Daniel Chein is an independent filmmaker whose work explores transculturalism and expressions of identity in the performative. His latest short About a Home premiered at the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival and is distributed by Argo. His previous short film Basha Man premiered at CAAMFest2017, where it won the AT&T Film Award. His forthcoming short film In Four Movements profiles a dancer for the internationally renowned Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch confronting traumatic silence within his family. His work has screened at dozens of festivals including Ann Arbor Film Festival, Cinequest, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, and Champs-Élysées Film Festival, to name a few.

Daniel’s work has received support from Ford Foundation, Sundance Institute, Field of Vision, ITVS, the Princess Grace Foundation, and SFFILM. He also frequently collaborates with others as a cinematographer and editor. As a lecturer, Daniel has taught courses on cinematography, editing, and documentary filmmaking. He received a BA in Anthropology and an MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University. He was a 2022 Points North Fellow, an inaugural IDA Getting Real Fellow, and was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2023. Daniel is currently working on his debut feature length documentary.

Daniel is based between Berlin, California, and Taipei.