Bio

Derek Dodge is the director of the documentary feature film, Hurley, about American racing legend Hurley Haywood, who speaks for the first time about being gay in the 1970’s macho world of motorsports where he is one of its most famous and accomplished stars. Hurley, which Derek also produced and photographed, is an intimate portrait of the racing legend that tells a larger cultural message about identity and acceptance. The film was executive produced by actor Patrick Dempsey and premiered at Toronto’s LGBT Film Festival. Hurley was distributed by 1091 (fka The Orchard) and released on Hulu.

Derek received a BFA in Film & Television from New York City’s School of the Visual Arts in 2006. During his four years at SVA he specialized in Cinematography, studying under Déjan Georgevich, ASC. He also took numerous courses in directing, editing, screenwriting, journalism, and photography.

During his third year at SVA, Derek was selected as one of five travel journalists to be featured in the Discovery Channel’s original series, 5 Takes Europe. Derek and four other filmmakers served as both cast and crew, traveling across eight European countries to film the 8-episode series, which aired on the Travel Channel in the US and on Discovery International abroad.

After SVA, Derek was one of three directors on the Logo original documentary, P-Town Diaries. Narrated by Tony Award-winning actor Alan Cumming, P-Town Diaries chronicles the amazing history of Provincetown, Massachusetts, a small town where the Pilgrims first landed that is now a gay tourist Mecca. The film, which features interviews with Norman Mailer, Lea Delaria, and Michael Cunningham, premiered at Newfest before heading to Logo.

Derek is the producer, co-writer and cinematographer for two internationally recognized independent LGBTQ+ feature films. That’s Not Us, which played dozens of LGBTQ+ film festivals across the world, including Frameline and Outfest, was distributed by Strand Releasing and released on Netflix. The Ring Thing, which played at the Provincetown International Film Festival, was distributed by Gravitas Ventures and released on Amazon Prime Video.

Derek’s additional credits include PBS, CNN, Discovery, and MTV.