I'm a freelance director, correspondent, producer and long form writer focusing on conflict, crime and politics. As both a writer and a filmmaker, my work ranges from quick hits and breaking news to long-from narrative storytelling, both in print and in video. I’ve reported from Trinidad and Tobago, the Central African Republic, Myanmar, Thailand, Liberia, Rwanda, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Israel, the Occupied Territories, and all over the United States.
I’ve made films for HBO, Netflix, Vice News, The Guardian, the New Yorker, and Al Jazeera, among others, and been published in Esquire, Wired Magazine, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Longreads, NBC News, and others. I was awarded a Pulitzer Grant in 2018 for my coverage of gang reformation in El Salvador.
As one of the first hires at Vice News, I helped launch the vertical and pioneered the dispatches format it become known for, first in the Central Africa Republic (which we turned into a film) and then in the 2014 Israel Gaza War and ISIS Mosul takeover. I also made a film about Ebola people seemed to really like that won a 2015 Webby, and later went back to make a film about the origins of the outbreak for HBO.
My work has put special focus on Iraq and Syria. I was one of the few journalists to report from the besieged city of Kobane. I wrote this piece for Esquire on spending time with the Syrian rebels in 2013, which is still one of my favorite things I’ve written. I interviewed Al Qaeda face to face on the same trip, and returned to the region to report on the Mosul offensive.
Prior to working for Vice News, I wrote for the Wall Street Journal, where I covered and broke news on national stories like the Sandy Hook Massacre and the Boston Bombing. I also freelanced overseas and was a 2013 Ford Fellow at the International Center for Journalists with a focus on Muslims in Myanmar. I returned to Myanmar in 2016 to make a film for Vice News that exposed UN inaction with leaked internal documents.
I’ve appeared on MSNBC, BBC, France 24, Sky News, NY 1 and other outlets to discuss my work, and regularly speak on panels about new media, freelancing, and war reporting. I’m a member of the Frontline Freelance Register, was certified in Hostile Environments and Emergency First Aid Training, and trained with RISC.
I hold a Master’s in Journalism with a focus on International Reporting from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and Bachelor’s from Tufts in Political Science.
I’m currently based in Brooklyn and available for hire in film, print, and media consulting, as well as for speaking engagements. I can be reached at dgold0101@gmail.com