Dylan Mohan Gray is an Indian and Canadian filmmaker. His documentary feature film '' Fire in the Blood'',http://fireintheblood.com premiered in competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and went on to enjoy the longest theatrical run of any non-fiction film in

Indian cinema The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, ...

history (five weeks). An official selection at over 100 leading film festivals which was honoured with major awards and accolades worldwide, Fire in the Blood altered the global conversation around access to essential medicine, and in 2018 was named one of "26 landmark documentary films of the past seven decades" in a major retrospective curated by legendary documentarian

John Pilger John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York. Pilge ...

. Dylan directed

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

's first Indian-themed non-fiction original film, ''The King of Good Times'' (2020), about the spectacular rise and fall of controversial Indian tycoon

Vijay Mallya Vijay Vittal Mallya (born 18 December 1955) is an Indian businessman, former politician and fugitive. He is the subject of an extradition effort by the Indian Government to return him from the UK to face charges of financial crimes in India. T ...

and his ill-fated venture,

Kingfisher Airlines Kingfisher Airlines Limited was an airline group based in India. It was established in 2003 and started its commercial operations in 2005. Through its parent company United Breweries Group, it had a 50% stake in low-cost carrier Kingfisher R ...

. The film opens the Netflix Original documentary anthology series, Bad Boy Billionaires: India, the release of which was delayed due to legal injunctions in India. It enjoyed a multiple-week run as the #1 most-watched title on Netflix India when it finally released and was the most-watched documentary of the year 2020 in India, receiving India's top film honour, the

Filmfare Award The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Hindi-language film industry of India.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were first introduced by th ...

, in 2021. Dylan's mid-length film on the future of global health and human rights, ''From Durban to Tomorrow'' (2020), shot in six countries on three continents, was selected at over 100 film festivals and won over 35 international awards (as of December 2021). His narrative feature script, ''The Last Day of Winter'' (co-written with

Vikramaditya Motwane Vikramaditya Motwane (born 6 December 1976) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. He is known for films like '' Udaan'' (2010), ''Lootera'' (2013) and '' AK vs AK'' (2020). His directorial debut '' ...

), was incubated at the

Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers fr ...

, Mumbai Mantra Screenwriting Lab. He used to teach as the Visiting Professor of History (exploring intersections between history and film) at the

Central European University Central European University (CEU) is a private research university accredited in Austria, Hungary, and the United States, with campuses in Vienna and Budapest. The university is known for its highly intensive programs in the social science ...

in Budapest, where he had earlier completed his MA, and in 2016 was chosen from over 13,000 graduates to receive the CEU's inaugural Alumni Impact Award. He lives and works in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Early life

Born on

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

off

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's Atlantic coast, where his

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

father served as a national park warden, Gray grew up with a keen interest in

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, 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 A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and expected to continue his career in academia, but began working in the film industry after a chance meeting in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

with a former acting colleague who was there working as an assistant director with David Cronenberg. He would go on to serve in various key capacities (often credited as "D. Dylan Gray") on international feature films in over thirty countries worldwide, working in close collaboration with numerous acclaimed directors including

Fatih Akin Fatih Akin (Turkish: Fatih Akın, born 25 August 1973) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer of Turkish descent. He has won numerous awards for his films, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his film '' Head- ...

Peter Greenaway Peter Greenaway, (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular. Common traits in his films are th ...

Paul Greengrass Paul Greengrass (born 13 August 1955) is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of historic events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras. His early film ' ...

, Deepa Mehta and

Mira Nair Mira Nair (born 15 October 1957) is an Indian-American filmmaker based in New York City. Her production company, Mirabai Films, specializes in films for international audiences on Indian society, whether in the economic, social or cultural spher ...

. Gray studied

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

and Film at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

(USA), as well as at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

and the Budapest University of Economics. He holds graduate degrees in History from the

and the

University of the State of New York The University of the State of New York (USNY, ) is the state of New York's governmental umbrella organization for both public and private institutions in New York State. The "university" is not an educational institution: it is, in fact, a lic ...

, with research focussed on

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

and geographic dimensions of identity. He was also a resident in Film at Canada's famed Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Awards and nominations

* Best Nonfiction Original, Series/Special, 2021 Filmfare OTT Awards, December 2021 * Grand Jury Award, The White Sands International Film Festival, New Mexico, September 2014 *

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (''German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: FES'') is a German political party foundation associated with, but independent from, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Established in 1925 as the ...

Prize for Political Film,

Filmfest Hamburg FILMFEST HAMBURG is an international film festival in Hamburg, the third-largest of its kind in Germany (after Berlin and Munich). It shows national and international feature and documentary films in eleven sections. The range of the program stret ...

, October 2013 *DOXA Feature Documentary Award, DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Vancouver, May 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Dylan Mohan Indian documentary filmmakers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)