About

I am a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, working in narrative, documentary, and branded content. I’m passionate about telling female-centered stories that explore the magic lurking beneath the veil of reality. 

My short films have screened at Palm Springs, Comic-Con, LA Film Festival, Seattle, Tribeca, Austin, Woodstock, Mill Valley, Athens, Camerimage, Cucalorus, Reeling Chicago LGBTQ+, and many more. I’ve directed and produced branded content for Lincoln, Adidas, Clorox, Microsoft, Hard Rock, Honest, Vanity Fair, VICE, Live Nation, the National Park Foundation, and the Breakthrough Foundation. 

I was a fellow in the Sundance Screenwriters Intensive with my script YES NO HELLO GOODBYE, which was a semifinalist in the Slamdance Screenplay Awards and a finalist in Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope. I was a Film Independent Project Involve Directing Fellow, and participated in Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab with my project LOVE ON THE TUNDRA. I’m an alumna of Berlinale Talents, the School of Making Thinking, and have participated in a Women in Film Peer Mentorship circle and in the Commercial Directors Diversity Program as a semi-finalist. 

I grew up outside of Detroit and spent my youth training as a dancer; my love for the body in motion still informs all of my work. I received my MFA in directing from UCLA, graduated from Brown with a BA in Art/Semiotics, and studied directing at Prague’s FAMU Film Academy. 

I’m currently working on a documentary about my Nana’s hallucination disorder and developing my feature YES NO HELLO GOODBYE, a magical realist story of a love triangle between a woman, her husband, and the female spirit inhabiting his body.

danaturken@gmail.com