David Usui
Directing
Biography
David Usui has spent over 15 years crafting character-driven stories as a director and cinematographer. His work has been featured on PBS, ITVS, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and VICE. His collaboration with the legendary director Albert Maysles on In Transit—a contemplative exploration of life on Amtrak’s Empire Builder—premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, where it earned the Special Jury Prize for Best Feature Documentary. In Been Here Stay Here, his directorial debut, David captures the quiet yet profound crisis unfolding on Tangier Island, where a close-knit Christian community contends with the heartbreaking reality of losing their home to rising seas. The film navigates the delicate intersection of faith, hope, and the unrelenting force of climate change, offering a meditation on both the resilience and fragility of place and belief in a world rapidly shifting beneath their feet. In 2009, David co-founded Lost & Found Films, a production company creating documentary and commercial content for brands, NGOs, and broadcasters. He studied philosophy and environmental studies at Western Washington University, and served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Known For
With any and all things crypto being pushed by celebrities, influencers, and politicians alike, actor-turned-author and director Ben McKenzie decides to investigate. Leveraging his celebrity status to gain access to eager prospectors, McKenzie finds himself unraveling the loosely regulated world of cryptocurrency. This skeptical but evenhanded take on the present and future of what we consider money gives a firsthand account of the chaotic financial frontier of our time.
Everyone Is Lying to You for Money
When indie comic character Pepe the Frog becomes an unwitting icon of hate, his creator, artist Matt Furie, fights to bring Pepe back from the darkness and navigate America's cultural divide.
Feels Good Man
Winner of the DOC NYC Audience Award, Director Nick Canfield’s first film follows gospel-rock icon and activist Reverend Vince Anderson. After entering seminary, Vince dropped out to follow his second calling - music. With his band The Love Choir, he has played a now-legendary weekly show for over twenty years. Reconnecting with his faith and using his intense soulful music, he began to preach a type of spirituality that is open to all, meets people where they are, and moves everyone that sees him play. Reverend Vince is also deeply involved in social justice, working with other faith leaders around the country to build inclusive communities. Featuring Questlove and an ensemble of eccentric musicians, The Reverend is a rocking concert film as well as an intimate portrait of Reverend Vince’s inspiring personal and spiritual life.
The Reverend
The Empire Builder is America’s busiest long-distance train route, running from Chicago to Seattle. Throughout these corridors sit runaways, adventurers, and loners – a myriad of passengers waiting to see what their journey holds. A touching and honest observation, co-directed by the iconic Albert Maysles, In Transit breathes life into the long commute, and contemplates the unknowns that lie at our final destination.
In Transit
For generations, fishermen have made their home on Tangier Island, in the heart of the Chesapeake Bay on the east coast of the US. Two-thirds of the island has disappeared over the last 150 years, and local people are concerned about rising sea levels—and the lack of progress on reinforcing the sea wall—but the church remains the bedrock of this small, close-knit community.
Been Here Stay Here
A fever dream vision into the dark history behind the US housing economy. Tracking its overtly racist beginnings to its unbridled commoditization, the doc exposes a foundational story few Americans understand as their own.