Darius Shu
- Cinematographer
- Producer
- Editor
Darius Shu is a British cinematographer known for his work on Queer Parivaar (2022), Peach Paradise (2022), Mical (2020), His Hands (2019), and Secret Child (2019). He loves telling poetic visual stories with striking imagery and channels the power of visual storytelling to create positive representation in film & TV, driving societal conversations by incorporating social awareness in his films and striving to illuminate the visual narrative to complement the story.
Darius shot the film Secret Child (2018) in late 2017, based on the true story from the bestselling book, Secret Child, by Gordon Lewis working alongside Fiona Glascott (Brooklyn and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), Austin Taylor and Aaron McCusker (Shameless, Bohemian Rhapsody). The film has won over 20 awards with 19 nominations across the world from Los Angeles, Canada, UK, Asia and Europe including 5 Best Cinematography awards. It premiered at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood at the Oscar Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival 2018 and was nominated for Best Period Piece. It is streaming on Youtube's largest award-winning film channel Omeleto to over 2.7million subscribers.
Darius had his directorial debut after co-directing and shooting His Hands with Arron Blake. It went on to have a world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in New York (2019) and was nominated for Best Narrative Short. His Hands is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video in the US, UK, Canada & Australia, and on Dekkoo.
Mark Gatiss, the producer of Netflix/BBC series Dracula and Sherlock, quoted His Hands as, "A beguilingly beautiful gem, Arron Blake and Darius Shu's His Hands defies easy analysis. Shot through with strange, homoerotic melancholy it's ravishing to look at and haunts the memory long after."
Later that year, Darius reunited with director Yew Weng Ho on a new dyslexia film, Mical (2020). The film is to create awareness on dyslexia and to support the Dyslexia Trust. The film was officially selected at LA Shorts International Film Festival 2020. It was released on Youtube with rave reviews with over 1.7 million views and was also made available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
In 2020, he co-directed, shot, and produced the critically acclaimed film with Arron Blake, I AM Norman (2021), a Rhode Island International Film Festival 2020 nominee, and a new TV mini-series Dogging.
In 2021, Darius produced and shot, Stockholm, with director Tom Wright and was selected to premiere at BFI Flare London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival 2022. He also directed a music video for the winner of Rupaul's Drag Race, The Vivienne for her latest single Bitch on Heels. He went on to direct a music video for Billy Cullum's latest song Kiss Away featuring Omari Douglas from the hit Channel 4/HBO Max television series, Its A Sin, and a music video with Tia Kofi for her new single, Loving Me Like That.
Darius' latest project is with director Shiva Raichandani for a drama-musical Queer Parivaar, winner of Best British Film at Iris Prize 2022, and is now streaming on Film4. He was also involved in shooting a Netflix original documentary, Peach Paradise. He is also the producer and cinematographer on a new Sky Arts film, Sent to Cov, directed by Tom Wright.
He is currently developing a TV series and two feature films.
Darius shot the film Secret Child (2018) in late 2017, based on the true story from the bestselling book, Secret Child, by Gordon Lewis working alongside Fiona Glascott (Brooklyn and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), Austin Taylor and Aaron McCusker (Shameless, Bohemian Rhapsody). The film has won over 20 awards with 19 nominations across the world from Los Angeles, Canada, UK, Asia and Europe including 5 Best Cinematography awards. It premiered at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood at the Oscar Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival 2018 and was nominated for Best Period Piece. It is streaming on Youtube's largest award-winning film channel Omeleto to over 2.7million subscribers.
Darius had his directorial debut after co-directing and shooting His Hands with Arron Blake. It went on to have a world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in New York (2019) and was nominated for Best Narrative Short. His Hands is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video in the US, UK, Canada & Australia, and on Dekkoo.
Mark Gatiss, the producer of Netflix/BBC series Dracula and Sherlock, quoted His Hands as, "A beguilingly beautiful gem, Arron Blake and Darius Shu's His Hands defies easy analysis. Shot through with strange, homoerotic melancholy it's ravishing to look at and haunts the memory long after."
Later that year, Darius reunited with director Yew Weng Ho on a new dyslexia film, Mical (2020). The film is to create awareness on dyslexia and to support the Dyslexia Trust. The film was officially selected at LA Shorts International Film Festival 2020. It was released on Youtube with rave reviews with over 1.7 million views and was also made available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
In 2020, he co-directed, shot, and produced the critically acclaimed film with Arron Blake, I AM Norman (2021), a Rhode Island International Film Festival 2020 nominee, and a new TV mini-series Dogging.
In 2021, Darius produced and shot, Stockholm, with director Tom Wright and was selected to premiere at BFI Flare London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival 2022. He also directed a music video for the winner of Rupaul's Drag Race, The Vivienne for her latest single Bitch on Heels. He went on to direct a music video for Billy Cullum's latest song Kiss Away featuring Omari Douglas from the hit Channel 4/HBO Max television series, Its A Sin, and a music video with Tia Kofi for her new single, Loving Me Like That.
Darius' latest project is with director Shiva Raichandani for a drama-musical Queer Parivaar, winner of Best British Film at Iris Prize 2022, and is now streaming on Film4. He was also involved in shooting a Netflix original documentary, Peach Paradise. He is also the producer and cinematographer on a new Sky Arts film, Sent to Cov, directed by Tom Wright.
He is currently developing a TV series and two feature films.
