  12. ^ ""Prizonierii Luminii": Peste 30 de ore de interviuri cu mai mulți deținuți politic vor fi publicate la Oradea, la 20 de ani de la realizarea lor". www.ebihoreanul.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 2024-05-21.