David Barker studied philosophy and anthropology before turning to film, where he is an editor, screenwriter and director.  A member of ACE, he is best known for his extensive work as an editor in fiction with director Josephine Decker and as a writer and editor in documentary with Petra Costa.

He has been involved with two documentary films nominated for Oscars: The Edge of Democracy (co-writer/editor) and Navalny (editorial consultant). Other doc credits include Costa’s Olmo and the Seagull, Zachary Heinzwerling’s Hulu series Stolen Youth, and Pacho Velez and Sierra Pettengill’s The Reagan Show. He is currently editing and co-writing a new film in Brazil with Petra Costa.

In fiction, he has collaborated extensively with the director Josephine Decker, as editor of her Sundance Special Jury Prize-winning Shirley as well as consulting editor on her Madeline’s Madeline and Butter on the Latch, co-writer and editor of Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, and additional editor on The Sky is Everywhere.

He has also collaborated extensively with Nepali new wave director, Deepak Rauniyar as editor and co-writer of White Sun, which premiered at the 2016 Venice Film Festival where it won the Interfilm Award, screened at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival and 2017 New Directors/New Films Festival, and won numerous international prizes. He also edited Rauniyar’s Highway, and co-wrote the director’s new film The Sky Is Mine, which is in postproduction.

He has collaborated several times with the anthropologist Elizabeth Povinelli and the Australian indigenous art collective Karrabing Indigenous Corporation onWindjarrameru: the Stealing Cunts, and When Dogs Talked, which was awarded Best Short Fiction Film at the 2015 Melbourne Film Festival.

He directed two microbudget films: the feature Daylight, which was the ‘Critic’s Pick’ in both The New York Times and The New York Post on its release Afraid of Everything featuring actresses Nathalie Richard (Irma Vep) and Sarah Adler (Notre Musique) which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was called “A miracle of indie filmmaking” byThe New York Post.

He is currently developing a series set in 1970s Chile which has received support from The Sloan Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute, and The Gotham TV-Series Lab.


A short filmSeven Days premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival, screened at over 40 international venues.

Besides making films, he has been active in distributing and programming other filmmakers’ work: as artistic director of the experimental cinema festival Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, founded by Athina Rachel Tsangari, (which was called ‘the most inspiring and significant film festival in the country’ by IndieWIRE during his tenure), and co-founder of Noon Pictures, an independent distribution and sales company that released films by filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard, Harun Farocki Laura Mulvey, and Isaac Julien.

David has taught extensively, as a visiting professor at Brown University, Bard College, Boston University, and University of Austin at Texas, among other institutions.

He studied filmmaking and criticism with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin and cinematographer/filmmaker Babette Mangolte (Jeanne Dielman), and philosophy with Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Rancière.

He lives and works in New York City and Santiago, Chile.

   




EDITOR
APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS 
Petra Costa    
Busca Vida/Plan B
Venice Film Festival 2024

Winn
writer/editor   
MY MOTHER IS
A COW 

(shrot)
Moara Passoni   
Uvaia Filmes
Orrizzonte Short Competition, Venice Film Festival 2024

co-editor   

FAMILY    
Benjamin Finkel   
Endeavor Content/51 Entertainment
Winner, Kickstarter NextGen Award, SXSW 

Win
editor   
STOLEN YOUTH    
Zachary Heinzerling
Story Syndicate/Hulu
Nominated, Best Doc Series, Spirit Awards

editor   

NAVALNY   
Daniel Roher
CNN/HBO MAX
Winner, Best Documentary, 2023 Academy Awards


editorial consultant

 
THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE
Josephine Decker
Apple Films/A24  

additional
editor 


 

BIRDS OF PARADISE
Sarah Adina Smith 
Amazon Films/Anonymous Content (2020)inner

editor

ÊXTASE
Moara Passoni
Produced by Petra Costa

Winner, Jury Prize: Montreal Festival of New Cinema.  Winner, Best First Film: São Paolo film critics Association. Opening Night film, CPH:Dox Main Competition.
nne
rao 
editor / co-writer

                SHIRLEY
Josephine Decker
Killer Films / LAMF
Winner, Special Jury Award
Sundance Dramatic Competition
inner
editor


THE EDGE OF DEMOCRACY

Petra Costa
Netflix / Busca Vida Filmes

Nominated, Best Documentary, Academy Awards (2020), Sundance Film Festival (2019)  Nominated ‘Best Documentary’ Gotham Awards.  Winner, Directing Award, DOCNYC.  Nominated Best Film, Best Writing, Best Director, International Documentary Awards.  ‘Ten Best Films of the Year,’ The New York Times.


