Dan was born and raised in San Francisco, and was introduced to film by his mother, experimental filmmaker Barbara Klutinis. He was subsequently trained by a group of fierce lesbian filmmakers to load 16mm film into a Bolex and operate an optical printer.

 

He attended School of the Arts (SOTA) high school in San Francisco where he successfully studied film, but not math or chemistry, which would haunt his ambitions of ever going to med school.

 

He then attended the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, with a "major" in Documentary Film and Journalism.​

 

After moving to New York City for a few years, he made his way back to theBay Area, and studied at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.  Since then he's made a name for himself as a creative and technical lead on many notable projects, including his own film "Wildland," which won several Best Documentary short awards in 2016.