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David Weissman (documentary filmmaker) is a US-born, Emmy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, as well as a teacher, public speaker, longtime activist and co-founder of QDoc, the Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival. He is best known as producer of the acclaimed documentaries, We Were Here (2011) and The Cockettes (2002).

Conversations With Gay Elders is an educational and collaborative, cross-generational documentary film project which began production in 2016. David conducts conversational interviews with gay elders and then works with young film editors to create each segment.

Festivals
David Weissman has had his films shown a film festivals across the world, include Berlin, Sundance, Chicago , New York Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami Film Festival, and KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival.

Release and Distribution
We Were Here and The Cockettes both premiered at Sundance Film Festival. The Cockettes was released theatrically, broadcast on Sundance Channel and BBC. We Were Here was released theatrically, and broadcast internationally as well as the U.S. on the PBS series Independent Lens.

Awards & Recognition
The Cockettes received the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Nonfiction Film of 2002 and Best Director award, shared with Bill Weber, from US Comedy Arts Festival.

In 2002, David won Honorable Mention for Best Documentary, shared with Bill Weber, for The Cockettes at the New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

The Glitter Awards recognized The Cockettes as Best Documentary in 2003.

David received an Honorable Mention for Best Documentary for We Were Here from the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2011.

San Francisco Film Society/Film Arts Foundation awarded David a Documentary Grant in 2010 in support of his nonfiction filmmaking.

In 2011, We Were Here won Best Documentary Feature at the KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival in India, where "The jury was won over by [We Were Here 's] 'in-depth realization - through personalized interviews and incisive reportage – of a heart wrenching chapter of history – the advent of AIDS in San Francisco of the 1970s-80s.'"

Back in 1986, David's short, Beauties Without a Cause, was no

Nominations
We Were Here was on the 2012 Academy Award shortlist for nomination in the Best Documentary category.

As part of Independent Lens on PBS, David received an Emmy Award nomination for the We Were Here broadcast in 2013.

Teaching
David teaches classes and workshops in a many aspects of filmmaking, including courses in producing feature documentaries in Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Speaking
Organizations screening David's films, including UCLA, USC, Stanford, Wesleyan, Yale, UC Santa Cruz, and Princeton, frequently invite him for discussion related to the film and to offer a Q&A session after a showing,

David also uses his films to enter broader discussions about social issues, such as exploring some of the most pressing themes of our time at the Chicago Ideas symposium on Intuitive Filmmaking in 2011.

QDoc
Along with Russ Gage, David Weissman is the co-founder and co-programmer of QDoc, The Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival. QDoc, the only documentary film festival dedicated to LGBT documentaries in the U.S., perhaps the world, is a curated collection of current, award-winning films from top-tier festivals across the globe.

Background
Currently a resident of Portland, Oregon, David spent more than three decades in San Francisco, where he was deeply engaged with that city’s cultural and political life. "David Weissman moved to San Francisco in 1976, when the city began to be referred to as the 'Gay Mecca.' He was at Harvey Milk's camera store on the night of his election, and at the victory party for the No on 6 Campaign — the first major electoral victory for the emerging gay movement." The Cockettes and We Were Here provide first-person, in-depth examinations of topics that were "definitively and unmistakably San Franciscan in subject, character and outlook; that is, they convey the qualities of liberation, self-invention and creativity."

Filmography

 * The Cockettes (2002, producer)
 * We Were Here (2011, producer/co-director)