CACTUS FLOWER FILMS

DAVA WHISENANT's directorial debut, the critically-acclaimed musical comedy BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY, garnered her a Best Directing award at the Tribeca Film Festival, a Writers Guild Award for Best Documentary Screenplay, and an ACE editing nomination. BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY was executive produced by Blumhouse, David Letterman, and Impact Partners, and is distributed by Focus Features. 

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Dava has worked in both narrative & nonfiction film for over 20 years, with an emphasis on music and comedy. Dava’s other music docs include the Grammy®-nominated blues & civil rights film TWO TRAINS RUNNIN' that she produced and edited for director Sam Pollard, Focus Features' 3D rave documentary UNDER THE ELECTRIC SKY (Sundance Film Festival) and an AMERICAN MASTERS film about Merle Haggard. She is also Executive Producer and Supervising Editor of XTR's upcoming music doc about songwriting legend Diane Warren, premiering at SXSW 2024.

 

Dava honed her comedy chops as an editor for the LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN and  is known for the organic humor and levity she brings out in even the most serious documentaries.  Dava also enjoys creating scripted comedy projects with LETTERMAN/ SIMPSONS writer Steve Young. Two recent shorts, BRIEF SURVEY and PHOTO OP, have been racking up awards on the festival circuit, and they've written three half-hour comedy pilots together as well.

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In addition to doing her own scripted and documentary projects, Dava also assists other filmmakers as a producer and story consultant. Recent collaborations include the new Reading Rainbow documentary BUTTERFLY IN THE SKY (Tribeca Film Festival), SXSW Award Winner THE PEZ OUTLAW, FX's HYSTERICAL about female stand-up comedians, and HBO's vérité doc TRANSHOOD. She also co-edited NatGeo's Emmy-winning and Oscar-shortlisted doc short THE FLAGMAKERS.

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Dava got her start in the scripted world as an Editorial Assistant for Steven Soderbergh’s SOLARIS and on his segment of the film EROS.  She went on to do additional editing for the romantic comedy PUCCINI FOR BEGINNERS (Sundance Film Festival), and she was the Associate Editor of the NBC pilot LIPSTICK JUNGLE directed by Gary Winick. Dava also edited the feature film BENJI: OFF THE LEASH, directed by the creator of the original Benji franchise. 

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Her nonfiction work covers a wide range of subjects, from the wild life of a country music icon to the comical world of karaoke fanatics, a family’s struggle with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s disease, and the debate over shock therapy. She was the Supervising Editor for the first two seasons of the Emmy-nominated docu-series WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? and she was the Supervising Producer for the US version of HAIRY BIKERS a hybrid travel/food/history show produced by BBC Worldwide. 

 

Dava is a member of American Cinema Editors (ACE), the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the Television Academy,

and Film Fatales.