editor / co-writer




BUCK RUN

Nick Frangione
Intuition Films

Winner, Best International Feature, Santorini Film Fest. Winner, Best Feature, Flickers Rhode Island Int’l Film Fest. Winner, Best International Feature, Nordic Int’l Film Fest

editor

inematography, Soirit 

MADELINE’S MADELINE

Josephine Decker
Krista Parris / Third Room Productions

Sundance Film Festival (2018), Berlin Film Festival (2018), Nominated, Best Feature + Breakthrough Actor, Gotham Awards.  Nominated, Best Female Lead, Best Cinematography, Spirit Awards.

editorial consultant



HUMAN AFFAIRS

Charlie Birns
Krista Parris
Slamdance Film Festival (2018)

editor / co-writer


THE REAGAN SHOW

Pacho Velez / Sierra Pettengill
CNN Films / Impact Partners

Tribeca Film Festival (2017), Locarno Film Festival (2017). Nominated for Outstanding Editing, Cinema Eye Honors (2018).
editor




WHITE SUN

Deepak Rauniyar
Louverture Films / Joslyn Barnes / Danny Glover

Venice Film Festival,
Toronto Film Festival, New Directors / New Films, Winner: Interfilm Award Venice Film Festiva, Best Film: Palm Springs Film Festival, Best Film: Singapore Film Festival, Audience Award / Jury Prize: Fribourg Film Festival, Nepal entry to the Academy Awards.
editor / screenwriter


AD INEXPLORATA

Mark Elijah Rosenberg
Paramount Pictures / 3311 Productions

editor


OLMO AND THE SEAGULL

Petra Costa / Lea Glob
Zentropa Productions / Som e Furia

Best Film, Nordic Competition, CPH: Dox (2014), Locarno Film Festival Young Critics Prize.
additional editor / script consultant


FUNNY BUNNY

Alison Bagnall
Magic Owl Productions

SXSW Narrative Competition (2015) Winner Best Editing, Brooklyn Film Festival.
editor


THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY

Josephine Decker
Third Room Productions

Berlin International Film Festival (2014)
Sarasota Film Festival: Winner, Independent Visions Grand Prize and Tangerine Entertainment’s Juice Award.
“Top 10 Films of the Year” The New Yorker
editor / co-writer 


BUTTER ON THE LATCH

Josephine Decker
Third Room Productions

Berlin International Film Festival (2014)
“Top 10 Films of the Year” The New Yorker
editorial consultant 


BIG MEN

Rachel Boynton
Boynton Films / Plan B Entertainment

Opening Night film — Tribeca Film Festival Documentary Competition (2013).

consulting editor 


HIGHWAY

Deepak Rauniyar
Louverture Films

Berlin International Film Festival (2012)
Opening night film — Museum of Modern Art Contemporasian festival.
editor


HERE

Braden King
Parts & Labor

New York Times Critic’s Pick, New York Post Critic’s Pick (2011).
editor


AFRAID OF EVERYTHING

David Barker
Sundance Film Festival (1999). 
editor



SHORTS


WHEN DOGS TALKED

Elizabeth Povinelli / Liza Johnson
Melbourne International Film Festival (2015)  — Winner, Best Short Fiction Film.
editor


WINDJAMERRU

Elizabeth Povinelli
Karrabing Cultural Corporation

Melbourne International Film Festival (2015).
editor 


KNIGHTSVILLE

Alissa Migliori
Atlanta Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival (2015).
supervising editor


LLANO DEL RIO

Jesper Just
Projects by Apart

James Cohan Gallery, New York.
editor


SOMEONE ELSE’S HEART

Zach Wigon
Parts & Labor

Baltimore Film Festival.
Winner, Hammer to Nail short film contest.
editor


SEVEN DAYS

David Barker
Rotterdam Film Festival (2004).
editor



CONTACT
FILMS AS DIRECTOR



AFRAID OF EVERYTHING

1999, 80 mins

Iris (Sarah Adler in her first role) comes to visit her sister Anne (Nathalie Richard) one year after a debilitating accident. A darkly comic film of quiet revelations.
    Starring Nathalie Richard, Sarah Adler, Daniel Aukin. Cinematography by Deborah Eve Lewis. Music by Stewart Wallace.  Premiere Sundance Film Festival.




“The intelligence that permeates David Barker’s rigorous, personal, and deeply textured first feature is striking ... distinctly unlike other works populating the American indie film landscape.
    — Sundance Film Festival Catalogue.
   
