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.