David Grabias

David Grabias is an Award-winning non-fiction filmmaker who has directed numerous documentaries that have aired internationally on PBS, HBO, A&E, Discovery, FX, and National Geographic. Most recently, David produced and directed OPERATION POPCORN, which profiled the ringleader of an alleged plot to overthrow the Communist government of Laos. The film won the award for best documentary at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Previously he produced KORAN BY HEART for HBO, which followed devout Muslim kids at the world's oldest Koran reciting contest. For PBS, David directed and produced the Emmy-nominated SENTENCED HOME, which won awards at film festivals worldwide. Funded in part by the Center for Asian American Media and the Sundance Institute, SENTENCED HOME tracks three Asian Americans through the deportation process. David also co-produced and directed UNCOVERED for PBS, which puts an intimate human face on America's growing health care crisis by chronicling the struggles of a diverse group of uninsured Americans as they battle critical illness over a two-year period. David was also nominated for an Emmy for producing the Discovery Channel two-hour documentary special WHY DOGS SMILE AND CHIMPANZEES CRY, narrated by Sigourney Weaver. For PBS, David also directed the documentary CENTRALIA, a revealing portrait of an out-of-control mine fire that threatens to destroy a small Pennsylvania town. His film GAY BASHING follows the exploits of a gay demolition derby driver. And David lived in Turkey for two years to complete THOSE WHO ARE IN LOVE, which celebrates that country's vanishing folk minstrel tradition. For National Geographic, he produced and directed their weekly science series THE HUMAN EDGE, and the one-hour documentary LOCKDOWN: FIRST TIMERS, about a prison in Iowa that specializes in youthful offenders. Through the Los Angeles-based production company Artifact Studios, David directs a wide variety of commercial work.