David Claessen

Their collaborations also include Love Song (2000), Brothers of the Borderland (2004) for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio and Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl (2016).

In 1997 Claessen met and began working with acclaimed director Julie Dash. They have collaborated on four films together including the award-winning The Rosa Parks Story for which Angela Bassett received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, and Dash was the first African-American woman nominated for a DGA award in the category of Primetime Movies Made for Television. The film was shot on location in Montgomery, Alabama.

An Evil Town, shot by Claessen, is a short film based on a story by Charles Bukowski that was selected as the Best Short Film at the International Critic's Week as part of the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1986 Claessen moved to the United States where he met actress Whoopi Goldberg during production of a documentary entitled Who Are They? They married in September 1986 and were divorced two years later.

Claessen attended the Netherlands Film Academy (Dutch: Nederlandse Filmacademie) in Amsterdam. His senior film The Hamburger Theory (1981) received top honors at the Munich and Tours film festivals. In 1983 he shot the acclaimed "Haute Mer" (High Seas) by the Argentinian born French filmmaker Edgardo Cozarinsky. In 1985 Claessen served as the camera operator for the late Sacha Vierny for the Peter Greenaway film A Zed & Two Noughts.

David Claessen (born March 6, 1959) is a Dutch born cinematographer and director. He has served as Director of Photography on numerous feature films, commercials and music videos and has worked with esteemed directors including Darren Grant, Julie Dash and Peter Greenaway.