David L. Cunningham
David Loren Cunningham (born February 24, 1971), an American film director and producer. The founder and President of the Los Angeles-based production company Pray For Rain Pictures, Inc., he was born in Switzerland and raised at Kailua-Kona, Hawai'i.
David L. Cunningham started in documentaries - creating docs from the world's most remote country - Pitcairn Island of Mutiny on the Bounty fame, the deserts of Egypt and Australia - to the inner city life of teen prostitutes living on the mean streets of Hollywood.
Raised on the Big Island of Hawai'i- David has helped pioneer indie filmmaking in the 50th state which he still calls home. Obsessed with the cultures of the world - David has traveled to 140 countries and is a member of the Traveler's Century Club (whose members must have been to at least 100 countries).
One of his latest movies included filming under Moscow's Red Square in the secret tunnels built by Stalin. His pseudonym is "Haole Boy".
Director - Filmography
- The Path to 9/11 (2006) (TV)
- After... (2006)
- Rebels (2004)
- Little House on the Prairie (2004) (mini) TV Series
- To End All Wars (2001)
- The Dream Center: Hope for the Inner City (1999)
- Beyond Paradise (1998)
- Baja 1000 (1996)
- Walkabout Australia (1996) (V)
- Pacific Mercy Ships (1995) (TV)
- Passport to the World (1993) (TV)
- Target World (1992) (TV)
- The Pitcairn Story: Mutineers in Paradise (1991) (TV)
Controversy: The Path to 9/11
In response to the controversy surrounding The Path to 9/11, the ABC miniseries directed by Mr. Cunningham, its writer Cyrus Nowrasteh responded to critics in a Wall Street Journal article entitled "The Path to Hysteria" on September 18, 2006. In it he also defended Mr. Cunningham:
The hysteria engendered by the series found more than one target. In addition to the death threats and hate mail directed at me, and my grotesque portrayal as a maddened right-winger, there developed an impassioned search for incriminating evidence on everyone else connected to the film. And in director David Cunningham, the searchers found paydirt! His father had founded a Christian youth outreach mission. The whiff of the younger Mr. Cunningham's possible connection to this enterprise was enough to set the hounds of suspicion baying. A religious mission! A New York Times reporter wrote, without irony or explanation, that an issue that raised questions about the director was his involvement in his father's outreach work. In the era of McCarthyism, the merest hint of a connection to communism sufficed to inspire dark accusations, the certainty that the accused was part of a malign conspiracy. Today, apparently, you can get something of that effect by charging a connection with a Christian mission.[1]