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 - particularly in fiction with director Josephine Decker and in documentary (also as co-writer) with Petra Costa.

As an editor and writer, he has been involved with a number of projects dealing with the challenges to democracy and societies in crisis including three documentaries: The Edge of Democracy (co-writer/editor) and Navalny (editorial consultant), both nominated for Academy Awards, as well as Costa’s new film Apocalypse in the Tropics (co-writer/editor); two fiction films by Nepali new wave director  Deepak Rauniyar: White Sun (editor and writer) and the Pooja, Sir (writer), both of which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.  He is currently writing several episodes of a fiction series being developed by HBO that explores these issues.



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

He wrote and directed 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) 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.

Besides making films, he has been active in distributing and programming other filmmakers’ work: as artistic director of the Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, founded by Athina Rachel Tsangari, (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.

   

THE EDGE OF DEMOCRACY

SHORTS

AFRAID OF EVERYTHING

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

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

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.