His father, Loren Cunningham, is a founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and the University of the Nations, an international, interdenominational Christian organization with campuses in over 100 countries with a special emphasis on education for the developing nations.
While attending the "College of Communication" at the Kailua-Kona Campus of U of N, when it was still called the "Pacific and Asia Christian University" David along with another David created the infamous "Robert Tilton" farting video. (P>A>C>U)Chile. He studied film and graduated from both the Vanguard University of Southern California (VUSC)(pg 11) and University of the Nations (Hawai'i, Amsterdam, and Santiago, Chile campuses).
Cunningham traveled with his father to create a documentary about Pitcairn Island. David shot films in Egypt, Australia, and Hollywood, California. After filming parts of documentaries in over 40 countries, Cunningham made his feature-film debut with Beyond Paradise.
In March 2000, Youth With A Mission students donated $14,000 in seed money toward his $14 million dollar independent film To End All Wars (p 176) which later caught the attention of Hollywood Since that time, Cunningham has made a number of movies, including the telefilm The Path to 9/11. He filmed After, under Moscow's Red Square in the secret tunnels built by Stalin.
Cunningham is a member of the Traveler's Century Club, whose members can document visits to over 100 countries, and of the Directors Guild of America.
See also: Cyrus Nowrasteh-The Path to 9/11 Controversy and The Path to 9/11-Controversy.
Cunningham directed the controversial ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11. The made-for-TV docudrama dramatized 10 years of terrorist events and the Clinton administration responses leading up to 9/11. The film concluded with the 9/11 Commission's report card that criticized the government's response after the tragedy. The docudrama was praised by supporters as being "a well-crafted dramatic interpretation" and condemned by critics for scenes which portrayed events which never occurred, and supported a story line which would lead viewers to incorrect conclusions.
Official promotions of the film made varying claims about its factual basis: Fox TV on Sept 6, 2006, quoted the producers as saying the show was based "solely and completely on the 9/11 Commission report." However, On ABC's Path to 9/11 blog, Cunningham emphasized: "This is a movie or more specifically a docudrama. Meaning, it is a narrative movie based on facts and dramatized with actors."
Max Blumenthal reported in "The Nation" that Cunningham's Path to 9/11 had been heavily promoted by right wing activist David Horowitz and the conservative Liberty Film Festival and that ABC CEO David Iger had initiated a last-minute investigation and edit of the film.
The New York Times reported that Mr. Platt and Hope Hartman, a spokeswoman for ABC, said "the political and religious affiliations of the two men (Cunningham and Nowrasteh, the writer) had nothing to do with and did not influence the mini-series in any way."
Mr. Nowrasteh also defended Cunningham in an OpinionJournal.com column, arguing that criticism of the director's association with his father's Christian mission was akin to McCarthyism, in which "the merest hint of a connection to communism sufficed to inspire dark accusations."
In 2004, The Film Institute (TFI), a non-profit organization, was established by David and several University of the Nations alumni. TFI became embroiled in the Path to 9/11 controversy when several bloggers claimed it funded or influenced the movie.
TFI's primary purpose is to help aspiring Christian filmmakers through internships, scholarships, and seminars. Six unpaid TFI interns worked on The Path to 9/11 set among the approximately 140 other paid workers in order to gain experience about the filmmaking business.
Original members of the group, Mark and Krista Harris stated on their website, which was later removed, that TFI is a "auxiliary branch of Youth With A Mission... TFI's first project is a doozy: simply being referred to as: The Untitled History Project,(later renamed Path to 9/11) it is already being called the television event of the decade and not one second has been put to film yet."
According to Mark Harris' speech at a Latin American Youth With A Mission conference: "One goal of TFI is to fast-track U of N School of Digital Film interns, placing them within the film industry, so that they can begin to impact and transform Hollywood from the inside out". Harris also stated that he was a volunteer coordinating TFI's interns. He rebutted the use of his quote as proof that TFI initiated or funded The Path to 9/11.
The following are short films about which little is known. There is no record of their existence other than self-published websites. There is no record of any public showings. They may be student films, short promotional films financed by Youth With A Mission (Pacific Mercy Ships) or small budget self-financed films that they no major distribution:
