DUSTIN NAKAO-HAIDER

Dustin Nakao-Haider is a Japanese-Desi American filmmaker from Chicago. A two time Emmy nominee, he is winner of the 2023 Gold Hugo for Best Short Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival for his newest work, Ethan Lim: Cambodian Futures. His feature length debut, Shot in the Dark, was supported by the Sundance Institute, Film Independent, ESPN Films, Company 3, premiered on FOX, and was a New York Times Critics’ Pick.

He has produced multiple seasons of docuseries on Netflix, ESPN+, and TNT. He directed the commercial doc series Dear Chicago to promote the 2020 NBA All-Star Game, which won Best Marketing Initiative at the 2021 Cynopsis Sports Media Awards. His short documentaries on Jay Z, Robinson Cano, Kendrick Lamar, and others have garnered millions of views online.

In 2022, he co-wrote Pali, a play produced at Stanford University, adapted from Indian writer Bhisham Sahni’s short story. Cambodian Futures won the Loni Ding Award in Social Issue Documentary from CAAM and has screened at seven festivals and counting. The film was produced with Firelight Media and American Masters and is currently streaming on PBS as part of the series In the Making. Dustin is a co-founder of the production collective Bogie.