“Hollywood can’t beat this!  A miracle of Indie filmmaking.”
    — The New York Post

“Intriguing, accomplished ... discards the didactic tone of so much American independent filmmaking in favor of a character study that leads to no easy conclusions. Here's hoping some adventurous producer will allow Mr. Barker to take his gifts further.”
    —The New York Times

“A great and important work. Bressonian in its austerity, capturing the mystery of being as deeply as Bresson does. I highly recommend it.”
    — Ray Carney, author Cassavetes on Cassavetes



DAYLIGHT

2009, 80 mins

A revisionist genre film about an upwardly mobile couple that is a few weeks away from the birth of their first child.  When a family wedding draw them out of Manhattan to venture upstate, the lose their way on unfamiliar wooded roads. What was supposed to be a regular drive alters their lives forever.
    Starring Alexandra Meierhans, Ivan Martin, Michael Godere. Cinematography by Nils Kenaston. Music by Stewart Wallace.

“Critic’s Pick! An unusually delicate psychological thriller.... [Barker’s] films coax us into looking below the surface.”    
The New York Times



“Critic's Pick! This isn’t your usual exploitation flick. It grows more unpredictable and erotic with each new scene…”
— Vincent Musseto, The New York Post

Daylight takes a standard kidnapping plot and turns it inside out. Barker and his formidable stars ... have written a script that concentrates on fleshed-out characterizaton, leaves the audience to connect the dots and demolishes genre clichés.”
— The Los Angeles Times.



“Favorably compared to the work of Michael Haneke, this psychological thriller follows couple Daniel (Aidan Redmond) and Irene (the very pregnant Alexandra Meierhans) as they pick up a seemingly-innocent hitchhiker (Michael Godere) on their way to a wedding. But it’s not all screaming and melodrama as the film unfolds into something a bit more subtle and tense, with director David Barker infusing quiet eroticism and benevolence on the proceedings … even some of the biggest names in the industry can't do this."
Playlist / IndieWIRE



SEVEN DAYS

2004, 10 mins

A short film about Richard Nixon, his Irish Setter, and the bombing of Cambodia.       
    Cinematography by Nils Kenaston. Music by Stewart Wallace.

“A clever and comic short film in the spirit of the White House satire. It doesn't focus on Bush but on Nixon (or rather his dog) even though the film also meshes with the present situation. In Seven Days, our view of the president is restricted to knee height because it is filmed from the perspective of the Irish Setter King Timahoe. It's the first week the new president is spending in the famous Oval Office and he has given himself the task of making his new dog affectionate. At first he is not very successful. The war that got out of hand (then Vietnam) and the death of Eisenhower (his great example) do not seem too get through to him, but the dog's reticence drives him mad. In only 10 minutes, Barker manages to sketch a completely absurd situation (with all the necessary political implications), and in his approach he is just as cautious as the shy dog. The things such an Oval Office has to put up with.”
— Rotterdam Film Festival.  



Screened at over 40 international festivals and venues.




Mark
SCREENWRITING

APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS

Directed by Petra Costa.
Venice Film Festival 2024
co-writer


POOJA, SIR

Directed by Deepak Rauniyar.
Venice Film Festival 2024

writer

ÊXTASE

Directed by Moara Passoni.
Winner, Jury Prize: Montreal Festival of New Cinema.  Winner, Best First Film: São Paolo film critics Association. Opening Night film, CPH:Dox Main Competition.
co-writer


THE EDGE
OF DEMOCRACY

Directed by Petra Costa. 
Sundance World Documentary Competition (2019).  Academy Award nominee, Best Documentary
co-writer


HUMAN AFFAIRS

Directed by Charlie Birns.
Slamdance Film Festival (2018).
co-writer



WHITE SUN

Directed by Deepak Rauniyar.
Venice Film Festival (2016)
Toronto Film Festival (2016)
New Directors/New Films (2017)
Nepal’s Official Entry to the Academy Awards.
writer


OLMO AND THE SEAGULL

Directed by Petra Costa and Lea Glob.
Winner: Best Film, CHP: Dox, Nordic Competition (2014)
Winner: Young Juror Award, Locarno Film Festival (2015).
script collaboration


THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY

Directed by Josephine Decker.
Berlin Film Festival (2014)
‘10 Best Films of 2014’ —The New Yorker.
co-writer



DAYLIGHT

Directed by David Barker.
‘Critics Pick’ — New York Times, New York Post.
writer


SEVEN DAYS

Directed by David Barker.
Rotterdam Film Festival (2004).
writer


AFRAID OF EVERYTHING

Directed by David Barker.
Sundance Film Festival (1999).
writer



Etc.



PRESS

Portraits
Transforming Information into Experience: White Sun screenwriter and editor David Barker.
Reviews of films as writer/editor
Screen on The Edge of Democracy

Hollywood Reporter on White Sun

Variety on White Sun

The New Yorker on Thou Was Mild and Lovely

Slant on Thou Was Mild and Lovely
Reviews of Afraid of Everything



Mark