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Dash Donato

@dashdonato

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Filmmaker * Story Coach * Enneagram Teacher * @thegreatnowwhat @soundunseenaustin

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2 months ago

Sculpture Commission
Anniversary edition
2026

Here’s a peek inside the build process.

#handmadepottery #sculpturalceramics #rawline #matteblack
@phoenix_pottery
@dashdonato
@hnevill by @dashdonato

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4 months ago

🌟Meet Director/Producer Dash Donato! 🌟

Dash Donato (they/she) is an award-winning filmmaker and writing coach based in Austin, Texas, where they spend most of their time toggling between existential reflection and choosing their favorite breakfast taco.

Her films have screened at hundreds of festivals worldwide (Cannes American Pavilion, SXSW, Tribeca, Outfest, and more), telling stories that live in the tender space between pain and possibility. Her feature debut Gossamer Folds earned a GLAAD Media Award nomination and Best New Director at the Brooklyn Film Festival. She co-wrote the queer rom-com Signature Move (SXSW premiere), directed the Telly-winning docuseries Behind the Drag, and her short Spunkle won the Emerging LGBTQ+ Filmmaker Award at Cannes before being developed with LuckyChap (Margot Robbie) and sold to Warner Bros.

Living with invisible disabilities (major depressive disorder, ADHD, and OCD) Dash has built a career telling stories for and about the people and experiences rarely taken seriously on screen. A certified Enneagram teacher, Dash uses the framework the same way they use story, as a map back to yourself. Their passion is blending film, psychology, and community healing into spaces where personal growth feels less like homework and more like creative play. Now pursuing a Master of Social Work at UT Austin, she's working toward community mental health spaces where expressive arts are central to healing.

🎬 Something I didn't expect to learn from making this film 🎬
“I didn't expect this film to change how I live in my own body. Maggie asks in the film: "This is my body, my one and only lifetime partner. Am I at war with it, or at peace with it?" I've spent most of my life at war with mine; its shape, its pain, the way it refuses to perform femininity or masculinity cleanly. Over ten years of making this film, I've moved from contempt to peace to gratitude.”

Crowdfunding NOW - Stroke Awareness Month!

#DisabledFilmmaker
#StrokeAwarenessMonth
#BrainInjury
#DisabilityInMedia
#RepresentationMatters

Image description in comments by @dashdonato

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5 months ago

It’s my birthday week and all this little nugget wants is a teeny tiny donation 🤑 to complete their feature documentary. Pretend like you’re buying (adult) me a drink, but redirect it to our crowdfunding campaign (link in bio)! 🍻

Fundraising is a humbling part of indie filmmaking (and scary and vulnerable AF 😅) but it’s one way to bypass the gatekeepers and ensure honest, authentic, and important stories get made and put into the world! 🙏🏼 by @dashdonato

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5 months ago

Y’all, we start crowdfunding for post-production on FRIDAY! Would really love your support as we near the finish line for our film @thegreatnowwhat. Working on this project with Dash Donato has been an extraordinarily rewarding artistic endeavor.

Can’t wait to share it with you all soon. ❤️

The Great Now What
Director @dashdonato
Editor @kpmiracle
Cinematographer @mrcooger
Producer @maggiewhittum

#StrokeSurvivor
#FilmmakersWithDisabilities
#DisabilityInMedia
#RepresentationMatters
#Inclusion

Image description:
Two women with short hair sit with their backs to the camera on a red couch. One is in purple, one is in black. There is a massive light in front of them, with a grid of netting. (if you want to get real technical with the specs, it’s an Aputure (1200d Pro) with a Light Dome 150 with diffusion and grid on it.) by @dashdonato

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5 months ago

ONE WEEK FROM TODAY! Join us to discover how your Enneagram type shapes your life story, starting with an inciting event that sets your personal narrative into motion, what happens when you’re triggered, and how awareness opens the door to change.

Community Gathering: Discovering Your Inner Narrative
with Dash Donato & Evangeline Welch
Jan 15, 2026 • 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern
*Program Calendar LINK IN BIO*

During the one-hour gathering on Zoom with Dash Donato and Evangeline Welch, you’ll explore a new way of understanding your life: as a story with a beginning, a pattern, and the possibility of a rewrite. Dash, an award-winning filmmaker, writing coach, and Certified Narrative Enneagram Teacher, will guide you through a fresh approach to self-understanding using the same tools she uses to build compelling characters on screen.

In this session, you’ll explore the “story beneath the story” – an emotional moment that knocks you off balance (the Inciting Incident) and the quick, protective reaction that follows (the Substitute Desire). Through a blend of teaching, humor, and a memorable movie example, you’ll learn how these two moments can shape how you move through the world.

#enneagram #narrative #narrativeenneagram #filmmakers #community by @dashdonato

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9 months ago

🚨 NEW PROGRAM ALERT: Join us in one month!

Led by award-winning film director, screenwriter, and Certified Narrative Enneagram Teacher Dash Donato, this workshop is for anyone who wants to step out of autopilot and begin rewriting those scripts. You'll uncover limiting patterns and practice rewriting your narrative to reclaim deeper worth, belonging, and creative freedom.

Your Life as a Movie: Rewriting the Narratives that Shape Us
with Dash Donato
Tuesdays, February 3 - 24 | 4 - 5:30 pm PT

Join live or register to receive the recording. (Become a member to save $30!)
*Program Calendar LINK IN BIO*

#enneagram #narrativeenneagram by @dashdonato

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9 months ago

Highlights & Lowlights of 2025:
I quit drinking on January 1st. My wife beat cancer. My mom beat cancer. My cuz is on her way to beating cancer. Fuck cancer. 🖕🏼

We kayaked the southern coast of Portugal like people learning how to trust their bodies again. I survived another bout of major depression and followed it straight into pursuing a master’s in social work. 🕺

I saw the Indiana Fever in person and blacked out for a full, feral 30 minutes of bliss. 🏀⚡️

I figured out how to weave my passion for storytelling and mental health together and somehow that weave is now a job (I’ll be teaching with @narrativeenneagram next year). ✍🏼

Maggie and I received a generous donation for our film, which means a nine-year creative marathon is approaching the finish line. I love this film so much. 😭

I got buff, first unassisted chin-up buff. I also pulled my quad, tore my rotator cuff, and entered year three of chronic plantar fasciitis. Forties math: more self-compassion + more joint pain. 💪🏼🥴

I love my community madly. Cats are medicine. 2025 is proof that joy & grief can share a body and still call it living. 💫 by @dashdonato

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9 months ago

Submissions for Sound Unseen Austin 2026 are NOW OPEN!⁠
⁠
Documentaries, narratives, shorts, music videos, experimental work.⁠
If music is in its DNA, it belongs here.⁠
⁠
Submit through FilmFreeway at our Early Bird rate.⁠
Link in Bio. ⁠
⁠
#SoundUnseenAustin #FilmsOnMusic #SUATX2026 #filmfestival #austin #atx #films #filmfestivalsubmissions #FilmFreeway⁠ by @dashdonato

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10 months ago

It was a blast to direct a spot for the WNBA to bring a team to Austin. We didn’t get a team confirmed this year, but the hustle continues. 🏀⚡️

Directed by 🙋
Edited by @levkofa
Produced by @mjfilms @hannahvarn3ll @iamnicoleclark
Executive Produced by @franharrisu 🤩 by @dashdonato

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2 years ago

I’m beyond thrilled (and nervous) to finally share a short film that I shot two years ago with a dream team of artists and joy whisperers. I’m forever grateful that @tani___paige, @jenparkhill, Xan, and @damianjosephquinn included me in this collaboration and trusted me with their story. This piece is a labor of love and 100% funded by community (203 supporters on @seedandspark). Link to the full film is in my bio…please like, comment, and/or share with your people. 🙏🏳️‍🌈

Director/EP: 🙋⚡️
Producer: @tani___paige
Writers/Actors/EP’s: @damianjosephquinn @jenparkhill
DP/EP: @ivygchiu
Associate Producer: Xan Churchwell
Production Designer: @briteration
Edited by: @dagabebe
Production Assistants: @lilo.hulett @nicelasagna @jennydlfuente @beenyandthejets @chelseaberchon
1st AD: @katiecheline @kvbphonehome
2nd AD: @deborahvalcin
Intimacy Coordinator: @intimacycoordinatoratx
Art Director: @billiegreyheck
Greens: @tararoseatx @wildheartdirt
Locations: @tobiewahl @subdivisionlocations @petals_ink
1st Assistant Camera: @sarahjones_bnc
2nd Assistant Camera: @cj_shotme
Loader / DIT: @llasure
Gaffer: Robyn Greer
Best Boy Electric: @chadbrewer85
Best Gal Grip: @aamoon13
Production Sound Mixer: @ladyroxoxo
Costume Designer: @purple.minutes
Colorist: @arthurgaribay
Sound Design & Mix: @drewsky.sounds @gardnerknight
Art: @bode.robinson @bode.brooke.robinson taken in Austin Texas by @dashdonato

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2 years ago

Little pockets of peace in Iceland with my dad. ✌️ taken in Reykjavík, Iceland by @dashdonato

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2 years ago